It's not for eating Lola!

Our lovely friend (and blipper) Memories4Me sent a box full of Christmas pressies to us way before Christmas but there was no sign of it at our end.  We eventually got a card from the post office to say it had arrived and to contact them to have it redelivered on 29th December.  We duly did, and then the fun began!

Long story short, it wasn't delivered on the new date as agreed and it's been a bit of a wild goose chase between our local post office and the sorting office since then!  D was just heading out the front door to go to the post office yesterday to chase it again when he met the postie on the way in, with the parcel!  Yay!  I was so relieved to be able to message P to let her know it had arrived at last. 

And it was worth the wait :-)) 

Thank you so much P for all your lovely gifts.  Alan LOVES his Christmas socks (I suspect they won't be saved just for Christmas!  lol) and the handmade watercolour plein air sketching set is amazing.  You have thought of everything! And I love that the kitchen roll inside has been on holiday to America and is now back here again!  :-)))  

Lola loved her gift too although she did check it out incase it was for eating!  Also looking forward to enjoying the plum jelly.  David suggested a short time ago that it would be rather good on my homemade scones, so a batch of those will be made this week.  Lots of other fun and thoughtful bits and bobs in the parcel.  It may have been late but it's rather nice to get a lovely gift just as the decs are coming down :D

We continued with that job today so now the last of the decs are down, packed away and all the bags are back in the loft.  Just the tree was left but that's been dealt with too.  The farmer who supplied it will collect it for recycling this week.

I spent a chunk of the afternoon on a favourite winter pastime...making soup.  Used the chicken carcass from yesterday's roast as the basis for stock and made a pot of my mum's chicken and rice soup.  We enjoyed a large bowl of that for dinner with some crusty bread.  Delish and an easy dinner.

Also spent a chunk of the day researching holiday houses for this year.  So far we have nothing booked apart from a week in Filey with Alan and his pal Andrew.  Oh and I spent some time in the studio working on sketches for Ele's paintings.  I'm just not feeling it and not happy with what I'm producing.  I thought this would be a straightforward commission but it's turning out to be the opposite.  I suspect I may be over-thinking it (me?  Overthinking things?  Never!? rolls eyes) so tomorrow I am going to approach it with a lighter heart and hope what appears at the end of my brush is to my satisfaction.  

Watched the first of the new series of Vera.  Enjoyed it as usual.  Our brains are a bit fried with all the murder mysteries we've been watching.  Might chose something a bit more lighthearted for the next few nights.

And so the festive period is officially over and the New Year new me begins tomorrow.  Bracing myself....Eyes front and march into 2024!