Christmas Cheer and a Happy New Year

Lola's Christmas picture, drawn using Photoshop.

Calum, Joe and Lola at the dining table

Me and the lovely Ken

Calum and Lola and lots of Christmas presents!

So, Christmas is now well and truly over the New Year is almost upon us. How was it for you? In the Hale household we've had a lovely, if low key, time.

MA Madness
I spent most of my time with my head stuck in a book with papers spread everywhere, working on my MA assignment. At times it seemed never-ending. Even though I'd done all the reading and planned it meticulously, somehow it just wouldn't come together and the stress levels have done nothing for my coffee and chocolate consumption!

The good news is I finally finished it today (hurrah) and even though I've already effectively re-written it two or three times, I'm still twitching to have another look and change it some more. But enough is enough.

I've done several seven hour days on the trot and am beginning to go cross-eyed from staring at a computer screen. The fact is, I'll never be happy with what I've written, not matter how much I tweak it, so, as my tutor Nick says, 'good enough' will do.

Except that I'm hoping it's better than 'good enough' as I've put such an enormous effort into it. Now I'll just have to wait until I get my mark after I've handed it in. At least I've achieved my objective of having it ready a week early. I didn't want to go back to work with it still hanging over me as it's been dominating my life for the past two months.

Texas Talking
However, Christmas has had its moments and one of the best was talking to Joe's brother, Colin, in Texas, after literally years. Colin, his Texan belle wife Cindy and their gorgeous girls, Maddie (12) and Emma (10), sent a bumper package from the US full of Christmas goodies (thank you Colin and Cindy). When it arrived it was, well, like Christmas. The package contained Christmas presents, all of which we loved, plus two long letters and some great photos. Having only ever seen the girls when they were little, they now look incredibly grown-up. But then again girls always do!

It was great to catch up with Colin and hear all his news, even though his accent, a mixture of Glaswegian and Texan, sounds very strange! He spoke to each one of us and couldn't get over Calum and Lola as Calum's voice has broken and is very deep and Lola, according to Colin 'sounds like Kate Winslet' - which she does. I hope we'll keep in close touch now that we've made contact again.

Bubbly and Babies
On Christmas Day we went round to our neighbours and close friends, Ken and Shirley, who were being visited by their two adorable grandchildren, baby Ben (less than a month old) and toddler James, Ben's brother. James has the same passion for Thomas the Tank that Calum had when he was little - it really took me back.

We'd already had Buck's Fizz for breakfast and a bottle of Kir Royale while we opened all the Christmas presents (which took nearly two hours) so we were in a very jolly mood when we arrived at Ken and Shirley's and didn't say no to drinking more bubbly. We also met Ken's friend Geoff, who was very nice, and his extremely well-behaved Tibetan terrier called Max who wore Kirby grips to keep the hair out of his eyes. I am not a dog lover, but I really warmed to Max.

Turkey and all the Trimmings
We didn't get home until nearly 2.00pm, but that's the beauty of having Christmas at home. You set your own timetable. When we did sit down to eat around 4.00pm, it was already dark which made the Christmas lights in the dining room really twinkle. We were definitely ready for turkey and all the trimmings and it tasted fantastic. Afterwards, we curled up on the sofa and watched dvds - bliss.

As always, we all got loads of presents, so there were clothes to be admired (including very 'cool' t-shirts for Calum and Lola from Colin and Cindy) and jewellery to be worn, CDs to be listened to and PSP games to be played.

I tried (and failed) to to make room under my bed for yet another pair of shoes, but I'm just going to have to put some up in the loft, together with some clothes, as my collection keeps growing.

So, it's been a good Christmas this year and I'm really looking forward to celebrating the New Year this evening.

Being with Joe and the children is the best bit of all as we're all so busy, rushing round all over the place that we rarely get time to enjoy simply being together.

2008 looks set to be another busy year, and if it's as good as the last one, I'll be very happy.