The Christmas Highlights

So much happened since my last post before Christmas and my first one of 2006 that I won't even attempt to record it all here. In a bit of a Davina moment, here are my best bits!

On Christmas Eve we filled the living room up with all our presents. You could hardly move in there! I charged the video camera up and filmed the Boyf opening his kayak. He was so surprised and looked really chuffed! We start opening our pressies on Christmas Eve because all the family descend on us on Christmas Day and we never get time to open our own gifts. We also have a tradition of having hot turkey and stuffing sandwiches and opening a bottle of champers - the champers didn't happen this year cos Boyf didn't feel like any. Christmas Day is a blur of arrivals and kisses and presents; my sis was really happy with her Sugababes tickets, and Pebbles waved her silky knickers in her boyfriends face then said "Sorry nan," to my mum. My mum, holding Pebbles' baby, replied "It's a bit late for that!" In a stroke of pure indulgence, I snubbed our Yank's Boxing Day meal in favour of some very decadent me time. I ran a bath using some nice scents and stuff that Pebbles got me for Christmas, lit some candles and had a good long soak with a glass of Baileys and some Ferrero Rocher! Then I made my tea and settled down in front of SATC. Fabulous!

Then there was our French Expedition. We left Liverpool at about 3 AM and started the drive down to Portsmouth. For half the journey I texted Guillermo, who was en route to the airport for a Polish New Year. We got a cabin on the ferry and had a bit of a sleep, and when we arrived in France it was snowing. There was deep snow at the roadside for our whole journey, and they closed the motorway a couple of times because of light blizzards. The roads were so icy that it was a bit of a treacherous journey, and when we reached our destination we decided that it was so not worth it! The place we had initially booked with the whole family (who all subsequently dropped out apart from my folks) was an absolute shit bin. It was freezing fucking cold and they had all the (useless) radiators set to minimum, and were surprised when Boyf asked them for logs for the open fire. The duvets were the thinnest summer duvets you could possibly find, and there was an enormous draft blowing through the house from all the doors, windows, and even the light switches! On the first night we were there, the gas ran out in both of the houses we were all staying in. The next morning, we awoke to find ice on the inside of the windows. We all decided we couldn't possibly stay there, and so set off to Domfront and a lovely gite where we've stayed in the past, but the owners were out. We wrote a little note with our phone number and stuck it on the door. We had to restrain my mother from writing HELP in the snow. When we got back to Maison Les Miserables, we plugged in the electric heaters we bought at the local supermarket, and the electricity blew and was out all night! But we weren't too downhearted as we got a phonecall and were off to Domfront the next morning! We were thrilled to see our rescuers as they ushered us in to sit by the roaring fire and made us tea. New Year was saved and we had a great time from then onwards, wrapping up warm and walking around the gorgeous grounds, sitting in front of the log fire, and enjoying a couple of bottles of bubbly on New Years Eve (one at midnight and one at 1 AM - cos it was midnight in England :P) We adopted their cat - called Hercules, but we renamed him Boghead after we found him drinking out of the toilet - and the bugger kept me up all night wanting a stroke and a fuss. We also had numerous visits from a local farmer who spoke no English, and as we speak very little French it was a bit of an awkward business to conduct a conversation. He brought us some homemade cider on his first visit and then kept turning up every night around the same time; there was lots of "so, you have cows?" with accompanying impressions and hand gestures from Boyf, and "oui, la vache!" from him. I also recall a conversation about Euro Millions and a recitation of different alcoholic beverages. Still, he was a friendly sort, so we left him a little note in phrasebook-French and some beers, and a bottle of champers for the gite owners too. It's funny how the little French you do know completely escapes you when you actually need it!

We made the most of our last day in France by touring up to Bayeux to the most gorgeous little Tea Salon and having coffee and cakes. Then we had a poke about the Cathedral for a bit before making our way towards the port. Bayeux is really pretty and I might post some pics from last time we were there soon since we didn't take that many this year. We also stopped at Pegasus Bridge and Boyf jumped the fence and had his photo taken on the bridge itself.

Anyway, I'd better vamoose and get ready for curry and beers in aid of my sister's 34th.