Christmas day

Christmas seemed to arrive in a rush this year! Scurried about at dusk on Christmas Eve looking for a holly tree with berries to bring some branches into the house only to realise the blackbirds had stripped them all off. Luckily a kindly neighbour had stored some branches in the grass earlier in the winter, covered them with an old net curtain and so helped me out! Put up decorations and did the tree late on Christmas eve. Just hadn't really got the energy for it before. But I am very fond of our different decorations - the decorations from my maternal Grandparents wedding cake go on the top of the tree, some lovely old fragile glass baubles from my childhood and others items bought during our marriage so it was good to see them all again. Sent cards this year on Thursday - this is unheard of for me!! The only thing I had done is buy pressies - I hate rushing buying them because then it is so easy to end up getting stuff that just screams 'bought quickly, didn't think about it enough' and I can't see the point of it. That bit starts in the summer so I can wait to be inspired.

With my mum installed in our place Archie stayed with her and her dog Scout joined us for a walk for a couple of hours all over Hod and Hambledon hills. All 6 dogs had a lovely time. Nellie tried hard to herd Chester for a while.....

With my mum on starter, Iain and me on the main course and Mandy on pudding everyone mucked in in our little kitchen. It was a relaxing day.

And I won Monopoly - for the first time ever. Years ago when I was a child I used to spend a lot of time staying with a cousin who was a much longed for and loved only child. We got along fine most of the time, I was company for her even though I was a couple of years younger. Used to having things her way much of the time she wasn't fond of losing games so when we played Monopoly she would stack the odds very much in her favour by, well, cheating! I was only ever allowed to buy the blue streets and the orange. She liked the browns so they were off limits as were all the others. Needless to say I lost every game and soon became less than keen to play it, unless forced to. In those instances I think I may have pretended not to know her 'rules' and bought something I shouldn't have, just to make her throw a strop and fold the board up......A strop and silent treatment (which she couldn't sustain for long) were infinitely preferable to playing Monopoly. I use this anecdote to illustrate a dog's need to 'win' the tug/toy on a regular basis. Who wants to play a game they can never win? If you have taught your dog that playing with you with the toy is fun then no-one 'loses' anyway.

I would just add that my cousin is a very grown up person now! Though she does have a shoe fetish....