Merry Xmas to all the lads and lasses on here and anyone in between or either side. Got some cracking presents, love my family. Chocolate munching time.
Grandkids just opened a load of presents while Grandad looks on drinking Bucks Fizz.....Lifes good, Merry Xmas everyone, have a great day
We've had to give up that tradition, it's like a cosh to the back of Mrs Smug's head ... ... so I'm starting the day with a strong coffee laced with Baileys. I'm naming it Smug Nog
Well the large size Christmas present I got for my wife is too small, so I have given to my sons girlfriend for her daughter. G' kids in the usual state of frenzy. the glass in the log burner has cracked
Love a drop of Baileys either coffee or Guinness but wouldn't recommend Stella and for those who remember A drop, a drop, l never left a drop in the bottle. Merry Christmas
Christ that was a manic few hours, finally some peace has descended. Whichever of Santa's elves packages OMG dolls is a bit of a tinker, could have done with a 6 week training course just to get them + accessories out of the box. Merry Christmas everyone have a great day.
A sharp knife or scissors, which of course the little darlings cannot touch. I have never been sure what the stuff has to be so handcuffed so tightly to the backing cards. Kids get very frustrated (so do adults).
Ignore this if you don't like daft rambling posts. Just had a message from mates who work for the Salvation Army, they're serving meals at a temporary shelter. They've had to restrict numbers, for the first time ever, which is heartbreaking for them. All the usual homeless are there but they're seeing families turn up who can't afford Christmas, some with electric cut off, etc. Dear me, even in the darkest days, in a crowded pit house, we'd always have a big fire and presents, fair enough some were probably from the jumble sales me Mam was always at. Perhaps people have lost the ability to cope with adversity. The good news is that some professionals, as usually happens, have popped in to give up an hour of their family Christmas. It's a real lump in the throat moment to see chiropodists, barbers, dentists, etc, whizzing round snipping hair and corns I'm not settled enough, this Christmas, to help. But, if you can handle it, I'd recommend it to anyone who needs shocking back into reality, I'm the same as everyone, sometimes get a bit smug when everything's going well and I forget how quickly it can go wrong. One homeless fella I met, in France, had been a big cheese in the Conservatoire de Lyon. He had a bout of depression and his wife of forty years left. He couldn't work, his kids lived far away and he accidentally set fire to his apartment when he was drunk. He not only had a two year battle with the insurance company, who refused to pay out, he was charged with criminal negligence as two neighbours had been affected and claimed against him. His savings just about covered all the losses but he was left jobless, penniless and homeless. I thought he was spinning me a story until I had a ferret through old Lyon newspaper on-line archives. We were walking through Antibes, with visitors, one day and we passed him on his usual bench with his ragged suit and Karl Marx beard. Mrs Smug went in her shopping, took out a cake and bottle of wine and gave them to him. My spiteful old wealthy mother-in-law rolled her eyes and said, 'Well he certainly saw you coming' She honestly thought he'd laid a cunning trap sleeping rough, for two years, to con gullible dopes like us out of a few euros worth of cake and cheap wine ... ... it's my very own morality tale and always reminds me that arrogance and avarice often walk hand in hand. Perhaps the old fella had been like that when he was at the top of his game but, to me, it just shows how quickly it can all go wrong and how we're all one human race, not just them and us. Ramble over, time to get off here and round to the grandkids ... ... Happy Christmas and good luck in the next year
Merry Christmas friends. Hope everyone has a fabulous time. For the record, it is a dram of glenfiddich and a coffee on the side.
