Wednesday 26 December 2001

Let’s get this out of the way first; I missed my parents and brothers and friends and sundry uncles and aunts and family friends who have known me since I was a foetus and are the greatest people in the universe; but I still had the Best. Christmas/Festival of Light. Ever.

Sam and I were still awake as the clock ticked over to midnight on Xmas Eve, so we decided to open our pressies to each other then, because we just couldn’t wait! (its great that we are both such big kids) I gave Sam a new hard disk drive, a computer game he'd been wanting (Return to Castle Wolfenstein), a Dilbert desk calendar, a really nice Parker fountain pen (again, he'd been wanting one for ages), and a couple of things from ThinkGeek.com -  a black t-shirt with white print that says "No I will not fix your computer" and a couple of stickers reading "beware of netadmins as they are subtle and quick to anger" (Sam being a network administrator/systems developer) – this is a misquote from The Two Towers. By JRR Tolkein himself (“Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards …”). Sam had already worn the shirt to a dress-down day at work some days earlier, which caused a lot of laughs and a few guys ordered up stuff for themselves!

Sam gave me; the cutest Nokia mobile phone, gorgeous 9ct gold and cubic zirconia earrings, The Last Hero (Pratchett, of course), a wee t-shirt also from ThinkGeek.com with "I read your email" on the front, a couple of other little things. All surprises except for the t-shirt, how about that? He'd been winding me up for days, hinting he'd bought me a foot spa or a pink fluffy bowling ball ...

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We went over to Richard and Lisa’s for dinner/lunch at about 3pm (I'd cooked the famous lemon delicious in the morning, for our dessert) and had a mindblowingly delicious turkey and ham lunch, and a very very enjoyable time. They gave me a little ceramic cat ornament, a small John Rocha Waterford bowl (!!!), and for Sam and I together, four of the most gorgeous John Rocha Waterford wine glasses (again with the !!!) and a white square dinner set. WOW. I was totally overcome, I almost felt kinda guilty .... I mean, Waterford, which I adore and lust after but have never ever been able to afford; it really was too too generous of them. Again with the wows. Needless to say they got very big hugs!

We gave Richard the book of the BBC series "The Blue Planet", he was really pleased as he loves books and that kind of thing (a kindred spirit, yay), and for Lisa a big floppy plush polar bear and two matching silver photo frames. She was really pleased too. We gave Jen cash to put toward a straightening iron, Brian a couple of vouchers for Game, “the” computer game shop, and Reese an ultra cute board book (Auntie Jules is taking care of his literary development!). Jen gave Sam a few DVDs and a CD, and me a curling iron and Kylie’s Fever, which I’d been wanting but hadn’t even mentioned to Sam, let alone anyone else, so wows again. All of that was a wonderful surprise, and so incredibly generous of them.

Anyways lunch was fantastic, I helped Richard in the kitchen, doing all the veggies (steamed spuds, roast spuds, parsnip and carrots, brussel sprouts) then serving up and making the gravy (I couldn’t eat it of course) and nicking bits of ham and turkey as he carved (hee). It was very yummy, and then my pudding with double cream which impressed all. That always makes me laugh as it’s the easiest thing in the world.

I was absolutely stuffed.

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The top was really put on a perfect day when it started snowing! And kept snowing ... it was lying on the ground and I was so excited. Later Sam and I went for a long walk in it, it was a couple inches deep by then so I had fun scrunching through it and even made my first snowball! It looked so beautiful, honestly like a Christmas card, all the houses and gardens and cars and roads covered in fluffy white stuff, all looking so peaceful ... So, I got a White Christmas. Who'd have thought?

Later in the evening we went to some neighbours for drinks, we thought it was just a casual affair but it was quite a party - loads of people and lots of fun had by all. Sam and I left "early", about 1am and went for another long walk (with me bundled up in many layers of course!) as there'd been more snow. It snowed more in the night and there was a little more today (Boxing Day). Talk about a contrast to the usual Xmas. I was like a little kid, dancing about and catching snowflakes on my tongue. 

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