Aftermath…

Well, one last shot of Christmas as it should be, after 3 days solid of family in various constellations, fantastic food and much merriment:

 with our little grandson enjoying his presents under a twinkling (real!) tree…

An important part of the rituals was a reading of The Baby’s Stocking as written down by my granny for the above great-great-grandson for his first Christmas – she learnt to recite it  when she herself was 6, in 1922, and from then on whenever there was a baby at Christmastime. As the second eldest of a large brood, I’m sure she got a lot of practice!

I’m sure she’ll be very glad to know it’s faithfully being passed on! Hello Granny!!!! 🙂

The weather made up for the shortest days with blue skies and sunshine, but now the major excitement is over and we’re in that lull between years, fog has come down and chased us back under cosy blankets with cups of tea, knitting and time to peruse the Christmas books in peace and quiet and wondering how we’ll be transiting into the New Year weatherwise.

The leftovers have mostly been eaten – look who got the lamb leg bone

 – she probably put on most weight these holidays in proportion to her weight, as she stole a whole bag of sweets and I’m betting still has tummyache! I wish only to say that as a result of them not being suitable for dogs, we have no rugs any more… utterly ruined.

I think perhaps they got it wrong with the Twelve Days of Christmas – perhaps it should be counted backwards as a sort of countdown to the fresh start of a New Year! But no doubt Christmas celebrations looked very different in the days when it was thought up and we would be barely into the merrymaking by the 27th! Goodness, 3 days of feasting was enough for me, how on earth could I have coped with twelve days?! Perhaps they had had a long fast beforehand – and we’ll turn that around again with our New Year’s resolutions, won’t we…?!