Did You Have a Merry One?

I very much did! The Big One and I spent it with My Lovely Dad and his wife Painter in their beautiful cottage in Wales. They run their home as a B & B and have impeccable taste plus are outstanding cooks so we had a luxurious amazior time!

Spike or Kutch...can't tell which!

We arrived via Bristol, so we could squeeze in a bit of time to see our friend's Peachy and Connoisseur (blog-names) who spoilt us rotten with pressies of Giant slabs of Brownies and a beautiful book on how to host the perfect vintage tea party. I felt thoroughly ashamed as this year I have failed in every way to engage with Christmas and hadn't sent cards or got equally thoughtful gifts. We arrived with a bottle of Moet and that was it - rubbish!

Gizmo the lovely Pug

After meeting Gizmo the lovely pug, filling our bellies with mulled cider and mince pies we headed off, bound for Wales.

My Lovely Dad and Painter had treats galore in store for us and after a lovely lunch took us to Hay on Wye to have a peruse in the bookshops. I quickly found and bought....

plus a Natalie Wood biography and a book on Cross Stitch borders and alphabets. Result!

After book shopping and a yummy dinner we were taken to an incredible Christmas Choral concert, the Quire. It was a festive celebration of the old Welsh and English traditions such as Wassailing and Mari Lwyd. I had no idea of this tradition and was fascinated. The singing was unaccompanied and really beautiful. Lit by candles suspended in jam jars it was a stunning evening and really put us all in the Crimbo mood.

I will tell you about Christmas Eve in the next post and skip straight to Christmas Day now which was lush. Relaxed, full of amazing presents (The Big One gave me an Ipad2!!) and mind blowing food!

My Christmas dinner before it became Thermidor!

We had an absolute B-L-A-S-T! Hope you did too!

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."  

~Norman Vincent Peale