Christmas!

Traditional, family, and fun sums up our Christmas of 2023. On Saturday (23rd) we met up with Heather and Ewan at Anchor Line at the unusual time of 4 p.m. This was because both Heather and Ewan had been working that morning. James and I had made sure that we would be hungry for our meal by having only a slice of toast each for an early lunch. The restaurant was really busy with festive diners, and the meal was lovely. At 6 p.m. we met our youngsters at Metropolitan where we had reserved a booth. We had an almost full turnout, apart from Jamie and Kerry of course; they are hosting the Appleton family in New Zealand over Christmas. Ally, Cat, Davie, Chanel, Andrew, Jennifer and Ryan were all chatting away with us, and it was a joyful occasion. Us old(er) folks set off home after a few hours leaving the young folk to party on!

On Christmas Eve some of our guests dispersed to their Christmas destinations; Davie and Chanel to Liverpool, Cat to Dunlop, leaving Ally at home with James and me. We watched a newish Christmas film (Eddie Murphy in Candy Cane Lane) which was quite good, and went to bed feeling festive.

On Christmas morning we found out that we were all on the Nice List because Santa had visited us all and left us thoughtful and fun gifts. Ally had quite a variety of Santa presents, of which his favourite was a Stanley knife! And the rest of Christmas Day followed our traditional format, which is the way I love it! 

James lit the fire in the lounge and we opened our main presents, then we went round to Marjory and Forrest’s where we had a delightful Christmas morning with them and their young folk. Jamie and Kerry phoned from New Zealand which was good timing because they were able to speak to all of us. The turkey went into the oven when we got home, and the three of us chatted by the fire. Ally received a lego type model of Ibrox to construct from Davie and Chanel, and he loved it and got stuck into it straight away! We switched on the television at 3 p.m. to watch the King’s Christmas Broadcast. I still can’t used to saying “King” instead of  “Queen.” The message was rather bland I thought, he seemed to be very careful not to offend. The Christmas meal went well, everything was well cooked and on time; smoked salmon with blinis and garlic dip, turkey with all the trimmings, and of course sherry trifle, made by James to Grandma’s recipe. Forrest had also made the same trifle for their Christmas dinner! We were so full after dinner, and spent the being relaxing and digesting! A lovely Christmas Day.