Party, party!

What a fabulous day/night!

Mr hazelh and I completed most of our party preparations by the time that Katherina and Andrew stepped off the train from Newcastle mid-afternoon.

The party proper started at 6pm. This is the scene in the kitchen just before we popped the first Champagne cork. It's been a very joyful night of music and song in the study (8 instruments), and dancing at the kitchen disco.

Forty-nine of us have drunk our way through 22 bottles of Champagne, 4 of Prosecco, 1 of red wine, and 22 bottles of beer. There were no spillages at all: just one (empty) glass was broken at about 1:30am. Nearly all the food was eaten, including 52 mince pies, 4 jam tarts, 48 crecy pies, 48 mini quiches, 32 nut balls, and two trays of chipolata sausages in soy and honey sauce. The person who travelled the furthest to be with us came from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Two other guests arrived just before midnight directly off a flight from Berlin, desperate not to miss out on the fun with all our friends.

When can we do it again?

Exercise today: 17,268 steps - astonishing given that the furthest I walked from the house today was to the supermarket around the corner to buy a couple of bags of ice.