Christmas 2006

James and I have just returned from a lovely Christmas spent with his family in Aylesbury. We set off on Saturday morning with some sandwiches and took our time to bimble down the M5 and M4. We luckily escaped what sounded like a rather bad traffic jam later in the day caused by a tragic M5 accident, as reported by The Express and Echo. Later that evening, I beat everyone playing Monopoly. Go me! In the end I had hotels on three quarters of the board. I think that must be the best Monopoly performance I’ve managed in my entire life.

On the Sunday, Christmas Eve, James helped fix the family computer which was on the blink. In the evening, John and Celia went out to The Red Lion for the traditional Christmas Eve party whilst James and I stayed home and watched Fanny Cradock’s “Cradock cooks for Christmas” and kept Biggles company. Nice and relaxing.

On Christmas Day, we joined everyone for a Christmas drink and then went home for presents and dinner in the evening. Pictures can be found here. James gave me an amazing foot spa! I have already tried it out and it’s the greatest thing ever! Everyone seemed pleased with their presents which is a relief.

The following day was of course John’s birthday (James’s Dad). Several people embarked upon a short amble through apparently muddy fields to a pub called The Rose and Crown for lunch. Pictures of the birthday can be found here. James and I elected to go via car so that we could go straight from there to Carys’s house. There we met Dave’s cute little kitten Button. We then returned to the house for birthday tea and presents.

We returned to Exeter yesterday. There was great traffic clogging on the M4 and M5. Luckily we were informed of this by the mightly knowledgable signs that light the skyline and we elected to take the A303, breezing home in no time at all.

A very nice time was had. To finish off, here is a lovely picture of Biggles enjoying Christmas with us. Picture taken by the amazing James.