Holiday best bits- Part 1

A very Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you had a good one and 2015 brings you good health and much happiness.

Well the holidays are over and later today I will be off to work, quite nice to have yesterday to finish all the clearing up. We got all the decorations back in the loft and it is now back to it's tidy state up there. I can't see the point of getting decoration boxes down, unpacking them and then putting them back up tidily when you have to get them down again a couple of weeks later. Plus there is always something else I need out of them at some point. So they get left right in the middle of our walking space till Christmas is over which in turn has the knock on effect that anyone who needs anything from up there leaves a mess too. However it is now a pleasure to go up there.

We have had a lovely time during the last weeks with all the children here (although briefly). We wanted to cook a special meal for the five of us and I decided I should overcome my fears and cook beef wellington. Having bought the fillet steak which cost me more than our turkey this year I scoured the internet for tips on cooking it and combined several recipes to produce this

 It was (even though I say it myself) gorgeous. I was so proud of getting it just right, Jonathan declared it was the best meal he had ever eaten. It was easy to do and I'll not be worried about doing it again. We had Terry's chocolate cheesecake for desert (you can find it here) which was again easy to do. Washed down with a rather nice bottle of Roija and the meal was a success.

Unfortunately Charlotte departed for Devon the next day (Xmas eve) and although planned to come back up  on the 27th caught that tummy bug and never made it. We continued our celebrations with Becky and Tom joining us for Christmas dinner

the highlight of the meal being when the holly on top of the Xmas pudding went up in flames and set the smoke alarm off

by the end of the dinner the kitchen ended up looking like a disaster area 

You can't believe how much clearing up there is after one meal, but with the departure of Becky and Tom (who were having a party that night) and Jonathan who was going to it we set to and got it done.

Boxing day was quieter and of course as you know from my previous post we had the snow. We got chance to go out walking in it on the 27th, meeting Joanthan's girlfriend Fran on the way. It was a welcome few hours of fresh air.

We had a get together with David's brother and his family up in Leeds on the 28th which everyone looks forward to. The children are all similar ages, add to that excellent food and company all makes for a memorable day which it certainly was.
There was catching up of news and present opening

a walk in Roundhay Park with a drink after

quiz games which come up via the internet on the television whilst you use your iphone or ipad to answer the questions - how does that work? can't get my head round it at all.

We had conducted whistle blowing which if done right produces a rendition of jingle bells

and my favourite - piano playing and singing.

 I feel so lucky to be part of all this, watching and listening to all the banter and interaction between these lovely young adults - what a shame they have to grow up, but then every time they have got together from being little has brought its own memories. 

The second part of the holidays we were away and I'll continue that in part 2