Christmas 2024

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Merry Christmas! After last year’s aborted efforts to celebrate due to me seriously lacerating my left hand on the Friday before Christmas (and subsequent operation on Christmas Day, 2023) we’re looking forward to this Christmas, even more so than usual! 👍😀

As the week leading up to Cbig day began (Christmas Day was on a Wednesday, this year), it was to be a week of catching up with friends and family…

Sunday, 22nd December

A very relaxed day. Time to catch up with our reading and to schedule all the Christmas programmes into the Sky Q box. We were looking forward to the Carol Concert later.

See my separate Post HERE for this year’s Carol Concert.

Monday, 23rd December

A super-chilled day where we invited Conor over to ours for Lunch He’s on leave from the Army until well into the new year, and it was great to catch up with all his news. It wasn’t a traditional festive meal – pizza and chips, but at least the napkins had a festive feel to them! 😀🎄

The rest of the day was spent on the mammoth task of wading through our Sky Q ‘festive’ recordings that have been growing over the past few weeks! 😀👍

5.02pm: In the evening, I met up with Jo and we continued our daily walk routine. It felt good to be able to keep up the walking routine!

Tuesday, Christmas Eve

In the morning, Ann baked a cake and I cleaned the car! (living the dream, ehh!?) 😁

2.20pm: More eating and more catching-up with friends today! This time, in the afternoon, it was over to Rosi and Dave’s for an extensive Buffet with our friends.

4.50pm: A brisk walk back to ours followed, attempting to work a few of the calories from the Buffet. 😋😉. After a quick cuppa and some thorough testing of Ann’s cake, that she had made earlier. The only ‘serious’ job of the day? – we sorted out what we needed to pack for our two days away at Roger & Jane’s, tomorrow.

7.15pm: We finished the day watching the Doctor Who Proms. Much better than I imagined it would be having heard the same audio-only version earlier this year with Catherine Tate bloopering her way through her MC duties. Very disappointing back then, and she ruined the overall feel of the performance, IMHO.

Fast-forward to tonight and luckily, the bloopers seemed to be mostly tidied up in the edit suite (the character name is Ruby SUNDAY, not Ruby TUESDAY! Doh!!!) and tonight made for a very watchable and listenable concert, especially soprano Aida Garifullina whose voice was chilling and moving in equal measure (even if you’re not a fan of Who!)

9.05pm: Early night! 💤💤

Wednesday, Christmas Day

5.47am: Merry Christmas! We were both awake early for no apparent reason! After a cuppa, Ann headed for the pool whilst I headed for breakfast! 😉

9.15am: After Ann returned and after her light breakfast, we opened our presents.

Then it was off to Roger’s to be waited on hand-and-foot for the rest of the day and Boxing Day too! 👍👍

10.52am: We’re off. I was expecting the traffic to be quite light being Christmas day, but the A14 (and especially the A1) were both quite busy. No hold ups though, and an hour-and-a-quarter later we’d arrived.

12.08pm: As we pulled in to the drive, the weather had remained mild and not a sign of rain! We were soon exchanging hugs and handshakes and getting unpacked.

We were soon settled in the Lounge and putting in our orders for drinks! 😁. Whilst Ann opted for a sensible cuppa, I re-acquainted myself with an old friend – a bottle of Black Sheep Ale – a great start to the Christmas celebrations. 😉😋

After a quick natter ‘righting the world’ (our first attempt today – more was to follow), it was lunch-time and we all headed for the kitchen – and a traditional Christmas Lunch.

1.25pm: What a feast! You really can’t go wrong with Roger & Jane on cooking duties and with Oli taking charge of drinks, the perfect Christmas Lunch unfolded…

Crackers completed the picture (with the jokes as corny as they come – but just how we like them!)

…but I was hopeless at assembling the ‘build your own Santa’ kit! 😯

2.53pm: At just before 3, it was all over for another year, well almost. By a slim majority, we all decamped to the Lounge to watch the King’s Christmas Speech (on their rather excellent one-month-old 48″ OLED Samsung TV) accompanied by the Cheeseboard and a rather smooth 2019 Port. Perfect! 😋😋

4.20pm: After the Speech, we returned to ‘putting the world right’ over a cuppa.

