I'm typing this from the luxury of my bed and I have a cup of tea and a bowl of Ready Brek for company. The Ready Brek has the added bonus of a dollop of cream on it which will either set me up for the day or make me for sick for the next hour!
I've had a busy but lovely week which has seen me attend a carol service held by a pond in the dark, drinking mulled wine in a church, travelling to see hubby's family 'up North' and driving to London to pick up a cat. I've visited friends who I only really see at Christmas and thoroughly enjoyed The Apprentice final. I haven't yet seen the Strictly final. I was away but I know the result. I need to catch up with it later if I get a chance.
Today will see the dogs returning from their first joint stay in kennels and me returning from the dreaded Christmas food shop where I am determined to not go overboard but probably will anyway. There are presents to wrap, there is food to cook, visits to be made and house cleaning to be done. Got to love Christmas🎄😊
On Saturday hubby and I made the fairly lengthy car journey to York where we had been invited to his cousin's 60th birthday. I had booked us in to a hotel overlooking the racecourse and had upgraded to a nice room. We had a really enjoyable trip up. We chatted and laughed and generally enjoyed each other's company. We stopped for a burger enroute (obviously!) and made fairly good time.
After a rest and a shower, we went down to the bar and enjoyed a couple of drinks before jumping into our booked taxi and made our way to the venue.
It was good to see hubby's cousins. Hubby thinks that he hadn't seen the birthday boy himself for the best part of 35 years or so so it was worth the trip just for that. We had a nice evening chatting and catching up with everyone.
We had made the decision to book a taxi to pick us up at 10.30 pm and that proved a good idea. It saved us from ourselves and meant that we slept well, could face breakfast and felt bright and alert on the following morning. Many is the time that we have partied way too much and woken the next day feeling dreadful and with a long journey home to face. I guess we are getting older and finally learning from our mistakes!
We woke refreshed and headed into York to find the church that my in laws married in over 50 years ago. We went before breakfast because we knew that parking would be at a premium if we went later. The church, The Holy Trinity in Micklegate, was easy to find. Unfortunately, the gates to it were locked and the first service wasn't until 11am and we were there before 9am. Sign of the times I'm afraid. The place that is supposed to welcome all actually has to be locked up overnight to deter thieves and vandalism and so on.
We did manage to get a few photos through the gates and then we headed back to the hotel to enjoy a full English breakfast.
Another of hubby's cousins came to see us after breakfast. She had a gift for me that she had had for sometime. I had no idea what it was and all she would say was that she saw it and thought of me immediately. I was intrigued but had no idea what it could be. Well, this is what she gave me...
..... a cushion featuring a poppy motif. I absolutely love it and I'm still incredibly touched that she thought of me. What a wonderful gesture😊
Before we started our, what turned out to be, very, very long journey home we had a quick walk to see the racecourse. It was a beautiful sunny morning and there were lots of people walking their dogs on the course and enjoying the springlike weather.
There was one more thing to do before we left for home and that was to visit hubby's auntie and sister of my mother in law. She is a lovely lady and someone that we love very much. She is so welcoming and friendly and it's always a joy to see her. It is often a little disconcerting when we meet up because she looks and sounds so much like my late mother in law but hubby finds it reassuring in a strange way. Well, I am here to report that Auntie looks more like my mother in law than ever from the tips of her white hair to the slippers that she was wearing. She gave us huge hugs when she greeted us, made us coffee and we had homemade sausage rolls and flapjacks. There was much chatter about cricket and football and she put her bets on using her betting account via her laptop. She's in her 80's! Brilliant!
We really enjoyed seeing our extended family and so I send much love to any of you guys who may be reading this and thank you for making us feel so welcome.
I will sign off by saying that spending time with my hubby, just the two of us....no kids, no dogs...was lovely. During our car journey we chatted and laughed, we sang songs loudly and we just enjoyed each other's company. We both said that we felt happy and content and it was a really lovely feeling. After all of these years together...next year it will be 30 years of cohabiting... it's quite amazing to me that we can still make each other laugh. Don't get me wrong, it's not always a laugh a minute and it can be really hard work, but feeling so at ease with my hubby and feeling so calm inside has made me very happy.
Enjoy the next few pre Christmas days everyone. I hope to blog again before the big day.
Xxxxx
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