It was Christmas on the move this year, mainly because Riona's shifts meant she only had the Saturday and Sunday off and we were working around her as much as possible.
Caitlin and Riona were around at mine on Christmas Eve and we spent the day wrapping, making crafty things and, critically, playing Overcooked and Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch. We relocated to Roger's for the evening and enjoyed the new Glass Onion film.
Christmas Day was the standard Adams fayre - breakfast of poached eggs, spinach, salmon, bucks fizz, washing up, unwrapping stockings, walk (in which we got pretty wet) then present opening.
For lunch Riona presented us all with mini lego people - so cute! If you remove my hair you can see I even have a hearing aid on.
Rog always cooks a feast, and this year it was roasted butternut squash with goats cheese and all the other roast accompaniments along with the essential brussels stir-fried in ginger, then it was washing up, TV, games, cheese and biscuits, and probably a tad of washing up for good measure at the end of the day - you know the score for a relaxed Christmas Day.
On Boxing Day it was an early start as Rog and Riona left at 0600 to get Riona to Cardiff for her shift. Caitlin and I rose a little later then headed to Basingstoke. Caitlin drove my car for the first time ever - it wasn't half as scary as either of us thought it would be!
We popped into Whitchurch to see Mum. She was awake and chatty which was nice, and we gave her some socks and the family calendar which she seemed to enjoy looking through.
As my Dad and brother had covid we couldn't go to visit them, so we had a quick present exchange in the car port then drove to The Vyne to meet my uncle. What a lovely treat! The house was closed so we only needed to pay garden entry. First off was much needed coffee and food, then we strolled around the west end of the lake and the woods, although I had the wrong footwear for the gloopy mud paths we encountered. It was very nippy so we were glad to head back inside for a second hot drink.
The original plan for 26 December was that we'd all meet at my Dad's. We'd divvied up the food provisioning between us and Mike elected to bring his much loved fruit salad. By the time the plans changed Mike had already bought the fruit so, during our second coffee, announced that he had a fruit salad, bowls and spoons in his car. So as we left, we parked up and ate fruit salad by the roadside in the cold. Classic!
Next up was a drive to Cardiff. Nice of the cosy passenger to take a photo of me whilst I was filling up the car in the cold!
We got to Cardiff early evening, for another excellent supper cooked by Rog. Riona wasn't back from her shift until 2145 but we then unwrapped another dose of presents from the Basingstoke gang which was fun.
On Tuesday, 27 December, we went off to see the sea at Penarth. It was raining heavily (it's the only sort of rain I think Cardiff does) but we trotted up and down the pier before finding a warm and dry lunch spot.
Another fun afternoon of Nintendo and crosswords before watching Knives Out with a takeaway. It was wonderful to spend the day with Riona in between her shifts. A bit of late one home but back in Ottery by midnight and lots of happy Christmas memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment