Xmas Cancelled

We've been working round the clock (but keeping to the official construction hours for the noisy stuff, to not P.O. neighbours/tenants unnecessarily) to be able to accommodate my sister and her family for Christmas. They were supposed to arrive in Montreal on Tuesday, but 2 cancelled flights later and no prospects of getting here until after xmas, we'll just have to try for another year :( This is due to Heathrow not being able to clear a few centimeters of snow in a week.

Despite the major disappointment here, we've had a really lovely xmas day with Marc's family. There were 12 of us for Xmas dejeun-ouper - my attempt at french for a lunch/supper meal :) But I'd bought a turkey big enough for at least 17, so lots of lovely leftover meals (brown rice turkey casserole and turkey lasagna). The huge dining table that I bought (I put delivery off until just a few days ago) fit everybody nicely around it, and I even had an extra section left over. I've not decided on dining room chairs yet, so we have cheap folding ones in black and white (from Ikea - quel surprise)!

Plus it's good we've had the pressure of visitors coming for Christmas, because it means that we've made a huge amount of progress that I'm sure would not have taken place otherwise! When we sat down for the turkey, I was so happy that Marc's children had been able to stay the night, and that I could actually cook the meal (with all the trimmings) and serve it on the best china (thank you, Grandad).


Gratuitous doggie shot to cheer me up