A great Christmas...

Christmas Eve got off to a bumpy start but once we all settled down everything just happened...

Charlotte and I prepared the vegetables and some stuffing for Christmas lunch, Fran went out and delivered cards and then I went and shopped for a couple of last minute presents. I stopped off at the Kenyons for a cuppa and met Henry (Mr Kenyon Snr) - what a warm household and not just because of the fire!

I called Fran at 5pm on the way home and asked if she fancied a drink...not something we had done for months and one of our last encounters at the Duke of Wellington ended with a leaky stoma down my leg so demons needed exorcising!  I picked up Fran and off we went...a nice pint of Stella, we also met Amanda and Sam our next door neighbours which was great too. We moved into our house in Aug 09 and had not even had the chance to say hello properly because of one thing or another...so a good opportunity.

Only the one pint on Christmas Eve but it was great to be out just for a while with my beautiful wife...

We put out the carrot, mince pie and glass of sherry and read 'Twas the night before Christmas' with all three of us reading a page at a time...

Spoke with Colm on a video call who is in Ireland on Skype...modern technology!

Bed at half past midnight and then the dreaded chemo side effects kicked in from 03:30 onwards....

Christmas Day - the birth of our lord, Hallelujah!

After breakfast of crumpets and tea we opened stockings and got ready to go to worship.

I stupidly rode my bike to the bandstand in the park for out Sunday service, it was so icy I was very lucky not to crash...It was a great albeit cold service and lovely to see our friends on Christmas morning to celebrate!

The Songhurst's opened a bottle of bucks fizz, and I jokingly pointed the cork at Fran then moved it out of her line of fire...the cork popped and instead of going straight up it did a perfect arch and bonked straight on Fran's head...now that was funny and we all laughed so hard!

Great lunch and watched 'Singing in the rain'. I have never seen it and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I received some great presents from Santa, most notably was a pink Ralph Lauren shirt, one I had liked and admired in a shop in Bakewell, very nice and very expensive...thanks Fran xx (also sorry I broke my mini remote controlled helicopter within 30 minutes crashing it into the ground - there must have been a design fault!)

Had an absolute great day and slept for 9 hrs straight, probably due to being up since 3am although the brandys probably helped....

Much Love to all.

Tony xx