Christmas 2008

Well Christmas 2008 was certainly much quieter than that of 2007 when Steve, Sasa and Jason came to stay. The main thing though was that Nigel was home and improving slowly day by day. After 2 or 3 days "settling in" it began to seem that he had never been away! Being on my own had had certain advantages, not so much tidying up, not so much cooking and being able to read in bed until all hours!! These advantages, though, were outweighed by the advantages of having him home again. It's strange how just the presence of someone else in the house makes it feel more like home. On Christmas Day we opened our presents, in bed, and then had Christmas dinner late in the afternoon. Even though there was only the two of us I still had to cook the ritual Christmas dinner, locally produced capon and all the trimmings.
We had somewhat of a success on New Years Eve as we actually managed to stay up until just after midnight! After watching the arrival of the New Year on French TV - good old Patrick Sebastian hosting cabaret- I let the dogs out. Just as I opened the door there was a great bang from next door and Rambo shot in the house again. I stayed outside and watched the continuing firework display which was pretty spectacular and went on for about 20 minutes. Poor Rambo was crouched at the top of the stairs trembling with all the bangs. Not a good New Years Eve for him.
On the following Sunday we were once again invited to Jeanne and Cristel, next door, to celebrate the arrival of the kings with petit fours, gateau des Roi and champagne, along with Alain and family and Dominique and Christine. A very pleasant afternoon but I have to say that we were the first to leave, after a couple of hours. Nigel's head was spinning with the noisy conversation and I was finding it hard to understand with 3 or 4 different conversations going on around me!