'An Emotional Day'

Things never work out as you think they are going to in life, do they? As I posted earlier, today looked like being a VERY quiet Christmas Day indoors with just me and my Mum and Dad but it did not turn out like that!

No, in the end I received a phone call mid morning from my friend, Robert. He had not heard from me for a while and had not received my usual card so rang to see how I was. Now, as you all know, I have not been 'at the races' with Christmas this year and have had difficulty focusing so I had not sent him a card nor even bought him a present yet!

Robert is a good friend, however, and knows me of old. We may be totally different people but he does his best to understand my 'fevered brain'. Before I knew it I had been invited to his house for lunch! This was a most welcome offer as Mum was not cooking anything much today having made the effort to do a lovely dinner yesterday. For her to have 'one less to worry about' was thus going to be good. Mind you, my brother, Geoff, had changed his mind about coming today as well so I needed to be back home by early evening to meet him and his kids, Sam & Sophie for the VERY unceremonious present opening session!

Amazingly, on the way around to Roberts I spotted a £5 note laying in amongst a pile of leaves! That was a nice Christmas bonus! What filled me with even more joy though was that the £5 note had a prefix that started with the letters AL. I could not help laughing out loud when I spotted that and looked up to the heavens and thanked my old mate, Alan Gaywood, for the fiver from beyond the grave! I know its crazy, but I choose to believe that there is no such thing sometimes as a coincidence and today was one of those occasions. It would be typical of Al to give me his last £5...

After a really festive Christmas lunch with Robert (who is not normally much of a one for 'the c word') and having watched The Queen's speech to the nation on the telly it was time to return home. Oddly, I felt rather flat for a while when I got back so decided to have a bath and freshen myself up a bit. A good old soak often helps if you are feeling a bit down...

As soon as I wanted to have my bath my brother turned up with the kids but they were staying a while so I carried on with my previous plans.

Sophie opens one of her presents from me..

When it came to finding the presents I had got for the family I had a bit of a job. Space is at an absolute premium in our house these days and I could not find some of the cards I had written! In the end I had to either give up on them or write a few new ones but poor old Mum missed out because I had used up all my spare cards doing 'Operation Spread Christmas Spirit' yesterday!

Anyway, in the end the present giving session went off quite well and I did manage to get a few nice family photos (as you can see) to share with our Australian side of the family in Victoria. Sam did not even know about them so I spent a while telling him all about them and how we are related. Good job Trevor & Lesley are as family orientated as I am down under! If It wasn't for Trevor and I using Ancestry.com a while back the two sides of the family would not know anything at all about each other!

Dad, Mum and my brother, Geoff.

Lesley & Trevor May from Victoria in Aus

Sam (my brother's boy) is all smiles!

Once my brother and the kids had gone I set about opening my presents! My mystery benefactor's purple box turned out to be a battery operated Christmas Train set! Ideal for a 51, nearly 52, year old kid! HA HA HA I also got a pair of Elves slippers with bells on from my friends, Sally & Ro and loads of thoughtful gifts all individually wrapped up from Stephanie, Simon and Solana!

Prezzies from Stephanie, Simon & Solana

Jan sent me a poetry book from Oswestry and Bin & Bean Kennedy a swanky new writing book with a magnetic cover - I even got a Balloon Modelling Kit from Martin & Vanessa - all good fun stuff!

Lastly, I set about opening my Christmas gifts from the St Clement's Church Christmas Fair. I got some LOVELY fragrancies including a TED BAKER one (not bad for a £1, eh?), a LONG Toblerone to look forward to polishing off and  a Star Wars Sticker Set! HA HA The most odd gift of all though was a tin of pilchards! I know its Hastings Old Town guys but, really! For Christmas???

So, there you have it, my Christmas Day in a nutshell. A lot more eventful and emotional than I had expected and bargained for. I still miss my old buddy, Al and will be glad now in a way when I see 2017 on the calendar rather than 2016 but Christmas does at least make you aware of what you STILL have for now and that sometimes is just enough...