Happy New Year!

I hope all of you have had a great holiday. We've had a lovely time here. I have to say that it was interesting to actually be done Christmas shopping earlier than the day before, not to mention having everything wrapped before Christmas Eve. Since many of our gifts were sent back to Canada, they were wrapped in November. My sweetheart and I were stocking stuffer buying fools, but had a ball finding interesting things for each other.

We decided to buy our Tree from a plantation not far from here. We wandered through the trees for a few minutes, scrutinizing and debating the merits of various trees. Finally, we found the perfect tree for us.

The guys at the plantation gave me tags to put on our tree so that when we came to pick it up, it would still be there. Did they want payment in advance, we asked. But that wasn't necessary. We could pay them when we came to pick it up. Then, they gave us the option to chop it down, or pot it. Trees are really expensive here, so we bought a small one, under 5', and we asked them to dig it up for us so we can plant it in the garden and put lights on it every Christmas we're here.

With the help of our trusty steed, we got our newly dug up tree to the car. There are a pair of them who offer this service for a donation to help continue life saving services. These dogs train at Bosworth Water to save lives. Great huge bears that they are. Aleks has met them and has been invited to join them in a swim once it's warm enough.

And so, we took our tree home, potted it and took it in to decorate it. I didn't use all of my decorations, of course. They wouldn't have fit anyway, but it's a lovely tree. Luckily, my sweetheart had brought a special adaptor, so I could plug in my angel. Unluckily, the angel wasn't good for the tree.

We were sitting, enjoying the tree that night and I smelled something odd. It seems the sap had started running, and the lights in the angel were cooking it. Poor thing. We haven't had the angel lit since, but that's all right. She's still pretty there. The lights on the tree are OK because my sweetheart picked some up that look like lanterns, so they have plastic covering the lights and the tree isn't affected.

We'd ordered our turkey fresh from the grocer and having paid half on deposit, arranged to pick it up after noon on Christmas Eve. Well, by the time we'd done all our other errands, it was 3:30 before we got there. I went to the butcher with my piece of paper showing I'd reserved my turkey, only to be told that it was rather late to be picking it up and the cut-off time was 2:00. Well, I hadn't been told there was a cut-off time and told him so. Then he said that they'd held onto the turkeys until three, and at that point they'd been put out to the general public."But I paid half down on my turkey, what do you MEAN you've put it out to the general public!" At that point, another man walked up who'd also reserved. He had the same reaction I did when he found out about the cut-off time, and that they'd been put out to the general public. Almost exactly the same words came out of his mouth, with the addition of, "Call the Manager. I want to speak with him at once." "Yes, call the Manager," I chimed in. At which point my sweetie walked up, "Is there a problem?" The butcher then pointed out that there were turkeys left. Perhaps one of them belonged to us, and he looked at our pieces of paper and pointed out that there were turkeys there that were of the right size. The man who'd wanted the Manager had ordered a £25 turkey, I'd ordered a much smaller £16 turkey. Both had been marked down by half when put out for the general public. The butcher very wisely pointed out to his ruffled customers that we wouldn't have to pay the other half, as we'd already done so, so we were getting our turkeys for half price. We all left happy.

Christmas morning saw us laughing hilariously over our stockings, and our cleverness in finding gifts. We'd both had a lot of fun finding things for one another. By the way, the darkness in the window is not a result of it being 5 in the morning. It was almost 8:00 when this shot was taken. Christmas morning was taken up with our new 'toys', and then we went to visit Loz and Jeanna for an hour. Jeanna had to work, so we waited until late afternoon to go over. The plan was that we would visit for a bit, then come home and Skype my family and then do the bird. Except when we arrived, Loz was just putting a plate together for Jeanna from their Christmas dinner (Loz's mother and niece were also there), so he very generously did plates for my sweetie and me, as well. It was an unlooked-for treat, and we both appreciated it. We had a lovely visit with them, and Lucky, the Schnauzer, Loz's mother's dog, but not wanting to intrude on their celebration, we didn't stay too long. 

I took photos of the Skype with Mum, Bob and the girls, and I know I transferred them onto my laptop, but they've disappeared. I think I accidentally deleted them this morning when I was putting the photos together for this post and pulling the new shots off my camera. I'm truly bummed about that, as I had some lovely ones of all of them. Of all the photos to lose, those would be the ones. My sweetheart is sleeping in, so when he wakes up, maybe he'll have a suggestion as to how to find them.

Anyway, Boxing Day arose. We didn't see the Hunt leave Market Bosworth, but we did see the Morris Dancers at our local!

The local was packed for this Boxing Day tradition. You could barely move through the pub! And everyone, of every age, in the village seems to have been there. We spent a lovely couple of hours there and then came home and cooked the bird ... which was perfect, by the way. We're making soup out of it tomorrow. 

On Friday, we drove down to Bedfordshire to meet someone that some of you will recognize for the afternoon. The fair Danielle was in London for a few days and we were thrilled to be able to see her. We had a lovely lunch by the River Ouse, wandered through the market area for a bit, then got in the car and drove to Woburn Abbey, the home of the Duke of Bedford and his family, which is open to the public at times. Seems that Christmas week is not one of those times, but the antiques shops that have been set up in the old stables were. We spent a lovely hour there, chatting and looking at antiques. The various vendors are set up in different rooms that have been faced with original storefronts salvaged from London. It was really cool, actually, and very enjoyable. Much like being in a museum, really.

We spent the weekend cleaning, hiding from the rain when necessary, and taking the Princess for a long walk at Sence Valley.

 And then last night, New Year's Eve, we dressed to the nines and did a bit of a pub crawl. We started at our local because we knew that our friends wouldn't be there later. Then over to a pub closer to home where we've made friends. After that, to another pub close to home to hear our friend play and raise a glass. Then to the pub that took us in the day we moved into Chauffeurs Cottage and needed somewhere to sleep. We saw midnight in here at home with champagne. 

It's been quite a year, one of healing and change. And 2013 promises more of the same, with, of course, our wedding in May. We are so grateful for our life together, for the role each of you played in making it happen. I hope you all have had a very Merry Christmas and wish you a Happy New Year. 

We miss all of you. Love to all of you.