Up to our knees in chocolate and Baileys

I'm sure we could last a year on the chocolate, and two years or more on the Baileys we have received - people must know we are gluttonous hedonists, LOL! The sad thing is, I can't eat or drink any of it until Isabelle is over the colic, for which I have given up dairy. Oh well, only about another 5 weeks or so to go. Probably just as well, as I still have about a stone of baby-weight to lose.

Tamsin has had a great day, waking up around 7.30am and enjoying opening her stocking gifts. After dressing and breakfast, she opened one present, which was an impulse purchase yesterday late afternoon, when we all walked into town and went to the chemists. Every time we have been in there, Tamsin has gathered as many of the soft toy pink kittens she could find and carried them round while I've been getting what I needed. I had thought about getting her one but forgot, so I sneaked one into my shopping when she wasn't looking, and she was thrilled this morning. She wouldn't let go of it, and took it to church with us this morning for the traditional kids' "show and tell" with a favourite present. She agreed to go up to the front with me to show it to everyone, to my surprise, but she won't speak to people she doesn't know very well, though, so refused to tell Phil, our minister, what the kitten's name was. She never has said a word to him, and he's on a charm offensive to win her over. "Maybe if I stay here 20 years, I'll get her to speak to me" he said.

After stopping off to put flowers on Benjamin's grave, we got home to more leisurely present opening. Tamsin enjoyed her presents very much to start with, especially the ladybird raincoat and welly boots from Grandpa and the LeapPad and roller skates from us, but behaviour deteriorated later on with her just wanting to rip all and any presents open with little concern for what was inside or who it was for. It all gets a bit too much for a 3-year old, obviously. Mind you, on a diet of lollipops, crisps, peanuts and chocolate, what can we expect, LOL! She refused to eat any proper breakfast or even my lovingly prepared Christmas lunch, even when we'd done our best to keep her hungry enough to do so. One of my NY resolutions is to improve her eating habits, and I may resort to a sticker chart/reward situation to do so.

Great excitement erupted when it snowed and it lasted, ooh, must have been ... 30 seconds or so! So much for our white Christmas!

All in all it's been a pretty nice day, and following on from Christmas Eve when we had a couple of unexpected visits from old friends who it was simply delightful to see, I've enjoyed myself.

Bill and I had kept on dithering about presents for each other, but eventually late last night we placed an order for a DVD player as a joint present, so that's to look forward to. Slight technical hitch - our TV doesn't have the appropriate socket to connect it into .... so we may be browsing the sales or the small ads for a new TV as well.