Christmas dinner for £10...........unless................

.........................you are 'sniffy' about frozen food.

I had never in my life bought frozen roast potatoes until this year. After all, why would I, we were self-sufficient in vegetables and most years Christmas dinner was completely home produced.
 Then came town life  and when I was home alone for 7 weeks and fancied roast potatoes, I didn't have any spuds in the house and anyway it seemed silly to par-boil and roast 2 potatoes. So I splashed out 79p on a bag of roasties from Aldi. And found they were perfectly fine and only 30 minutes in the oven. Then I tried parsnips and they were OK too.
So when I saw this Special Buy advertised at the local Co-op I had no hesitation in buying.

Turkey breast joint, roast potatoes and parsnips. Yorkshire puds and Brussels sprouts (Hmmm not sure about these) and a gi-normous Viennetta. £10 the lot. They have topped up the freezer and will be very handy after Christmas.
I bet a lot of people will throw up their hands in horror at a whole meal from the freezer, but surely this could be one way to save a heck-of-a-lot of money and still be traditional.
 

Back Soon
Sue

The Mystery of The Christmas Tea Towel

I opened the box of Christmas decorations
and what did I find on the top

This

Where did it come from?
Someone must have given it to me for Christmas last year...........
But who?
And why was it in with the Christmas decorations rather than with the tea-towels? *
I have no idea, I hope I said thank you to whoever gave it to me - how embarrassing .

Back Sooner or Later
Sue

PS Thank you for all the comments, we are still talking about the wedding and different photos keep popping up on Facebook. I'll probably share more - 'til everyone is fed up with them!

*Actually I think I know why it was in with the decorations........it was probably because so many other things had already been packed in boxes for the move.

Apart from a wedding................

..............other things have been happening here....................................

On Saturday we went to feed Son and Daughter-in-law's cat as they were busy with clearing up after the wedding, we happened to go via Needham Market car boot sale where I found this little book for 50p

 Then on Sunday Col had to return his waistcoat and cravat to the Posh Clothes Shop and we happened to go via the Portman Road car boot sale (and had we needed Christmas decorations we could have found enough to have trimmed a whole street of houses!)
Instead I picked up another book for 50p - you just never know what you'll find and a Tasha Tudor book from the USA was very unexpected.

Very odd how we 'chanced' upon boot sales both days wasn't it?

Later Sunday M and R called in on their way home from all the clearing up to deliver some of the flowers from the tables and a piece of left over Wedding cake. Oh it is good.

Monday we went to Asda to print out a few wedding photos so Col's dad had something to keep quite quickly (he is not well enough to  cope with a  wedding) We also delivered a piece of cake to him and took the lap top so he could see the rest of our pictures.

Last week we sold Col's bike on eBay so that's added a bit more to funds and we've found a photo printing website where we can pay by Pay Pal - so the bike sale will pay for some wedding photos.The machine at Asda turned out decent prints but they were a bit pricey.

A few books have been read although not as many as usual
Angela Thirkell - Marling Hall is one of the latest batch of her books to be re-printed by Virago Modern Classics. It's a good chunky read set in her fictional Barsetshire during the war years.
A.A.Milne -The Red House Mystery. Who knew that way back in 1922 the Winnie The Pooh author had written one crime novel? I certainly didn't until someone mentioned it on one of the book blogs I read. The library had a copy, I've forgotten the story already!
Bernard Knight - The Lately Deceased. Another crime fiction re-printed from 1963.
Melissa Harrison- Winter - which I've already mentioned last week.

According to my Books Read 2016 page I've read 111 books this year but so few of them have been Non Fiction and so many have been crime fiction. I perhaps need to even things up a bit more next year although it all depends on what turns up from the library or what I fancy reading of my own.
 
 Thank you for all the comments over the last few days.
Yes the wedding was at Knodishall church, I wrote about it HERE. It was an exceptionally mild day for December which was OK until we got to the Westleton Crown for the reception, where of course all the wood fires were lit and they were not able to have roof lights in the big restaurant open due to noise restrictions so as not to upset neighbouring houses in the village. Phew..... it was warm!

Back to Photos In Advent tomorrow
Sue

Winter Wedding

On December 9th 2016 MC married RJ and she became another Mrs C just like me! So happy to have another Mrs C in the family, wish Col's mum was still alive she would have been so happy too.

Weddings may be much more complicated to organise than "back in our day" but they are much more fun!
Here are some pictures from the winter wedding (although the weather was unseasonably warm)

Caught this photo of Col and our son, just before we went into church. The Best man W - who has been son's best friend since they were 9 -  is behind and between M and Col and over on the left is Col's brother A - if he had noticed he was being photographed he would probably have taken a step backwards out of shot!

