A most excellent Christmas

I can officially declare that Christmas 2008 was a most excellent Christmas! In the week leading up to Christmas Day we had many impromptu visitors who dropped by for a cuppa, cake and chat and many people who came to share dinners with us. This meant I had to maintain a cleaning frenzy to make sure the Homestead Towers were kept spickety-span and respectable at all times. A positive aspect of this was that I haven't put on any weight thus rendering my traditional New Year diet void. BUt then I was thinking of being more original with resolutions this year anyway.

Christmas Day itself was good. Andy and I were awake at 6 a.m opening our stockings. Santa brought me a stylophone thus fulfilling a childhood dream, and the noise of me playing a very loud version of 'Silent Night' brought Heather in, bleary eyed. 'Do you know what time it is?' she asked. 'It isn't even daylight.' 'Of course we know what time it is!' we chorused. 'It's opening stockings time.' Anyway, Heather joins us and opens her stocking, then disappears back to bed leaving Andy and I to play with our new toys. Much to his delight, Andy also got a Stylophone from his brother so we are now able to play duets and harmonies. I am keen to book the busker's spot in town. With me and Andy on our stylophones and the hens performing robotic mime I reckon we could be raking it in by 2015.

I cooked a goose for lunch. It was a big goose, bigger than anticipated and just about went into the oven on the diagonal. Admittedly, it overhung the roasting tin by half a leg but was much easier to cook than turkey, provided lots of goose fat for potato roasting until February at least and was DELICIOUS with its apple stuffing. Andy had made a chocolate log for pudding on Christmas Eve which was magnificent in all aspects of size, taste and chocolateness and with our home grown spuds and parsnips, lunch was a gourmet delight. We went for a walk in the park after lunch, then it was home for snuggles on the sofa, reading new books, playing new games, watching Christmas TV and mozzarella and pesto toasted muffins and posh crisps for supper. Marvellous!

I have no idea what the hens did. They hired a chalet in the Austrian Tyrol for their Christmas break, fancying to get in a bit of skiing and apres ski hot chocolate and mulled wine before the start of the New Year. And after their Winter Wonderland Extravaganza show, they deserved it. They are due back in a day or two but continue to send eggs to us on a regular basis - 24 this week - another egg-breaking record (not literally, thanks to copious use of bubble wrap.)

And so my thoughts turn to 2009 and plans to change my life. Out with some things, in with others. My traditional resolutions - stop biting nails, lose weight and give up road rage - were all achieved successfully in 2008 so I have scope to be more original this year. I'll let you know what I decide. In the meantime, here are the resolutions of Phoebe and Tybalt...

Phoebe - be nice to Tybalt, stop spitting and growling, get a face lift

Tybalt - stop winding up Phoebe, stop stropping the stair carpet (especially as he got a posh new, three storey scratching post with retractable mice for Christmas) and stop frying head on radiator