Festivities continue!

Christmas itself may be over - hope that you have all had a good one - but the visitors still keep coming! We had a quiet Christmas Day at home just the four of us, then my uncle came over on Boxing day for lunch, and following closely behind him was the FH's cousin's wife and son who always come for the afternoon and evening on Boxing Day - we started that tradition when we moved to England and hope to continue it yet awhile. The cousin himself was ill, feeling down with man-flu, so he stayed at home, but we phoned him for a chat so that he didn't feel left out. On Saturday, we again had a day to ourselves, a time for rest and recuperation, and a quick walk to blow out some of the cobwebs, although it was very cold and clear so we didn't walk very far but we did walk fast so hopefully it burned off a few calories! Today we have had my uncle back for Sunday lunch, and my cousin and her husband arrived soon after 2pm and have just left. My uncle is doing a huge jigsaw with the FH but I expect that he will be going home later.

There are more people expected tomorrow - the EFG's godfather and his daughter are coming down from Doncaster for a couple of hours for a visit. They will be here at about 11am, so I am planning baked potatoes for lunch and perhaps then another walk.

The FGs have had some lovely gifts that they have really been pleased to receive. They were given some money which has already been allocated - they are allowed to spend half and half has to go into the bank. Amazon has already had an order for DS games with the spending money, and there will soon have to be a trip to the bank to put the cheques away. The YFG has had a couple of board games too, which means that all the visitors have been playing the Game of Life or Monopoly with her - Game of Life looks vaguely familiar to me, so I have been wondering whether I had it as a child, but I am not a huge fan of board games so I don't think it would have been my favourite!

New Year is approaching fast - there are only 3 more "sleeps" left in the year as we will be awake on Wednesday with friends here for the evening to welcome in 2009. It always starts me thinking about fresh starts for a new year - I have been thinking more about budgeting this time than losing weight! Weight loss has always been on the list before, and I suppose that it is still there but not at the forefront of the ambitions for the year. I have still got a couple of days to think about them so will keep you up to date when I have clarified things in my own head.

Just to recommend an author - Alexander McCall Smith has written some excellent books about the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, set in Botswana - and I bought myself a set of 10 of his books for Christmas. I had already read the first two in the series, but I have quickly made my way through the third and fourth in the past couple of days and they are excellent! They seem set in a past era of manners, politeness and respectability which is sadly lacking in this country today, but it heartens one to be able to read about it in such elegant prose. There are 6 books in that series in my set, and the other four are set in Edinburgh, I believe, around a different set of characters; I have yet to start on them so can't say what they are like, but if they are anything like the Botswana stories, they will be wonderful.