A faraway Christmas

A Christmas Eve journey:

We were supposed to be staying at my ‘ancestral home’ (a cottage in a tiny out of the way village, clinging to the coast of Cornwall) during Christmas week.  However, my lovely Mum had a few problems earlier on in the month, which meant the letting agency had double booked us with some paying guests... The phrase ‘no room at the inn’ soon sprang to mind as my daughter, Twilight Kitten and myself were already on our way to Cornwall with all of our worldly possessions squashed into my box like, dilapidated car. Poor Mum, she was really upset, but luckily some friends of hers with a spare barn stepped into the breach. It hadn’t been occupied for a while and although it was beautiful, it was soooo cold ! We spent our first night sleeping in our clothes with two hot water bottles and the kitten for initial warmth, followed by : A double duvet; woollen blanket; single duvet; fleece blanket and bedspread! I admit I did let out a few mild expletives during the night, but I did pay for this, as it involved a lengthy explanation of what ‘godforsaken’ meant.
The following morning, things had warmed up a little... My daughter bounced out of bed early to open her presents, while I chose to stay under the bed layers a little bit longer !

Christmas day:

My daughter’s three favourite Christmas presents were her roller skates, ‘Cowboy Woody’ and’ Buzz Lightyear’ characters.  So of course, we had to spend quite a bit of time roller skating... I only wish they had them in my size! My favourite present was the one she gave me, a little gingerbread house tin filled with ‘Lush’ bath bombs.
The highlight of my day was each of us went for a cruise in my step-dad’s open top car, it did nothing to warm me up, but boy did it blow the cobwebs away...
All of my family are vegetarian, so rather than the traditional Christmas dinner we had my mum’s excellent nut roast, plus trimmings – it was heavenly !

The rest of the week?

On Boxing Day we had a bright and breezy walk on the banks of the Helford River in the sunshine, stopping to collect sea glass and a huge scallop shell (with both valves intact) on the shore.  We also found a fisherman’s shed which looked just like the ‘shrieking shack’ from Harry Potter. Our walk was followed by warming drinks at the Shipwright’s Arms.

Hopefully we’ve got a nice evening ahead on the 29^th. We’ll be back in the ‘ancestral home’ by then, plus more family are coming down from London to visit.
Each year we usually have a talent show, everyone has to join in (no exceptions, not even for curmudgeonly octogenarians). There should be nine of us taking part this year. Highlights from previous years include: A knot tying demonstration; re-enactment of a scene from ‘The thief of Bagdad’ and a rendition of ‘Best of both worlds’ by Hannah Montana.
I wonder what will be on the programme this year? Who knows ? Although I reckon ‘S’ and me have got it covered with our duet version of ‘Scarborough Fair.’

 J’s Record of the week:

Rock Lobster

by 

The B-52’s

Rock Lobster, written by Ricky Wilson and Fred Schneider was released in 1979 as part of the B-52’s first album. It had only moderate chart success in the USA, but did manage to reach number one in Canada.
I know it’s not particularly Christmassy, but we did have a fantastic journey down to Cornwall... The majority of which was spent singing along to this song (at full volume), which is a particular favourite of my daughter’s. Some may say she has good music taste, just like her mum!    Jerushah X