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I went home to my mum's this weekend for a roast dinner, or rather Two roast dinners.

When the cat's away the even bigger cat will play. ;) With the house to herself my mum was taking full opportunity to have a meat fest. We had roast leg of lamb on Saturday and a chicken brick on Sunday. All very lovely.

To offset this my mum said we would go for a walk and she'd supply the entertainment...a black labrador puppy called Tom. I was warned that he was a bit enthusiastic and tended to jump up if you weren't careful. At the beginning of the walk things went well, with mum teaching Tom to walk at her heel. However partway up the hill we got the chance to really say hello to him. And I ended up getting a dog to the ribs. I immediately forced him off me and told him to sit. It was with a rather pained "good boy" that I thanked him for listening to me. Ah dog training always fun.
The walk was lovely, if a little wet and I felt horribly unfit as my throat went sore and we had lovingly forgotten to bring a drink. By the end of it I was back to my normal capable self but my trainers were a little soggy.

On the Sunday, with rain hindering a repeat of the walk as I had no rain clothes or drier shoes, mum decided to take advantage of the prescense of free manual labour. So we started to remove a suspended cupboard from the wall. I can say that I admire Atlas (and weight lifters) for the strength of his (their) shoulder muscles. It seriously hurts to hold something above your head. Once it was off the wall it was bundled into the attic on the most riccetty metal ladder I have ever seen. At least with it off the wall already, her other half can't protest...It's too late...(note the cupboard was already empty).

Now if I had just actually had the time to do what I still needed to do then it would have been a perfect weekend...

I don't know about you but I am not one to be overly christmassy every year. I often bemoan the fact that Christmas starts in November (or even October in some places). I see no reason to send Christmas cards to people I will be seeing over the holiday. Though (to be fair) this year I forgot to send them to those I won't see either. I hate seeing lame Christmas jokes on every advert and the random christmas themed shows just for the sake of it. Schmaltzy films do my head in especially when we get over 800 in two weeks. Not to mention silly hats and food I don't like the taste of (mince pies, christmas pud and prawn cocktails).

HOWEVER I just had the best Christmas EVER and I mean it. Working as I do either side of the Christmas weekend and up to New Year my time is limited and I was prepared to treasure each moment.

I drove home to Wales to see my family who I have not seen for quite a while. My Mum, Dad, midnightoak and Morgan.

We had a fantastic meal at my Mum's with all the Swedish trimmings (except Lutfisk that we couldn't get hold of). I even tried the pigs trotters. We cooked, washed up, drank lots of tea and then opened our presents.

I was unable to be at my Dad's Christmas meal but did get quality time with him before coming home to Chester for K's Christmas meal. This too was a lovely dinner.

Now why was it the best christmas ever? Well when talking to other people about their time together you hear a lot about how stressful this time of year is for them. The enforced closeness and cheer that they all have. So I would like this chance to state.

We had NO arguments! Nice food cooked by all of us together! We had fun playing games and watching telly! All my gifts were appreciated even the ones K will get more use out of than me. And hearing all about everything I just wanted to say to the world "I, truly, truly, am grateful everyday for having My Parents"

Oh and just to finish off. I dare anyone not to have a fun christmas when someone has to try to do a charade of the object "edible underwear"!