5.20pm: And then the highlight of the day (for me anyway!) – unwrapping our Christmas gifts to each other… From Oliver: 2 Guinness Tankards and 4 cans of Guinness to test them out! 😁. From Roger & Jane: Tiptree Strawberry Gin, a Prisoner Graphic Novel and the DVD ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ (that completes my MCU 4K collection of DVDs) – until the next release! Thanks everyone! Spot-on gifts! 👏👏

6.10pm: Forget the (heavily hyped) Gavin & Stacey finale, what we were all looking forward to was the latest Wallace and Gromit outing… 👍😉🤣😂🤣😂

…and it didn’t disappoint! Superb animation, witty script and very ‘British’. Hat’s off to actor, Ben Whithead who has replaced the Late Peter Sallis as the voice of Wallace – an uncanny similarity!

7.20pm: More food in the shape of gammon sandwiches and a clever G&T that included frozen plum juice. Sounded strange, but tasted delicious! 👍😋

9.35pm: With Ann flagging, we called it a night, leaving our hots to party on. What a great day! 💤😴💤😴

Thursday, Boxing Day

7.01am: As usual, I was up first, catching up with the national news and writing this. Given the very pleasant conditions outside (well, it’s NOT raining) we’re all planning a walk later after breakfast.

10.25am: Boxing Day Breakfast awaits…

11.30am: As threatened planned – Boxing Day walkies!! A wander through and past Hanbury Manor in a loop and then down the hill to Thundridge Village.

Onwards to Thundridge…

We planned to get the annual family photo taking advantage of the good (ish) weather, but we never did! 😯

12.55pm: Well, that certainly blew the cobwebs away! It had been the perfect weather for walking – but even nicer to return to a roaring fire! 👍😉

As pleasant as it was outside, it was good to be back indoors! 👍. We caught a little of the Boxing Day footy courtesy of Amazon Prime where we saw Fulham take on the mighty Chelsea – and win! 2-1!! We weren’t expecting that! Oli, (these days, an ardent Chelsea fan) was shocked!

3.14pm: Time for a late Lunch featuring the traditional cold-cuts complemented by a some yummy hot party food.

4.35pm: An excellent Lunch, but no Christmas would be complete without one of Jane’s Marzipan-laden Christmas Cake! Yes please! (twice!) 😋👏

5.15pm: Time to catch up with some Christmas TV in the shape of 2024’s ‘Ghost Story for Christmas‘ from Christmas Eve. As usual, it was a creepy tale, again for this year, produced by Mark Gatiss entitled: ‘Woman of Stone’. A good 30 minutes of nerve-tingling story-telling.

5.50pm: Gosh! We nearly forgot! Boxing Day/Tree pressies! For me this year? A giant Toblerone from Ann and some beard moisturiser courtesy of R, J & O. Excellent! 😉

6.26pm: With the traditions of Christmas fading fast, we ended the evening watching: ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare‘. A film by Guy Ritchie on Netflix that rivalled the John Wick franchise for body count (but was still surprisingly watchable and tastefully done, if that were possible!). Apparently, it was based on a true story! Ann retired early, feeling that she was going down with something horrible! 😯

9.43pm: I turned in after the film ended to find Ann, upstairs, fighting-off the bugs! That didn’t bode well!! 😕. It was our final sleepover tonight as we’ll be heading home after breakfast tomorrow. 💤💤

Friday, 27th December

Good morning! A yummy breakfast was on the cards…

After breakfast, and after saying our goodbyes we headed home. It had been a great time at R, J & O’s for Christmas. Great food, great conversations and the weather even behaved itself too! Just a pity that Ann suffered towards the end.

11.58am: We were home around midday, after a slightly frustrating journey due to the ongoing improvements (of the improvements!) at the legendary ‘Black Cat’ roundabout. Ann went straight to bed whilst I headed for the local Aldi to pick up some essentials.

