Christmas in The View from the Terrace

So far Christmas has been good this year.

We went to our folk club on Tuesday and had a great time. The evening began with traditional folk songs, some classical pieces from a German lady who plays the harp beautifully and some Chrismas carols, I sang Mary’s Boy Child. Three young girls sang a sweet version of Hallelulah and a couple did When a Child is Born. As the evening progressed and people became more inebriated the muusic became more upbeat and by 11.30, when we decided to leave, a man was playing Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars accompanied by the lady on the harp who was showing us a completly different side to her personality!

On Thursday Cat and David came to drop off the dog with us while they went on to the German Christmas market in Birmingham. I was a little concerned after the terrible events at the market in Berlin, but you can’t live like that and it was probably one of the safest places in the country. They stayed overnight and on Friday Cat sent a message on Facebook to ask if it was OK to pick up the dog late evening rather than afternoon as she was only just getting going after a hangover so I guess they had a good time!

When I got up on Christmas Eve I found that Dr Zhivago was on TV. It is one of my favourite films and I was glad everything was more or less done and I could spare the time to watch it. Hubby was in town doing some last minute errands so I didn’t have to worry about getting really emotional as I always do when I watch that film.

Christmas day was just the four of us. Chris came over at midday and we all had a lovely meal cooked by Hubby. He loves coooking. The men had chicken and he did a nut roast for me. We have 3 Christmas puddings as Hubby forgot we had one and bought another, then he won a third in the raffle at the post office! I don’t know what we will do with them. We still have plenty left for today from the big one he won. Tony left about 4.30 to see his ‘other family’. His girlfriend’s mother was cooking dinner in the evening so he had 2 Christmas meals! I was very touched that his girlfriend Justeen sent John and I lovely presents. Last year we exchanged boxes of chocolates and that was what I had got for her this year. She had bought John 2 CDs of a favourite singer that he mentioned he liked when she was here, and she sent me a jumper and a small gift voucher. At least the chocolates we got her were special, from a shop in Stratford that make their own and we added a box of Thorntons when we saw the bag of presents she had sent us. Chris stayed until after midnight. Last year he left when Call the Midwife came on but he watched it with us this year and Eastenders, and then he and Hubby watched some other film together while I sorted the kitchen and put the dishwasher on.

We are going to Cardiff on Friday to see Cat and David and their new flat.