Celebrating 2018's #WinterSolstice And #Christmas, And I Suppose The #NewYear Too

I know we're a little over a week in to January, but I had a few other things I wanted to post first. Plus, we needed time to sort the photos and videos that were on the camera. Hence you only getting the rodent gang's Christmas post this past Friday. You'll get Lilie's one this coming Friday. Anyway...

We had our Christmas dinner at Oscars on the Winter Solstice. Yes, that was intentional. I mentioned in a previous post that I picked the 21st of December as the date for our dinner on purpose. Well, that was the reason: so we could have it on the day we celebrate the Winter Solstice. Had the weather been nice enough, we'd have had it practically on the beach. But the weather wasn't too good - it wasn't really nasty, but it was a bit too cold and windy to be eating outside - so we went inside to eat. We were still on the seafront anyhow, and it was still lovely. Plus, we did have to walk along the seafront to get there, so we did get to spend some time on the beach that day. Even if it was just to walk to and from Oscars.

It was a three course meal. Kelly and I both had the soup for a starter, though I can't remember now what kind of soup it was, even though I knew both when we ordered it back in November, and when we were eating it last week. It was definitely vegetarian friendly though. For the main course, Kelly had a turkey dinner, I had a nut roast dinner, and even Lilie got a bit of turkey. For dessert, I had Christmas pudding with cream, and Kelly had the cheese board (and I think gave a little cheese to Lilie). Since we don't drink alcahol, we were drinking cola during our meal. Oh, and we had Christmas crackers too, complete with lame jokes I can't remember, silly paper hats, and little "toys" (one of our crackers had a giant plastic paperclip in it, the other had a little spinning top... I've now got the spinning top). I even wore the paper hat throughout the meal (I had a yellow one). Kelly wouldn't wear his though. No. I don't have photos to share from our meal. We had the camera with us, but were too busy enjoying ourselves to remember to take photos.

Since we had our Christmas dinner at Oscars, we didn't bother cooking one for Christmas day. So, most of the rest of the holiday festivities involved nibbling on holiday goodies while reading Christmasy stories, or watching holiday movies, with breaks to talk to family and friends. It was great! There were plenty of sweet mince pies, fruit cake, gingerbread men, chocolate log cakes, satsumas, grapes, cheese and cranberry sandwiches, and a few other goodies. Of course, the chocolate log cakes were only for Kelly, and the mince pies and fruit cake were only for me. But we would have shared with each other if the other had wanted any of what we had. There was cocoa too... Even some with cinnamon in... Though that was mostly me. That makes it sound like we spent the whole time eating holiday goodies, but we didn't... Remember this was all spread out over about a week. Actually, the goodies were spread out over all of December, though I do admit we ate more of them over the week containing the Winter Solstice and Christmas.

Anyway, I read more than a dozen Christmas themed books this month, which I've reviewed on Goodreads already, and shared the reviews for on here in my review catch-up post last week. I also watched several holiday movies, including two new to me ones (which were reviewed in a post at the very end of December) and some old favourites. Of course, I watched "Santa Clause - The Movie" and read "The Bear Father Christmas Forgot" on Christmas Eve, like I always do. It's become a sort of tradition for me, and I love it!

We got a few more cards from family and friends, which got put up on the door by the sparkly snowflakes and bells. One from our friends, Lorna and Andy. One from my friend, AliceKay. One from my brother, Carl, and his girlfriend, Tory. One from my Mam. As well as one from my Uncle Phillip and Aunty Bev. Here they all are:

There were presents too, of course.

"Santa" filled our stockings with tasty goodies, which Lilie was quick to notice...

(You should be able to tell which is my stocking, and which is Kellys, but - since the furkids' stockings don't have their names on them - I'll tell you that the polar bear one is Lilie's stocking, and the other one is for the rodent gang).

One of the things in my stocking was a Kinder Surprise Santa, and it had this little angel in it:

(The little spinning top beside her is the one that came in my Cracker).

I also got some giraffe themed tableware...

A kit to make an elephant...

And a meerkat, who I've decided to name Drusilla, in honour of my meerkat encounters when I went to Drusillas for my keeper for the day experience. So, here's Drusilla the meerkat:

Plus, I had some teatree scented bath stuff, a few books (including a braille vegetarian recipe book, which is 16 braille volumes) and some money. I plan to use some of the money to get a new CD player, since the one I have to listen to audio CDs in the bedroom at bed time isn't working so well any more. In its defence though, it's about 12 or 13 years old, and has been used almost every day in that time. So it's done well. Time to retire it though, since it keeps needing several attempts to get it to accept a CD, and the speakers are going funny, so the sound quality is now a bit iffy.

By the way, I'd just like to say, "Thank you," to everyone who sent cards and/or presents, or who wished us a Blessed Solstice, Merry Christmas, or Happy New Year (whether online or in person).

As you can see, we had a really nice time... It was a lovely way to spend the holidays.

I didn't get my snow, but I did get some fireworks, since someone was doing a bit of a display somewhere nearby on the evening of Christmas Day, which we could easily see and hear from our place, and we'd had some the Saturday before too. I wish there had been snow as well, but you can't have everything, right? Anyway, here's a clip of the Christmas Day fireworks. I shared one last week, but here's a better one:







We didn't do anything for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. We almost never do. We heard lots of fireworks New Year's Eve though, and you'll be glad it was earlier in the evening we got a clip to share withyou, because even I found the explosion of fireworks at midnight a bit much. I swear everyone who had been doing fireworks earlier in the evening kept their biggest and best firework, had it ready for midnight, and ended up setting it off at the exact moment everyone else did. It really was rather loud. Anyway, here's the short clip we did earlier in the evening:







So, that's how I spent my holidays... How did you spend yours?