Bad Manners and Boxing Day

Here's my Christmas knitting. The Liesl cardigan I made for Si, who is my boss/friend; and the scarf, which I knitted for my friend Hilary.

I am a bit peeved, to be honest. I spent many many hours knitting these two lovelies, then spent around three hours blocking them both before wrapping them. But here we are, at 2.30 pm on Boxing Day, and I haven't had so much as a text or e-mail from either to thank me. Am I wrong to expect them to appreciate the thought and effort it took? They know they are handknitted gifts, as I put a ball band in the package (so that they would have the washing instructions) along with a note from me. It does make me wonder why I bothered. If someone had taken the time and trouble to knit me something, I would certainly text (or ring) them straight away to thank them profusely.

Other than being disappointed that other people obviously don't have the same standards as me when it comes to manners (!), we had a relatively peaceful Christmas. Ethan had stayed up late on Christmas Eve so he didn't wake up until 9.00 am yesterday (there is method in my madness, I knew I'd get a lie-in if I let him stay up late). Unfortunately I forgot to switch the alarm off on my mobile, so I was rudely awakened at 6.00 am ... and then again at 7.00 am when Colin's alarm went off! But I managed to doze until Ethan woke up, and bought his pillowcase full of presents from Santa in to us. He must have been a very good boy, as Santa bought him lots of lovely goodies, including several reading books (Santa understands the importance of lots of reading material) and the obligatory pack of toy cars. He also had two fleece jackets (one of which is camouflage, which he is calling his BA Baracus jacket - guess who likes the A Team!), some Ben 10 pants, a Ben 10 puzzle, Ben 10 Top Trumps, a drawing book, a wind up fire engine (I think Santa must have got that from the German Market, as we saw some there that Ethan was admiring ...), a chocolate Santa and some chocolate coins (Euro!), three Meccano vehicles, a paint your own plate and piggy bank, and a couple of activity packs. Luckily for us, Santa doesn't agree with giving lots of expensive presents to Ethan, as he knows that Ethan won't take good care of anything, and stuff ends up broken or lost within a very short space of time.


Anyway, by 10.00 am we were all downstairs, ripping open our presents. Lucky me, I had the most presents, as I got loads from work. I had three bottles of wine, a bottle of champagne, a three litre box of wine, three big boxes of chocolate, a Hotel Chocolat gift pack thing, a funky rubber coaster, a rubber pencil holder, an Impulse gift set, a Nivea gift set, a room fragrancer (one of the ones with reeds that you stick in the pot of fragrance), a really funny coffee coaster (it says DRINK COFFEE, Do stupid things faster with more energy), a box of Lebkuchen, a lead crystal basket, a huge No 7 make-up set, a Body Shop white musk gift set, a bracelet, a Radley keyring ... and my favourite pressies, 101 Designer Yarn Stash Wonders from Ethan (I wonder how he knew I wanted that ... might have something to do with me ordering it myself and giving it to Sean to wrap!), and a new mobile from Colin.


Now, the mobile I've been using is a Tytn 1, which used to be Colin's. He upgraded last January, and I inherited the old one when the phone I was using died a death. It's been fine, but the battery has got to the point where it lasts only a couple of hours before needing to be recharged, and it's not very good on hands-free in the car (Mum always complains if I ring her that she can't hear me). So, Colin got me a Tytn 2 for Christmas. I sort of wish he hadn't, as I know how expensive they are, but at the same time I'm delighted. Mine is better than his, his is silver and mine is black. I've also got TomTom and GPS on there, which is going to be useful. Maybe I shall programme it to take me to all the local wool shops mwah hah ha ha hahahah.


I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get the drop spindle I asked for, but I'm still waiting for a present from Sean, who spent all his money on everyone else and forgot about his Mum, so I suspect I will get one soon (I can buy it myself anyway, it doesn't matter).


Colin promised that he would cook Christmas dinner this year, but three guesses who ended up doing it ... but at least everything was done to perfection. We had one of those three bird roasts that Aldi were advertising on TV (made of chicken, turkey and duck with stuffing), and I did it with the marmalade, honey and garlic glaze from the Aldi website. It was delicious. We followed dinner with our traditional chocolate, orange and sherry trifle (trifle sponges, chocolate swiss roll and jaffa cakes soaked in sherry, then a layer of chocolate Angel Delight, cream on top and a couple of Cadbury's flakes crumbled over the top to garnish. Yum.


The rest of the day was spent relaxing, had a few drinks and just generally chilled out (and started knitting the Fetching fingerless gloves (as a present for Ioannis' girlfriend, Gloria, who has Raynaud's disease and suffers from cold hands).


I hope everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of lovely presents.


So today for Boxing Day I've been chilling out some more, done some more knitting (one glove finished), and am currently watching the A Team, having just stuffed my face with the dinner that Colin did manage to cook today (very garlicky roast lamb, roast potatoes, parsnips and veg), followed by the last of yesterday's trifle. I bet Colin won't manage to do the dishwasher though!


Right, time to stop boring everyone, and give my full attention to the A Team!