Her new granddaughter Roxanne, who weighed in at 7lb 7oz on Christmas Day. Congratulations to proud parents Laura and Elliot!

Did I mention that yesterday was the first time in history that Ed and I spent Christmas by ourselves? I may have hinted at it to one or two people...
Well, yes, we did enjoy it, thankyou. It was quiet (especially in that hour after lunch and the Queen and during "Shrek" when we may have just nodded off briefly) but fun.
Mum phoned while I was eating breakfast and Ed was still in the bath; then we opened our presents - socks seemed to be the theme there; a lot of general socks for him and a few specialised running socks for me.
Don and Linda phoned from Australia and we had a lovely chat with them, and then we had to rush off to the "Fox" to meet up with fellow OCH3 hashers for the Christmas Day jog - me in my New Pink and Silver trimmed Trainers!!
Sally and Jim were all excited as their daughter-in-law had just begun labour with their first grandchild (it was a girl - 7lb 7oz, both well, but we don't know her name yet).
It was a beautiful morning, about 10c and bright sunshine and we had a pleasant run around Happy Valley, greeting the occasional other runner, dog walker and rider.
We had a quick drink in the "Fox" and left just as the festive diners were starting to arrive, getting home to the delicious smell of cooking turkey.
Yes I did do a large turkey with all the trimmings just for the two of us - well, not only have we not been alone for ever, but it's years since I cooked the Christmas dinner, and I actually like cooking the Christmas Dinner, even for two, so I did. We had the stuffing (sage and onion from a packet, but embellished with chopped apricots and apple) the bread sauce, brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, sausages wrapped in bacon - the lot. I had cranberry sauce, but forgot to get it out, so we'll have that with the microwaved re-run tonight!
We even saved a space for Christmas pud with brandy cream. I think it was the brandy cream that sent us to sleep mid-afternoon! Or possibly the red wine. Or is it that soporific ingredient in turkey that did it?
We received and made phonecalls from/to Richard and our extended family, and one from David Parkinson in the US, which was especially nice.
TV viewing continued the old films - "Toy Story 2" as well as "Shrek", followed by "Dances With Wolves" - I had a pleasant surprise there - although the ending was sad, I had got it a bit mixed up in my mind with that old James Stewart film where the wife gets shot, so I was pleased they rode off in to the sunset together!
We watched the 1998 version of David Copperfield - starring Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe as young David, with an all star support cast - Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins to name but two - very good. Another highlight was "The Importance of Being Ernest" in the evening - Judi Dench stealing the show, but Rupert Everet and Colin Firth as good as usual too.
And today? Well, a proper Hash this morning, joint with W& N Kent at Tilberhurst Hill, followed by mulled wine and chocolates and a Christmas raffle - we won a tin of shortbread and a jar of jam!
Home for cold turkey salad and pickles and round 2 of Christmas TV watching!
Hope you all had a good one too.

We went to the Pantomime at Reading Hexagon yesterday, as is our family tradition, with Glynnis and her two girls. The fact that Dawn had to leave her two boys with their grandad to go, and Stacey didn't even want a glow-in-the-dark wand shows how long the tradition has lasted!
The panto was excellent - the best for a couple of years, I think. The Star was Linda Baron as the Fairy Godmother in a suitably spangly gown, but the whole cast was well balanced. The Ugly sisters were vulgar and ridiculous, and Prince Charming and Dandini had nice legs! Cinderella was sweet, the Baron was kindly but weak and Buttons was cute. The Transformation Scene was done well, with a proper dress and coach pulled by two white ponies appearing from the snowy vapour, and the costumes for the Walkdown were lovely. We did a lot of "Oh no he didn't" and booing and hissing, and sang "She'll be coming round the mountain" in competition with the other half of the audience, who were singing "When the Saints come marching in" simultaneously. All good fun.

Hooray! We were out last night with the rest of the school staff, celebrating the completion of our first term in the Nursery. We are feeling slightly smug. We have all survived, and the children are well settled - even the one known to her peers as "the Girl Who Cries" has stopped crying and started smiling, and the little boy I thought I might have to have surgically removed from my leg, has finally started to go out of my range occasionally. Some of them are showing evidence of having learned things we are trying to teach them, whilst others are quietly learning things all by themselves thankyou, with the provision we give them.
Our 2 Christmas parties went very well. The first one started at 10am to 11am, and then we did a replay from 2pm to 3pm with the afternoon crowd. We sang a few songs, played the hokey cokey with much enjoyment but little sense of direction, and then adjourned to eat party food contributed by parents. Only one child was sick, although a couple of the all day boys deserved to be, the amount of food they stashed. They couldn't possibly stash enough, however to get through the mountain of goodies provided, so we had cake and biscuits with their fruit on the last day too, and have a supply of further treats for the New Year.
Then we had our Dinner party. There were no party games, as such - only musical name cards at the beginning, as we all re-arranged ourselves to sit with our friends! The food was very good - I had a spicy chicken starter, followed by salmon, then chocolate mousse - and Irene and I shared a couple of bottles of red wine and one of water. By rights we should have been drunk, as neither of us drink much normally, but as we spent the better part of the evening on the dance floor, we worked most of it off, so managed to remain lucid throughout; friendly without becoming maudlin, and witty without being rude. We all went home happily at around midnight, to look forward to Christmas, then 2006.

and we haven't changed a bit! Wedding photos are interesting, aren't they? When you first get them home from the photographer, you are mainly interested in yourselves - did you look as good as you hoped and planned - and the wedding party as a party - did everyone look good in the outfits chosen, did the group turn out like you wanted?
Then after a few years, you sort of lose interest in yourselves and start looking at others - "Goodness, was Marion only that little?" - "We've lost touch with those friends from uni, I wonder how they're doing now?"
After a few more years, they start to become a precious record of loved ones we've lost "Your Mum looked so proud, didn't she? Grandma refused to buy anything new - but made herself a very bright new tunic top for the evening do!"
The down side is that those lovely outfits that we spent so much thought and effort on, are now looking quaint and dated and everyone laughs at the clothes we thought so smart.
But hey, in essence we haven't changed a bit!

We're going out next Tuesday for the School Staff Christmas Dinner, but we thought we'd have our own Nursery Do too. So the 6 of us went out last night for an Indian meal together, and it was lovely. We did talk shop a bit - after all, it's what we spend most of every day doing together - but we also shared stories of our home lives (mostly to the detriment of our spouses, but some compliments were given in their absence!) and generally had a laugh and a good time. Some firms send their staff on outdoor activity bonding events - helping each other up a cliff face, or down a raging torrent - we found a few glasses of wine over a good meal did the trick just as well. Anyway, we had such a good time we've decided we should have one every end of term, and Mary and Kelly who do our PPA cover on Thursday mornings, have booked their seats at the next one.
It's the children's Christmas parties on Monday!!

so today I put up the Christmas tree, and here it is! I love getting the ornaments out - some from Grandma's tree, some from our tree when I was a girl, some from when Richard was little, and souvenirs from around the world - it's like hanging up all our happy memories.
I've posted all the cards I'm intending to post, bought most of the presents and wrapped them and washed the loose covers on the three piece suite!
The turkey's in the freezer so I'm almost set...