Where was I? Oh yes, Christmas :)

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***Well the Christmas panic and aftermath is more or less over (though Father-in-law is still enthroned in the sitting room occasionally suggesting it might be time to bring him a small pefectly formed snack or a carefully prepared drink**).
*Presents have been exchanged, opened , scattered, gathered up again, left behind, returned and sat on from time to time.
*The most entertaining present was probably the digeridoo given by Youngest to Eldest, the most frustrating was probably the unusual puzzle box given by Youngest to Barney. One of my personal favourites was a story :) Though the warm slipper socks come close behind and the memory foam pad is following me round the house to have various parts of me snuggled up to it experimentally. Possibly the most used was the tiny camcorder given by HF to Frangelita....I must check whether any of it is on her blog yet :)
**The most magnificent (still in processing since it was only chosen and paid for last night, on line) was....
A LAPTOP! for me!!!!. (Well half a lap top anyway :) YAY. I will be able to blog in bed, travel to relatives and be staggeringly boring and unsociable while they are playing games (or being ill).
All of which was organised against a backdrop of noisy, cheerful offspring and their partners and a brief exploson of spring-offs of offspring (Youngest, her new partner and their 3 children of their two earlier relationships).

Many hours were spent by me and eldest, poring over laptops and Photoshop CS3 (which sadly is only a trial beta and has expired). Trips were made to look at laptops in PC World (all pronounced unsuitable and expenesive by eldest). Eldest has fixed my internet and reinstated the wireless router ready for the arrival of the NEW LAPTOP :):):). It seems to be working.
Large tracts of my computer have become unrecognisable thanks to reorganising and introductions of things I really ought to have (the gospel according to Eldest).

Marvellous food has been consumed in HUGE quantities. the turkey came with a pop up cooking timer which assured us the beast was cooked at least an hour and a half before it was...fortunately we didn't believe it. Frangelita brought the most delicious pate (which I've just had on toast for breakfast; not all of it, just a little bit as it was very big)

Boxing day involved a practically gourmet dinner with youngest and her partner (but no small people as they'd all gone off to their other parent for the rest of the Chrissie bit)

Yesterday the sun came out slightly :) and although Frangelita and HF had gone home the rest of us went to my brother's house for yet another splendid dinner.

Today it's possible the recycling people will come and make space for the New Year's paper and bottles though they're either very very late or they came very very early (hoping to catch us all asleep, I expect).

This morning I saw Eldest and partner off on the coach back to Lancaster, laden with bags and clutching the digeridoo and then went to assure the bank that, yes, I really did intend to spend vast sums of money on line at 1.30 in the morning. And to check that they weren't trying to tell me that actually someone had stolen my identity and fled the country with the contents of my bank account. (they phoned me this morning to ask me to confirm all sorts of stuff just as we were about to rush off to catch the coach). That was ointeresting by the way. during the course of various purchases, 1 penny and £1 had been deducted from my account by a couple of people I'd ordered things from. It seems that these are amounts deducted by online shops when you place your order, to check that your card is valid. Hmm. They never told me they did that.
Well now I've got to wash up. More later maybe :)

*Most of the pictures on this post have little or nothing to do with the text nearest them! don't expect to look at the picture and think Oh well that must be youngest or eldest or a partner. It's all random :)
**Father in Law just phoned me on his mobile from upstairs. He went up to fetch something from the bedroom and it looked so inviting, he's decided to stay there for a while :) I always knew those mobiles would come in handy one day :)
***I don't know why these astereisks have come up blue and underlined....but if they appear as links, let me know where they go ?