Yuletide Greetings

It's been a fun few days despite the seasonal lurgy imposed on me by my young relative - thanks Paris! I had lots of splendid pressies, including an almost life size cat carving from my mate Gill, which kinda freaked Pippin out; she saw it and her tail puffed up and she crabbed around it for a minute before she realized it wasn't an enemy cat invading her territory. I also had a lovely garden ornament - a baby dragon cupped in a hand, a dragon wind chime (see a theme here? *lol*), books, candles and incense, a money chest which my sis pyrographed for me....is that a proper word? Pyrographed? To have decorated something using a pyrography technique? Hey, I just invented a new word! I got craft stuff and kitchen stuff, and still have a gift to come as M's present to me never arrived in time. My present to him? Well, for years he's talked about having singing lessons. M loves music and singing but is unfortunately completely tone deaf! The years I've had to endure his drunken, off key singing and I thought it's time to see if we can do something about that. Hee hee! He's terrified and excited at the same time. Mwahahaha! My evil plan is set under way! The only thing that I'm terrified of is that I may have created a monster. A karaoke monster. If I start him singing, he may never stop! He may drag me to pubs for karaoke nights. He may demand some singing Wii game. Wow! What have I done?? Best not to think about it yet!

 

So Christmas day started with the usual gift giving - Joe opened his presents and as usual, his Christmas toy was destroyed in about five minutes. He has a specific routine when it comes to dismembering a soft toy. First he chews it's eyes and nose off, then he rips the ears off. Then the head is torn off and its innards are plucked out, and finally, when its guts are spread all over the floor, he chews on the skin a little. Thank god it's only a toy eh?  

Pippin also helped.

 

Then we did the round of parent visiting, first to M's mum, then to mine. Dinner was at Mums and Sis had stayed the night with her new kitty Senka. Senka is very cute, but is apparently having seizures at the moment; no-one knows why, and until her insurance kicks in, Sis's a little afraid to take her to the vets, otherwise it may be classed as an existing condition and her insurance won't cover her. Anyone have any experience with kitten seizures?

We each had a scratch card in our Christmas cracker bag (like crackers, but with hats, party poppers, sparklers, a gift and a crafty challenge) and Mum's ticket was a winner! Hurray! 

 

Dinner was lovely although we all ate too much as usual.

 

 

 

After dinner we went back to our house where C came round and there was much drinking, and game playing and general hilarity. We played Mario Karts and Wii Sport and listened to cheesy Christmas songs for the rest of the night.

 

We enjoyed nibbles, like these home-made chocolate fruit crisps which are easily made by melting some chocolate, then mixing in dried fruit and rice crispies. I shaped them into rough balls shapes; hell, lets get it right, I just dropped them in a lump from a spoon *lol*, then let them cool in the fridge. Yummy!

 

I also toasted some sunflower seeds by spreading them on a baking tray, then covering them with soy sauce and cooking them in the oven on a very low heat. These are a gorgeous savoury nibbles, quite light.   

 

I hope you all had a good day. I have lots of crafty stuff to show you next time; right now M is waiting to play some mad war game on the pc, so I'm let him get his fix and I'll be back later!