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Preparations for
Christmas had in fact begun many months ahead when Teresa started to plan
with her usual vigour the food, the presents and the events for the family
over the Christmas period. This
entailed much canny on-line shopping, as well as visits to special events
such as the Broadway shopping evening and the |
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Mistletoe,
with friend |
Saturday 3 December –
The Village Christmas Market The last village market
before Christmas: busy it was, some
cars turning away having nowhere to park.
Teresa bought a few small Christmas items, and Roger bought her a
recently published book, written by a neighbour, on the history of
Didbrook school (now merged with Toddington’s), which included references to
several people we know We also entered the
Christmas ‘name-the-teddy’ competition, and were amazed when the door-bell
went later in the afternoon and we found that Roger was the lucky winner with
his choice of ‘Mistletoe’ Sunday 4 December – The Teresa, Helen and Jay
met up to see the annual Christmas Market at Oxford Castle Saturday 10 December We bought the Christmas
tree from a local farm and had to tie it firmly to the balustrade outside
during the stormy week it spent waiting to be decorated |
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Tuesday 13 December Teresa went into Teresa
in the bar on arrival at the Spa lunch
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Wednesday 14 December –
Barcelo Spa Christmas Lunch Our first Christmas
lunch, for members of the Barcelo Spa at the Lygon Arms in Broadway. There were just eight of us for lunch
(rather more for the evening repeat) in the historic Cromwell room, complete
with Tudor fireplace and portraits of the Lord Protector himself – he is
reputed to have stayed there. The
lunch was concluded by a heavily subsidised raffle with prizes for everyone,
in which Teresa won the main prize of some valuable massage and beauty
treatments in the Spa – which of course she passed on to Jay
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Friday 16 December –
Christmas Decorations Jay was by now home for
Christmas, so we all sprung into action to put up the Christmas decorations
A
crib set (one of several) on the mantelpiece The tree with decorations
and presents ► Saturday 17 December Teresa and Jay went to
Tewkesbury Abbey for a performance of the Messiah and were captivated by the
singing, especially from the choir, the Dean Close Schola Cantorum, which
included as a soloist the 2009 BBC Chorister of the Year, Laurence Kilsby |
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Saturday 24 December
- Christmas Eve Dinner
The
beef fillet emerged cooked to perfection |
Teresa prepared her
traditional Christmas Eve dinner – prawn cocktail starters followed by Beef
Wellington. It was, if anything, even
better than usual
In
eager anticipation |
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The
sumptuous sweet |
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Sunday 25 December –
Christmas Day Lunch
Teresa
and Roger with aperitif |
Following a sound
night’s sleep and a morning of quizzes and games we prepare for the next
treat, our traditional roast turkey dinner
Roger
and Helen pull a cracker |
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The turkey course
quickly disappeared, with the meat, vegetables and all the trimmings
beautifully cooked and presented.
There was even thyme stuffing for Roger. To accompany it we had a bottle of very
pleasant Rioja.
Roger’s
sweet was this magnificent chocolate-covered mousse from Marks and Spencer in
the shape of a Christmas bell – the Christmas pudding was for Teresa |
We found time among all
the eating and drinking for various family games, for which Teresa set aside
a number of small surprise prizes for the winners. This cheery little crib scene was one such
that emerged to add our collection
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After lunch, we opened
the presents – more than ever it seemed – and as usual thoughtfully chosen by
Teresa and the girls. |
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Monday 26 December –
Boxing Day A good buffet lunch saw
off most of the special Christmas fare. Later in the day we
performed our traditional Christmas concert following the same pattern as the
last few years with just some minor changes.
Practice had been rather limited, with particularly few opportunities
to practise with Jay. But we were just
about all right on the night, and we all enjoyed it. |
Click for Programme ▼
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