Many people saw their Christmas plans scuppered this year thanks to the dreadful plague. We were meant to be in the Highlands today but had to cancel our trip last week.
It hasn’t all been bad though. Christmas arrived on Christmas Eve this year with snow in Aberdeen and also a Brexit deal at last. The whole country heaved a sigh of relief yesterday afternoon with the announcement of a trade deal with the EU. Even Daniel was relieved. The thought of us leaving the EU without a deal and what that might mean for food supplies and goodness knows what else was a cause for concern.
Today we spent Christmas at home with a friend, who, as an adult living alone with a child, we’ve formed an extended household with. So it’s not a bubble but rather one extended household. This is permitted to reduce isolation for people who live alone.
The day started with presents. I got the book I’ve been wanting. It’s the final book in the Last Kingdom series. There are 13 books in the series and I’ve read them all except this one.
Elizabeth was also very excited about one of the books she got.
And Daniel too.
Ben was also pretty happy about his book.
We had a huge 100% vegan lunch.
After lunch was a walk in the park and Ben and I got to show off our matching jumpers.
Elizabeth modelling her new tartan leggings.
And a new skirt.
As we do every year we poured whisky over the pudding and set it on fire.
Merry Christmas everyone!
rachel.blog 
Looks like a good Christmas Day had by all, Rachel. Whose idea were the ‘fun apparel’ matching jumpers – lol! I’m please to see that your whole family are fellow bibliophiles 🙂
The matching jumpers was my idea. I have had mine for a couple of years and got that one for Ben as a gift yesterday 🙂
Merry Xmas Rachel. Your yearly vegan Christmas lunch pics are epic!
I made way too much food yesterday. I might have to pull in the reigns next year.
Looks like a great Christmas, it is a season that celebrates family and refuge. I recognise the Warrior cat series… I even started dreaming about talking cats…. Aargh! Our 12 year old, William claims he hates reading… He likes being read to… Especially anything by David Walliams. Also Dogman or The Bad Guys. Books that are a little quirky…He also loves watching 8/10 cats do Countdown, where he does the math questions faster than I can… I do the word ones. For me, short stories are the go to at the moment or Leunig cartoons as well as a divine book called ‘When life isn’t peachy’ It was recommended in Frankie magazine. My eldest daughter bought a subscription for Christmas/Birthday. It is so much better than ‘No idea’ or ‘Waste of a day’, ‘Unlucky Break’, or even ‘Life sucks’… Pretty sure you would know the alternative names. Thank goodness the Listener is back in print. At least someone came to their senses and brought back some more erudite reading!
We went through a period of reading all the David Walliams books together at bedtime but they got a bit samesy … each new book was too much like his other books and so we lost interest. Our bedtime story now the series starting with A Natural History of Dragons. We read the first one or at least Audible read it for us – https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/A-Natural-History-of-Dragons-Audiobook/B00PCXQOU0 . It was really good and we’re now onto the second book. Great to hear the Listener is still in print. We always read that magazine when we lived in NZ.
Also, the pudding reminded me of a story called ‘Let’s not go to the dogs tonight’, about a girl growing up in? Rhodesia? They keep adding alcohol to their Christmas pudding, and when the big day arrives, when it comes to the grand flambé, it explodes!
I decided that if you were excited about your new book, it must be a good series, so I ordered the Last Kingdom. I can’t believe the whole Bernard Cornwell thing has passed me by so completely (he wrote Sharpe as well!) apart from I guess I didn’t get History for a long time… Anyway, I can see why it is popular, it is memorable, it makes you curious about the history behind the fiction, and the characters were cleverly written. Just gruesome enough to catch your attention but not to be too horrific. It was horrible in places though! Would you suggest it to your children at some point? I mean, Rhiannon started watching GoT when she was still at school, and that is more graphic, but I don’t mind so much because I know I can stop looking at the screen.
A lot of people missed Bernard Cornwell and the Last Kingdom. It’s surprising because it’s so great and it tells the story of how England came to be which most people living in England don’t know. Yes there’s a lot made up but it also follows the history with real historial figures like King Alfred and Athleflaed. In the books Cornwell gives a synopsis at the end explaining was was true and what he made up and what’s still uncertain. The TV series is good too. We haven’t introduced it to the kids becuase it is quite violent but maybe in a few years.
Yes it is violent! But now I am further in, I have seen the violence abate and it becomes more political. My friend lent me Melvyn Bragg’s Adventure of English at the same time and for the first time I had the context of Alfred’s achievements to help me understand it. Adventure also had a section on the politics of American English – it would be good to see something written about Australian and NZ English some time too.
I didn’t understand the full achivements of King Alfred until The Last Kingdom. I had heard of him before but that was it. At the beginning of the series I wondered why England didn’t eventually become Daneland but it becomes clear when you get further on. The Saxons under Alfred fought back and were more organised. The Danes were disorganised and so often fighting amongst theselves.
Yes whenever I heard about how violent the Vikings were, that is exactly what I used to think too.