Well, we had an "interesting" time. A leak in the downstairs khazi,a fortnight before we were expecting a houseful of guests, the expiration of our central heating boiler a week later, the coldest and snowiest winter for ages meant that we were huddling over the only open fire, burning about 2 years worth of our stored logs. Both fixed before Xmas thank goodness. Our projected houseguests were warned to bring hot water bottles and extra sweaters but decided not to overnight! Our 40th wedding anniversaruy party was a social success but 25 of the expected 75 guests had to cancel because of weather or illness so we were redrawing the table plan at hourly intervals. The central heating men also flooded the garage, left a hole in the wall and broke one ornament (shaken off the shelf by drilling) and managed to lose 3 of our towels.
Xmas Eve spent warming the house up and hoovering up brick dust. Quiet Xmas day on our own in the warm(bliss!).Boxing Day we had friends over as usual, went for a couple of walks leading up to New Year then to S's sister for New Year to play electric trains and go to the panto with the great nephews & great n1ece. Oh, and the car needed a new battery and windscreen wipers. Have to hit the savings account for the bills for all this! Still I had the usual presents I can read, listen to or drink so I'm not complaining! (Much!) Job had it worse.

RtS