We had a houseful - both our daughters, our son and his girlfriend and her little girl (3) and then yesterday Tam's partner. Our big cats (brothers Alfie and Little Whale) promptly left the premises and have only been tempted to come in and stay longer than a second, this afternoon. They are nervy of strangers anyway, and had even forgotten Danny and Gabby and the fact that there was an excited child in the house wrecked their nerves. They would only come in very last thing at night when she had gone to bed. Even Ghengis was getting fed up of being "fussed" by Christmas evening, and the kittens were quite subdued too, although bless her, little "I" was very good with the kittens, and gentle, but they found the noise levels a bit overwhelming.
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and for followers in America and Canada, stay safe - I hope that you were caught out in or by the snow or had power failures. Rather hoping it doesn't head this way next too.
I had some lovely gifts for Christmas, including these books:
When I asked for the Church Monuments book I didn't realize it was so heavy - or SO expensive - I was spoilt! Gosh, SOME of the monuments (many of them in fact) must have cost a king's ransom to sculpt and build. The Pictish book is good as so much has changed in the archaeological excavations and research since I was studying and writing my Pictish-orientated dissertation. Currently reading about excavations around the Rhynie Man stone.
The one on the left is brilliant too - never knew of its existence, but I love the fact that the places included in it are known to me - some very well in fact. The other book is old but has some fascinating facts in - did you know that Gingerbread men/women/LGBQ began as Yule Dolls? Nope, neither did I. Or that Oranges and Lemons was originally sung as part of the 12th Night Celebrations? I can remember it as a Playground song -we'd form an arch and sing it and children ran through, hoping not to be the ones to be caught when we sang "And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!!" and the arms forming the arch would come down and capture the victim. Anyone else remember that? I never knew it dated back to Medieval times.
I have to say it's nice to have a quiet house again, and I don't have to be watching the kittens' backs, so to speak. Those two are currently absolutely out for the count on kitchen chairs. They slept with the big boys last night for the first time - having been separated into two different rooms before.
Things have quietened down today and we just have Tam and her partner here, so the Big Boys have come in for food and realized it's ok for them now.
Life should be back more or less to normal tomorrow, and we will have to be in touch with the GP again as Keith has been bad at night.
