Christmas comes but once a year

Well here we again, what? Another Christmas over all too quickly and the year fast waning. I hope you all had a marvelous time, whatever you did and wherever you were. Christmas and Boxing Day were spent at the old family abode with just a small gathering of my nearest and dearest. Next year is lining up to be quite a busy one almost straight from the off, with many good (and, on the face of it, less good but necessary) things planned, all of which will hopefully conspire to make 2011 a far better year than this one but which meant that a full-blown family Christmas wasn't on the cards. Still, I have high hopes for next year - 11 is my favourite number, after all! - and it is my wish that we will all have happier times ahead.

To return to a lighter note, despite being a rather subdued affair over rather suddenly it wasn't a bad Christmas. Although we didn't have turkey this year again (lamb last year, beef & ham this) I was able to introduce a pheasant to the table for the second year running to add a bit of vintage fare to proceedings. This year mater discovered the delights of close-harmony female vocal groups so one of her presents included CDs by The Andrews Sisters and The Puppini Sisters (or, as she will keep calling them, the Panini Sisters!) so maybe I'm finally starting to rub off on her a bit! They provided a great soundtrack to the day along with the selection of recently posted vintage Christmas tunes (which even had my nan bopping away as best she could!). Needless to say I borrowed the CDs immediately to pop on my own iPod so they were almost a joint present in a way.

Here you can see my little haul of gifts which included some lovely surprises - a vintage Christmas card (above) and some silk pocket squares from my aunt in America, a Lancaster bomber calendar and a print of the map of my home town 200 years ago from one of my sisters. CDs of one of my favourite [modern] artists, Bruce Hornsby, and Caro Emerald - a recent discovery I've mentioned before. A DVD box set of one of my favourite Fifties TV programmes - The Phil Silvers Show, starring the inimitable Phil Silvers as M/Sgt. Ernest G. Bilko, and a Steampunkesque computer game round it out. I shall be entertained for some time to come, methinks!

As I look forward to a quiet New Year's Eve in, I wish you all a happy and healthy 2011 and look forward to another year in Blogland. For now, tinkerty-tonk!