The wedding had a Christmas theme and we sang Ding Dong Merrily on High for the final hymn

Bride and Groom

Our Eldest, her husband and  Jacob

Our wonderful family ( minus Florence who had finally fallen asleep after being so grumpy all through the service  that B had to take her out into the vestry)

A choir entertained everyone with Christmas carols on arrival at the reception venue while M & R went off to Leiston Abbey Ruins for special photos

Extremely yummy Wedding cake which became the desert for the meal, thereby saving M & R the cost of an extra course!

The Proudest Grandad in the world with Jacob and Florence

The two little cousins get to know each other!

Son photobombing photo of his niece and nephew

Jacob enjoying his meal!

 

The newly weds first dance, wonder if anyone anywhere has danced their first dance to "All I want for Christmas is  you"!

A Good Time was had by all.

Thank you for comments over the last few days, I must get round to replying properly.

Back Soon
Sue

The Christmas Basket

Yesterday we were at the wedding of our son and new daughter-in-law. Pictures will follow ASAP.

With a wedding in December and a couple who love Christmas  (their first dance was to "All I want for Christmas is you!) there were lots of festive themes going on and this is my lovely gift from the newly weds.

So pretty.................just hope I can keep it alive a bit longer than other poinsettias I've had!

Back soon, with Happy Photos
Sue

PS Co-incidentally, just after writing this, I came across the following on this months Home Farmer email

Care of Poinsettias

These are tropical plants so don’t leave them in a cold car when you’ve bought it whilst you do other shopping. Get it home immediately.
Place in a well-lit area near a window. It needs bright, indirect light for at least 6 hours a day.
Bright direct sun will fade the red leaves.
Avoid drafts and try to keep a regular temperature of 65-70⁰
The most common cause of fatality is over watering. Only water when dry and do not let them sit in water as this encourages mold and moss.
You do not need to feed your plant when in bloom. Once it’s finished blooming water sparingly and feed once a month

Just One Tradition

Just one Christmas Tradition here............... there has to be a copy of the Radio Times in the house ( as they would say on the Beeb......other TV. listings magazines are available................ but not as good!)

As soon as I spot it in the shops it comes home to be examined closely.

I'm always hopeful that there will be some gems among the repeats.

A quick glance through and this is what I spotted

The Strictly Come Dancing Final

Wild Tales From The Village

Call The Midwife

The Christmas Countryfile

A new Midsummer Murders

10 episodes of special alumni editions of University Challenge

The series finals of Countdown

Kirsties Handmade Christmas 

Countrywise

New series of Father Brown

Carols from Kings

Still Open All Hours

Jonathon Creek

Guy Martin Cycling Home for Christmas

 Of course some clash........... typical.........no clever recording type TV here, and some I shall probably miss as we will be out visiting.

From this you will see I like crime and quizzes and have the attention span of a gnat as almost  nothing here is longer than an hour!

Back Soon

Sue

The Christmas Post

All my cards are now winging their way around the country, Bath, Chesterfield, Colchester and other places in Essex, A windy Scottish island, Manchester, Birmingham and some closer to home in Suffolk too.

The very  local cards have gone in here

 How lucky we are to be able to post something and know that it will arrive ( usually anyway) and even if postage costs have gone up a lot it's still nice to send cards once a year.
 Some have arrived from various places too and a mystery parcel from the windy island .......thank you W 😊.

We went to see Col's cancer nurse specialist yesterday to find out what to expect next.
She said that Colin carries on with the tablets and once a week blood tests until early March, he may feel well, or if the Lymphoma increases too quickly he might not. Then he has another bone marrow sample.After that they decide when to do the donor stem cell transplant, which will take place at Addenbrookes hospital and he might need to be in for 5 - 8 weeks! .......Oh good grief! I see I will get to know the awful A14 between Stowmarket and Cambridge very well indeed.
 Seems to me only one thing is certain about this type of cancer............no one really knows exactly what's going to happen and when. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, keep calm and carry on!

Oh BTW do you remember that lovely NECKLACE which I said would need  altering with a shorter chain? Well Col had a brainwave and looked through the necklaces hanging in the charity shop, found one with a suitable clasp and links, snipped the relevant bits off the charity shop chain, made the lovely necklace chain shorter and with the help of small pliers and a bright light, fixed on clasp......et Voila! Cost £1.
 I didn't marry him just for his pretty face!

Back Soonish
Sue