turps | (no subject)

I had a nice Christmas, low key and kind of weird with James not being there for most of it, but still good.

Christmas eve we met the two Kay's at mam's, and my brother also turned up, so that was a good time. We didn't stay that long, but it was enough to just chill out and laugh and enjoy being together. Christmas day meant a 5am start when James went off to work, he'd opened half his gifts the night before -- Kay & Kay bought him a onesie complete with a leg cut off so he could wear it when he takes his leg off at night. Seeing James crawl around wearing this onesie complete with tail and ears will remain one of the best and most hilarious memories ever -- and then the rest in the morning before going out. I opened mine alone, knowing Corey wouldn't be up for hours, and that was fine, very chilled sitting by the tree and watching early morning tv.

When Corey did get up he loved all his presents, and he stayed downstairs with me as I started on dinner. Which was delicious except I managed to screw up the beef big time. Seriously, you could have used the stuff for shoe leather. I knew it was a bad sign when I had to saw with a knife to get a slice, and when Corey tried some he had to throw it away it was so chewy. Which sucked, as I'd looked up how to cook the thing and thought I'd done everything I was supposed to, but I guess not. Silver lining, I used the much smaller and cheaper joint, so the giant joint of silverside is still in the freezer. Bad point, it's going to stay there as I've lost all confidence in being able to cook beef.

Still, the rest of the meal was gorgeous -- turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes and parsnips, slow cooked red cabbage, peas, stuffing, gravy, yorkshire puddings, sprouts, pigs in blankets -- and there was loads of turkey left for sandwiches the next day. Mam came down and later said she'd had an excellent day, so score on that account.

Boxing day was really chilled, I did the usual boxing day buffet spread, but despite planning to, mam didn't come down after we did something that pissed her off and resulted in her saying her day had been ruined, and in fact has been in a mood about various things since then and is back to her usual self and not talking to us. But whatever, I didn't let that spoil my day of relaxing and grazing on good food.

My main present this year was an iPad. James got one too and I had to laugh when he brought it home from work as he'd loaded a load of games on it while at work, while I'd put twitter and LJ on mine. I've never had a laptop or tablet before, so wasn't sure if I'd like it, but I love it, and have spent a lot of time lounging on the sofa checking twitter and watching downloaded tv. I also got a load of books and enough Lush stuff to last for months, especially my stock of Snow Fairy, which is very impressive.

One thing I love about the iPad is when you take pictures they go straight to my desktop computer, meaning a very easy upload to share. Therefore, have some

Milo, our boy cat who thinks Corey is his bff.

Our tree, looking a bit bedraggled now after weeks of cat attacks.

Not a good picture I know, but evidence of how much the cats love the laser pointer. Hours of fun for all.

A better picture of Pansy.

Another bad quality pic but it shows the new cat tree we got not so long ago. It was moved away from the window so the tree could go there, but I think we'll leave it next to the couch as the cats love that it's next to the radiator.

Freesia, my beautiful lady.

Boxing day buffet, or sub-titles, chaos in the kitchen or why I don't need to cook for days after Christmas.

Freesia in action.

Talking of chaos. This was just one small part of the stuff in the living room Christmas morning.

And to end, a photo of Tinker.

I've been enjoying the stuffsit stories so much. I haven't read them all yet, but intend to, because there's been some great stuff posted. And more to come \o/

James is at work today, then has the next five days off. So I'm going to read more today and tackle my inbox, which has been shamefully neglected this last week.