Saturday, 28th December

With Christmas almost over for another year (in our heads, anyway!), it was a day of clearing up and making room for all the gifts we received this. If, after reading this, you have the impression that all we did was EAT – you’d probably be right, so I was pleased that I only put on a couple of pounds over the festive period this year. I hear the words ‘Diet’ being suggested – yes, probably!

I’ve listed our usual annual Christmas TV watchlist below, and buried in it towards the end was an accidental discovery whilst browsing through Amazon Prime today (that was also shown at cinemas in November, but I somehow missed it). It’s an action comedy called Red One. If you like stories about Santa Claus, then this one, made this year – and still on at the cinema as I write this – it’ll give you that warm Christmas glow! Official reviews vary from ‘really poor‘ to ‘an enjoyable romp’, and it was certainly no classic, but if you fancy something a little different this year, it’s an enjoyable watch, whilst you finish off the last of the leftovers! 👍👍

Just one last job… I popped round the John & Trish’s to set up their digital photo-frame and then it was back home and feet-up for a short while.

4.40pm: I caught up with Jo for our evening walk. Drizzly and getting colder, but we both knew we needed to burn off some of those festive indulgences.

5.45pm: Back to watching Christmas TV! We finished the evening with the Chelsea Detective Christmas Special.

Christmas TV

As usual for us, Christmas TV played a large part in our Christmas celebrations. Our Sky Q box was therefore kept pretty busy – even whilst we were away.

✅ = Don’t bother
✅✅ = Only if there’s nothing else to see!
✅✅✅ = Not bad!
✅✅✅✅ = Worth a watch!
✅✅✅✅✅ = Oh yes, very Christmassy!

All Creatures Great and Small – 1983 Christmas Special ✅✅✅✅
All Creatures Great and Small – 2024 Christmas Special ✅✅✅✅
A Christmas Carol ✅✅✅✅ (The Mark Gatiss Stage Production)
Beyond Paradise Christmas Special 2024 ✅✅✅
Call the Midwife Christmas Special (two-parter) ✅✅✅ (Is this running out of steam? It’s certainly not running short of graphic depictions of childbirth! Sugary sweet in a BAD way. Bah! Humbug!!)
Carols from Kings 2024 ✅✅✅✅
Christmas Ghost Story 2024 -Woman of Stone ✅✅✅✅✅
Death in Paradise Christmas Special 2024 ✅✅✅✅ (New Copper!)
Doctor Who – The War Games (90-minute remastered episode). More information on my Blog HERE ✅✅✅✅ (Hats of the team for creating the ‘new’ regeneration scene!)
Doctor Who at the Proms 2024 ✅✅✅✅✅
Doctor Who Christmas Special 2024 – Joy to the World ✅✅✅ (Ultimately disappointing and I’m NOT warming to the new ‘Who’ character)
EastEnders Christmas Episodes ✅✅✅✅ (Even more tension than usual, but a well-put-together plot)
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale – Still to watch (but only to see what we missed – never really ‘got’ the attraction of this one)
Good Ship Murder Christmas Special ✅✅ (How did this get commissioned for another two series?)
Madame Blanc Mysteries Christmas Special ✅✅✅✅ (Good story!)
Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Christmas Fishing ✅✅✅✅✅ (Simple and entertaining)
Outnumbered Christmas Special 2024 – Still to watch
Swan Lake – Still to watch
The Chelsea Detective Christmas Special 2024 ✅✅✅✅✅
The King’s Christmas Speech, 2024 ✅✅✅✅
The Red One ✅✅✅✅✅ (A surprisingly enjoyable Christmas Film)
Wallace & Gromit – Murder Most Fowl ✅✅✅✅✅ (Best programme this Christmas!)

So, that’s it for another year! My reindeer slippers are nearing the loft hatch and we’re planning to take down the decorations early new year – it seems to take so long to arrive, but is over in a flash! ☹. Hope yours was a good one!

Christmas Past…

2023
(pretty-much ‘cancelled’ due to my hand injury!)
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010

…and probably for the last time in 2024…

🎅🎄
Merry Christmas!