Belated Christmas Greetings and the last blog of 2015

Hello All 
I am sure you lovely people are all in recovery mode today from the first round of a fest of overeating and indulgence. Round 2 to commence anytime soon. We are slowly finding our groove again after an extemely hectic run up to Christmas. Many thanks go to all my little helpers who pitched in to help a slightly frazzled friend out. I finished the season with a mild case of tendonitis but after a week of very little butchery work, hot water bottles, massage and the kids preparing the veg we are nearly back to normal.
So here is our Christmas gang photo, minus one photographer trying out her new phone. Apparently the lunch was a triumph and after having nearly forgotten about the potatoes they turned out to be rather good. We had slow roasted leg of lamb. Fab. Only draw back was having to leap out of bed at 8am to turn on the oven after too many gin and tonics the previous night. However, if you want food to be ready when you are rather than being in a stress fuelled, steamy kitchen, counting the seconds until you have to put the veg on so it is ready at the same time as the meat being carved and the yorkshires, then this is the recipe for you. Anyway there was none left :-) Mission accomplished!
Now you know when you have planned on leftovers for Boxing day and there are none, and oh yes we had forgotten to prepare our own ham..... and then you think thank goodness I was bought that recipe book for Christmas. And so you choose a recipe to cook as it is nice and easy for Boxing Day.....and then you put the onions on to cook..... and then you go to the cupboard and realise that you have no oregano, tomato paste, not enough bacon (??!!**), and a shortage of white beans. So, you make substitutions with leftover roast pork, marjoram, tinned tomatoes, lentils and plonk dumplings on top for good measure and hey ho.... it is absolutely delicious :):):) Happy, happy, happy. Chilled, feet up, nice cup of tea.

Gavin has been outside picking flowers. The sheep are happily munching up the new shoots of green grass and the door is being opened as it is too warm inside the house in the middle of the day with the fires going. A necessary situation as our old dog, Tom, is suffering with an arthritic spine, so not able to move very easily or in fact at all. I suspect too much ball chasing in his lifetime. It made Christmas Day a little stressful but with his new pills that he got today the inflamation should go down and with luck he will have an improved quality of life again. Cross fingers.

Patrick has returned to the fold for a bit before he continues on his travels. He came back from UK via Holland and is hoping to be accepted at a university in Venlo in September 2016. Emily is still trying to work out what she is going to do after the Baccalaureat which is in June 2016. Fortunately Number 3 has a much less complicated life for the year ahead requiring me to not have to expend too much in the way of intellectual capacity and emotional support.
We ventured into Bordeaux just before Christmas for some chilled family time and watched the new Star Wars film. It was AWESOME and took me back to watching it with my own parents and sister when the first Star Wars came out many moons ago. Not sure that we went out for a McDonalds afterwards though.  In fact I don't even think there was one in Peterborough. Aaahhh....memory lane, it seems to get longer and more blurry... with or without gin and tonic.
Have a fabulous New Year.
We hope to see you all soon
Helenxx