Christmas 2010

We had the usual mayhem on Christmas morning opening presents:

Followed by Wii mayhem later on - Dad trying to ski Wii-style:

Mum trying to dance like Michael Jackson:

And here are a few pics:

New Rug

We ordered this rug on line a week ago, after finding that it was around half the price of an identical one from our local rug shop! It came from a place in Pineville North Carolina and I tracked its progress on line to Indianapolis, Memphis, Paris, Leicester and then Leicestershire! It arrived yesterday and it's fab. It's absolutely enormous (18'9" x 12'2") and almost as heavy as me. Joe and Elaine did the "penguin" to get rid of the rucks and rolls.

Judo Competition

Joe and I left early this morning for a Judo competition at the University of Wolverhampton in Walsall. Joe had three fights. He lost the first one by a whisker (he had been one point up with 10 seconds to go when his opponent landed a throw!); he won the second and the third. The vidoe is the climax to his third fight.

He walked away with a well deserved silver medal.

Christmas Tree

Got our Christmas tree today and put up a few decorations. This is the best way of putting the angel on top! Realised that we need to buy some more decorations to fill our enormous mansion! But we do have a holly bush with some berries in the garden, so will take a few clippings from that tomorrow.

November Snow

We woke to a good covering of snow this morning. The chickens were very confused, as they've not seen it before. They have been making a lot more use of their perching points today, though, and soon got the hang of hopping onto the bale of straw that we picked up for them today.

This afternoon we took the sledge and went in search of likely looking slopes in Burton Lazars. Not really enough for a good run, but there is more on the way apparently.

There are a couple of videos in the album -so you will need to click through to see them.

Ragdale Hall

Elaine finally managed to drag me to Ragdale Hall today, kicking and squealing, for my birthday treat and I loved it! It was actually a freebie for me, which helped, as Elaine entered me for a competition in the Melton Times for Father's Day earlier in the year and I won it!

We pottered around the spa area to start with, relaxing in the various pools and rooms. The Volcano was my favourite. I did a bit of exercise in the gym and some swimming (Elaine did her regular half a mile in the pool). Lunch was pretty fab, although teetotal!

We had treatments in the afternoon called "Refresh and Revive". I started off with a back massage and then a facial (including my shoulders and head!). It was great - really relaxing. I ended up smelling very nice and looking about 25 (well alright, feeling about 25).

All in all a very nice day. Not sure I would want to pay full whack for it though!

Cousins

Just realised that I had this one on my phone. What a great picture - better late than never!