Bah Humbug

So, Christmas has rolled around for another year.  I always have a bit of a giggle because it seems every year to be a mad dash for one day.  Shops are so crowded you can't get a park then take hours to get through the register, work gets super busy.  It's like the whole world goes mad, and for what?  A single day of the year?

Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas as much as the rest of the world.  But admittedly, it doesn't have the same connotations.  There are only three of us.  We don't celebrate with other family or other people.  That's a geographical thing though.  We live in a different state to the rest of the family.


Anyway, this year, the build up to Christmas was the usual frenetic hive of activity.  I got everything done I needed to do at work, and was very happy to divert the phone to the boss an hour later than I was supposed to.

We had a work Christmas party this year, with both old and new bosses, plus Fluffy and Dobby.  It was fun.  The food at Singapore House was lovely.  I had red curried prawns.  Great!

There was the usual round of sending out Christmas emails to everyone, making sure customers had their orders in before the break so we could make sure they got them in our absence.  Getting shipping organised is fun too.  We have many tanks on the water and luckily this year I have the work lap top so I can go online and check emails etc.  Lucky because there was an issue with one of them.

So this holidays, I have done.....nothing.  And boy, did I need the break.  I finished at two on the Friday, and didn't move again.  I had done all the necessary shopping (apart from a few perishables I picked up Christmas Eve).  We had nowhere to go and nothing to do.  Fluffy finished early too, so we all just relaxed.

Saturday I decided we were going to Lobethal to do the Lobethal Lights festival.  Well, to look at the lights.  But, as is typical for us, that did not go well either.  We got a park miles away from anything, and took up a spot outside the Bank SA, as per the website, to wait for the bus.  There were a few busses further up the street, but nothing our way.  So eventually, after the appointed hour, we realised that the busses were leaving from up the road.  We were not happy as we'd been waiting about forty minutes.  When we got up there, everyone was cranky.  So we sat and waited for the next round of busses.  Nothing.  After the appointed hour, we realised the busses left from where we were before.  Not happy Jan!  We eventually went back down the road to wait, about midway between the two places.  Another hour of sitting doing nothing.  Screw this.  I took Dobby into the markets for a look.

Eventually we got a bus, and sat right up the back.  It was a tight squeeze in there, but we got to do what we came for.  And that was drive all around Lobethal, way too fast to take any photos, for about half an hour.  We couldn't wait to get home.  I made the comment that if we were different people we would have handled that totally different.  Instead of all getting grumpy we should have explored the rest of the festival and just caught the next bus.  But no, it's far easier to get cranky it seems.

Christmas Eve we stepped out for a bit, Fluffy finished work early again, and we just relaxed again.  Christmas Day Dobby slept in, despite going to bed early.  We had home made bacon and egg mcmuffins (well Fluffy did), Dobby had toasted muffins with tomato sauce and cheese, and I had bacon and an egg.  Then we did presents.


So once the present thing is done the rest of the day is an anticlimax.  I always get looked after at Christmas, though, by Fluffy and the rest of the family.  This year, Mother gave me a Target voucher and a Proud's Jeweller voucher, SOL gave me a box with 4 bath bombs from Lush.  The best thing about those is that you don't need to use a full one, you just crumble some into the tub.  Wonderful!  Fluffy gave me a very fine white gold chain (I have a couple of silver pendants and only a chunky chain to put them on), a silver silhouette heart necklace and earrings set, and a lovely Citizen gold watch with mother of pearl face.  I really did very well.  Oh, he also bought me a new hair dryer!  Rat also gave me a kitty mouse pad and a lovely tin door hanger with a cat motif.  I won't hang it till I get to our new house.

As I was doing lunch, cutting up ham, cooking chilli prawns, etc, Dobby and I had a fight.  Then Fluffy got angry at me and I embarrassed myself my bursting out crying.  I left them to have lunch by themselves and sat outside for an hour.  I came in to clean up.  I got my chilli prawns at 3.00pm.  Stupid of me.

So that day was a write off.  But Boxing Day was better.  We all just sat outside for ages, did nothing.  Ate plenty.  The weather is lovely and it has been so nice to just stop.  Today, the first shopping day, I had the pleasure (??) of taking Dobby shopping.  She was given a Supre vocher that just HAD to be spent today.  We bought Fluffy an external hard drive, checked out a few other bits and bobs, went to Supre, and then grocery shopping.  Home again Now to kick back and do nothing until it's time to cook chilli for dinner.  Bought corn chips, tortillas, salad fixings, and Fluffy is picking up sour cream.  Should be a great night.  Oh, followed by mango cheesecake.  Just doesn't get any better, no siree bob!