family Christmas and New Year 2014

How are you?  Christmas and New Year was amazing.  I had the best time.  It cost me a fortune and was exhausting catering for 7 for several days and then taking A* and J2 to Cornwall for a week, but it was fab.  No one was on their best behaviour.  J1 did his usual speech to anyone who would listen about how he was not coming home again and nobody showed him proper respect.  J2 threw unreasonable tantrums.  A* single-handedly cleaned the house and chopped veg all day on Christmas eve, but we also ran around after her, moving her stuff back home which involved 3 cars and 3 people and various taxi services to mates for last minute drinking binges.  She was in St Pancras champagne bar until midnight the night before she flew to Australia.  She has arrived there safely.  We had some great bonding fests over the holiday period including a day clothes shopping in Penzance which must be the premier place in the UK for vintage treasures.  Bear and Adele are now officially living together in the house as she has properly moved in.  Ged, the handsome gay, is moving out mid-January.  I am unsure about whether to claim my lounge back.

And the romance?  Well FB is still on the scene and survived Christmas and Cornwall with us.  The children think he drinks too much, which he does.  How am I ever going to limit my wine consumption with someone who drinks more than me?  They also don’t like the fact that he ribs me mercilessly in public.  He does challenge me.  I find I am looking at everything through a different lens since he appeared on the scene, but often it is very complimentary as he points out my strengths that I never thought about before.  He also diffused tensions between the children – going with J1 for a day to buy his new car and talking cooking to J2 when J1 had upset him.  I guess the children can also unite against him as an outsider rather than turn on each other.

I also met various members of his family in various states of Christmas drunkenness.  They were incredibly welcoming to me, but it is still early days.  I will be interested in my friends’ reactions when they begin to meet him.  My sister-in-law in Wales was incredibly effusive about him and very verbal about how much more suitable he was for me than FP!  I need honest opinions!  Whether I take any notice is another matter of course, as I am smitten.

I have started the New Year in a very happy state of mind.  I like my job.  I have plans to finish the house and got measured up for carpets and new flooring over Christmas.  There are one or two further bits to repair in the house, but then it will be finished.  I am probably going to help FB sort out his house to rent.  He fell in love with Cornwall which would be ironic as FH moved down to his beloved St Just, just before Christmas!

No more news.  I hope that 2014 is a great year for you.