The Xmas that Almost Wasn't

We've had a strange holiday season this year.  Seems like weather isn't the only thing that can shatter your plans - illness descended upon us as well.  Mind, Bill and I are both mostly OK.  He had a terrible cold and I've not caught it as bad, but my asthma is rather stirred up.  What disrupted our Christmas - which we celebrate with Bill's kids on Boxing Day - was some sort of tummy bug that was going around their mother's house.  Martin, Bill's son-in-law, wasn't able to join us, which meant even more leftovers:  Martin's appetite putting him in the Olympic class and us having catered for it.

Still we enjoyed seeing Sarah and Helen and doing our gift exchange.  The paper didn't quite fly as much with two people short, but we still had a good time. 

 

I'd finished off decorating that morning, putting the out the sequined table runner Mom made years ago.  

Rita had also made a red table runner with 4 matching napkins, but (I thought) we needed 5 napkins and the runner was too thick to allow the board place mats commonly used here in Britain.  I put Rita's runner on the bottom shelf of the serving table and then stitched the napkins together at the corners.  They just reached the length of the table and were thin enough to provide a sufficiently flat surface.  

 

While I was doing that, Bill was cooking.  We had ham, Brussels sprouts, peas and carrots, roasted potatoes and parsnips, cornbread stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie and Christmas pudding.   Makes my tummy ache just typing all that.

It was a quiet visit and they stayed until it was getting dark and then made their way back to Woolsingham.   Sarah was fast developing a sore throat and they planned to put on their jammies just as soon as they got back home.  

 

Big flannel pants with elastic waists are just the ticket this time of year, aren't they?