it's always better on holiday, so much better on holiday

...that's why we only work when we need the money.

Yes, it’s true, Christmas was a little strange this year, but I think that was to be expected. I still had a wonderful time off though. Sam and I took December 23rd off to get all of our grocery shopping done amongst what seemed like all of Liverpool in one Tesco. I don’t know how one I supposed to take any less that 3 hours shopping for food so close to Christmas!

Christmas eve I hung around the house reading the newspaper until Sam and I went to the Anglican cathedral for the 3:00 pm carols service. It was good, but as usual I got the giggles in church as you do on Christmas eve for some reason. The building is really impressive though and I’m glad I finally went in. We picked Kelly up afterwards and headed to Penny Lane wine bar for a few pints before traipsing home to play with my digital camera and watch television.

Christmas morning we woke up and had breakfast before cracking open the presents. I let Kelly and Sam open some of my stocking stuffers because even though I was so far away, I still ended up with more gifts! We’d barely got ourselves cleaned up before Dipak arrived and the drinking and food preparation began. We went for a lovely walk through the park while the cake was. Val and Chris stopped by for a drink, which was good as it was nice to see some family! Then we finally ate dinner and settled down for It’s a Wonderful Life, my favourite. I don’t think that Sam and Kel appreciated it quite as much as Dipak and I did, but I’ll forgive them for that.

I only really had one moment of weakness after I got off the phone with the Goderich crew, so I think that’s pretty good!

A couple days later we set off for the Yorkshire Dales for our little holiday in the country. After some confusion as to where we were, Chin stopping at the wrong station, and the boys being stuck in traffic for hours we finally all (Sam, Kel, Lou, Dipak, Davoud, Nick, Chin and John for one night) arrived and started what was a wonderful week of snow, food, drink and an open fire. I proved to be the most skilled with the newspaper rolling (after many years of practice) and seemed able to get the logs going.

We went for loads of walks, visited the best pub in the world…ever…the Green Dragon, drank lots, ate lots (but quite healthily actually) and I introduced everyone to the wonders of backgammon and now they are all hooked.

I already miss waking up in the countryside, seeing the rolling hills, snow, the sunrise, sunset, stars (oh my goodness, the stars!), the breakfast bar, playing loads of backgammon and jenga, the open fire, sitting around a big table for dinner, the house never being empty, getting no phone reception, wearing my wellies and fitting right in…I could go on.

All in all a happy new year, and today, well, today being the first day back at work just plain sucks.

But hey, it does help us appreciate the holidaze a little bit more, don’t it?