From this time between Christmas and the New Year when you have no idea of what day it is...and you don't care!

Oh, I'm thinking that I shouldn't even mention the weather to a lot of you, my friends, who are freezing your shnurkles off.We've had about three days of snow and below freezing...only just below freezing......but we've enjoyed every one of those days.We've walked to the village, past snowy fields, past the pub, past the church,Past all of our friend's Cotswold stone cottages.And back up past the snowy fields again.Yup, that was our winter. All three glorious days of it.Now it's up to 10 degrees above and the snow has long melted.But the heavy snow did leave a torrent of broken trees and branches in its wake. This one at Blenheim.There's been a lot of snapped trees in our hood too around the Windrush and Thames rivers.I made us an advent calendar while I was still in Vancouver.I got a few postcards and cut and glued silly Christmas jokes on them, put them each into an envelope and stuck a little game, toy or treat inside. The things I found were usually thrift store finds...like Ken doll shoes for our fingers and a little boombox to play a beat and we had a finger breakdance dance-off. There was silly putty, and there were ornaments, and two intricate, laser cut metal airplane puzzles, some bracelets which say The Doctor and The Companion...And these silly Korean beauty panda masks. (There was no way Robert was going to put his on!)We've tried to reduce all the Christmas stress by preparing ahead of time and having as much comfort and fun as we could. We've had open fires almost every night.Robert asked our lovely friend Maureen, who lives in the village, to make our Christmas cake this year. We usually leave it to the last minute and it's such a hassle. Maureen did an incredible job and the cake is so good. She even used Robert's little cake ornaments which he's had for a million years.On the 15th we popped down to the Christmas barn in the neighbouring village of Appleton.We said hello to the reindeer...And chose our tree.I love our Christmas tree this year.I really wanted a very tall one, (in our little cottage we usually have smaller trees), but this year we got a floor to ceiling one and I realised we didn't have enough decorations to make it really beautiful, so a few precious new ones from the Christmas barn and a couple jaunts around the thrift stores was all that was needed.I have a story about our turkey. Well, were we ever organised! I made the stuffing the day ahead, we prepared the turkey by 11 am, turned the oven on and stuck it into the big oven in time for the traditional 3 pm British Christmas lunch to have it ready for the Queen's speech. So, we set the timer for 30 minutes at a higher temp, then 2 hours at a lower temp. Two hours later we came to check on the turkey and take the foil off only to realise that we turned on the small oven (which we always tend to use) and our turkey was stone cold! Our British Christmas lunch turned into a Canadian Christmas supper with Dr. Who. But we loved it.Yes, the Theo blimp got turkey.And this is the way our days went.One lovely day blending into the other. Lovely old movies, twinkly lights, good food, comfort and warmth.Then Boxing Day came and with it deep Land Rover tire groves thru the paths in the fields, the barking of dogs and the pop, pop, popping of guns.I've been walkign the fields in light coloured clothing...just in case...lol.I know it's tradition, but I really don't like the Boxing Day shoot at all.The ritual goes on for a few days as beaters beat the hedges flushing the birds out and the shooters shoot them down and the dogs retrieve them.Although the shooting party has to stay off the footpaths, I can hear them on my walks and turn back rather than going on.And I also mentally send "run and hide!" vibes to any bird I see.Another little bit of fun we've had is making Medusa Christmas cards for Robert's car crazy pack.We took Medusa out of the garage and......had some Christmas fun!That's my crazy Christmas sweater.Now it's the evening here in Oxfordshire, on the last day of 2017 and I'm only getting around to posting this post. I've been so bad these last few months and have told myself to be better.But I do hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and I wish the best for all of you in 2018. Get your thoughts, memories, and resolutions, (if you do that), together and have a lovely New Year celebration.Thank you so much for venturing over into my life and letting me be a part of yours. Much love and see you next year. :D