Enjoying the break

We had a fairly quiet day on Christmas, but then the visitors started coming!! UJ was here by 12 on Boxing Day and the FH wasn't even up - lucky for me, I had been up a while and started on the chores. Lunch was just going to be cold meat and mash with pickles anyway, so there wasn't a lot to do. In the afternoon, the first gang of cousins came - three of them. I made some French sticks to add to the spread for tea - it was a kind of buffet affair, with bread, cheese, crackers, ham, pork pies, crisps, lettuce, tomatoes, dips and side salads, pickles, etc, and then mince pies and fruit cake for the sweet course. We had to have crackers too!

That was a fun evening, and we didn't have the tv on all day until we watched The Borrowers on BBC at 7.30pm. The cousins left at about 9pm after telling us lots of new (and not so new!) jokes, helping the FH with his puzzle and enjoying lots of chatting and catching up. It was good.

Yesterday (Tuesday) another family - my cousin and aunt and uncle - came in the afternoon and UJ came back to meet up with them, since the visiting uncle is his brother and they rarely see each other! My mum was their sister - one was older than her, one younger. We had another similar spread for tea, but they left slightly earlier at just after 7pm. UJ stayed a little later, helping the FH with the puzzle again, and it was another good day.

Today, the FH had been planning to take some of his lunch club mates out for lunch somewhere as the lunch club is closed for two weeks, but one of the mates is in hospital after a fall on Monday (he's nearly 90) and another was feeling under the weather with a heavy cold, so they didn't go this week. He has inspected the inside of his eyelids a lot today, although he would disagree!! The puzzle is coming along nicely, though, and that keeps him occupied but I know he is itching to get back out into the workshop and get on.

I have prepared this Sunday's service today; I'm a bit nervous about this one as I haven't even attended a service at this particular chapel, let alone led a service there. I have spoken to a lady I know there who is a Worship Leader there and she is being very helpful and will meet me on Sunday and show me where everything is. She promises me that they are very laid back there, so I hope that they are forgiving too!! I just need to ring someone else with the hymn numbers tomorrow and I'm all set. This is the last service I will need to take until February so I will have January to get started on the 4th unit of the Faith & Worship course - I had a look through it today and it is heavy going. I will definitely have to set time aside to get on with it. A unit a month as the tutor suggested looks overly ambitious to me at this stage.

Frugally speaking, I want to sort out the budget for next year this week, but time is slipping away from me. The girls want to go to Wisbech tomorrow for a look around at Asda and Morrisons - there is a new Morrisons there, and they both have a little cash to spend and ideas as to what they "need" already. Half the money they have been given this Christmas is safely put away in the bank, so they don't have a lot - I think that they have about £25 to spend on some clothes each, so they will be looking for bargains and good value! It will take a while to get there, so I hope for harmony in the car and not too much disagreement between them....

At 4pm we are going to see a friend and her little girl, so we will have to be back by then. Friday morning is the Craft club at the chapel, and then I think peace will reign again until I have to go out on Sunday. The girls realise that the days are rushing past now towards them going back to school and they are enjoying the holidays too much to be looking forward to that, although the EFG has had me on Amazon this afternoon buying revision guides for her GCSE English texts. We can't find one anywhere for Blood Brothers, though, so she is a bit worried about that one.

I do hope that you are all enjoying the break from normal routine - I know I am - I have read my three Christmas books that I was given, and done some knitting too.