elisi: (Christmas tree by killcolor)
elisi ([personal profile] elisi) wrote2015-12-31 06:09 pm
Entry tags:

Christmas post.

Overall, then we had a lovely Christmas. We always do it in stages. Christmas Eve we are usually just us 5, more-or-less following my Scandinavian (Danish) traditions & we do the present thing from us and my side of the family. Christmas morning the girls get stockings (from 'Santa') and then, after mass, we go round to my in-laws for Christmas #2 with Darcy's family.

Usually Darcy goes to midnight mass (as he's in the choir) but this year wasn't feeling up to it, so we all went on Christmas Day. And none of us thought to think to check the time, just defaulting to 'Mass is always at 11' which is true on Sundays. But not, as it turns out, Christmas.

We arrived a few minutes past 11 (don't get me started on how we're always late, by now I've basically given up on ever making them be on time), and though 'Hang on, why does it look like everyone's leaving? Wait... Was mass at 10???'

Yes. Yes it was.

(Although, as Miss M remarked - we'd be the family that always goes to church - except for Christmas!)

Not that we were the only ones to have gotten the time wrong, we were a nice little handful.

And then our parish priests displayed the mostest Christmas spirit ever, and said mass just for us. <3 We were about 20, maybe, and it was just the loveliest mass ever. :)

Then there was family time, which was also great. As we don't exactly have a lot of money at the moment, we went for cheap & cheerful when it came to all the nephews & nieces - they're all young, so we bought a load of chocolate Santas. As it turned out, this was a brilliant idea. Three days later, littlest niece STILL thinks her chocolate Santa was her best present!

We watched Doctor Who (of course) which was utterly delightful, and then Strictly, which proved that however cheesy you thought Doctor Who was, Strictly could outdo it within the first five minutes.

We had to go back to the inlaws both Boxing Day, and the day after, to help eat left overs! (Not that this was a chore in any way. Love my inlaws.)

I decided to skip Dickensian (there's what, 20 episodes???), but And Then There Were None looked at treat, and it was. Say what you will about Agatha Christie, she writes good female characters. And dayum, Aidan Turner as the designated eye candy did not go unnoticed. Of course he's also an excellent actor, but if the script calls for him to drape himself in doorways, with only a very low-slung towel around his hips, I'm not going to complain. General verdict: BBC Christmas telly at its finest. Hereby recommended.

Oh and my mother-in-law got the 'board' game of Countdown for Christmas, which people of course played. The Cherub's main contributions: 1) When having it explained how - if there was an 'S' you could add it to the end of a word to make it longer, and get a higher score that way - she scanned the available letters, and happily declared: 'Twats!' (*sigh*) 2) Knowing full well that you can only make a single word, she still made 'DOG IN KOMA'. I think they gave her the points out of amusement.

The most 'interesting' Christmas present - well the only one I'm going to talk about - is the kitchen tap. Our kitchen tap has been dripping for... far longer than I care to think about, but taps aren't cheap, so we asked for one for Christmas. And a few days ago Darcy tackled the whole thing (very complicated, there were also issues with the stop tap etc. etc.) - and it was a great success. Kitchen has been improved just generally (various things that needed fixing) and no more drips. The only one that's not happy is... the cat.

See, a dripping tap is basically like a hamster water bottle, but for a cat. It was his own private drinking fountain, and now, all of a sudden, it's GONE. He spent a day or so jumping up onto the worktop, trying to get his head around the new tap, trying to get water out of it, but nothing happened. Result: He's sulking. Like, properly, seriously genuinely sulking. It's HILARIOUS. If he were a teenager he'd be locked up in his room listening to My Chemical Romance and dying his hair black, occasionally shouting about how we all HATE him! Since he can't do that, he just mopes, continually, sitting curled up in awkward spots and feeling sorry for himself.

Otherwise we've slowly been catching up on The Bridge (2 episodes left! If you spoil me, I will never talk to you again!) and oh god, Saga keeps breaking my heart. And it's so well written, I can't even.

This afternoon, however, we watched The Age of Ultron. There were some funny lines, and a LOT of fighting. (I think I may have had my fill of superhero movies. SO MUCH FIGHTING... It gets so dull.) The Romanoff stuff was - if possible - even more offensive than I'd gathered beforehand. Seriously Joss? You thought THAT was an acceptable line? Anyway. We shall be watching Mad Max: Fury Road tonight. I think that'll be a nice palate cleaner.

Oh, not sure if I ever mentioned it, but I ADORED Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We watched it the weekend before Christmas.

What else? Looking forward to Sherlock tomorrow, obviously. There's probably more, but one of Darcy's friends has come over for New Year's so I should probably go be sociable.


Wishing you all the best for 2016!!! Dunno what I'd do without you. I'm terrible at commenting, and even worse at writing about my own life, so I hope this makes up for things a little... ♥
debris4spike: (Eternal love)

[personal profile] debris4spike 2015-12-31 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Our Church doesn't have a Christmas Day service, but the Sunday after Christmas they always change the time of that service .... just to keep us all on our toes, I think!!

Happy New Year
jerusha: (Default)

[personal profile] jerusha 2015-12-31 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I really want to watch Age of Ultron again, but I think I'll probably fast forward through that scene. I'm feeling very sensitive to that particular issue at the moment, and I don't think I can deal with it.

Glad you had a good Christmas!
promethia_tenk: (love)

[personal profile] promethia_tenk 2015-12-31 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh god, the cat! *snort*

Merry Christmas again <3

[identity profile] verdande-mi.livejournal.com 2015-12-31 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad to hear you've had a good Christmas with family :)

I enjoyed Doctor Who too, and I loved Star Wars, and I am so ready for Sherlock <3

Happy New Year!

[identity profile] ragnarok-08.livejournal.com 2015-12-31 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like you had a lovely Christmas :)

[identity profile] greensword.livejournal.com 2015-12-31 11:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy holidays! I too am sick of fighting in movies. What I really love watching is interpersonal conflict, and while sometimes that can lead to some interesting physical fights, more often it ends up being the barest justification for some Punching! And! Explosions! Bleh.

Which brings up the question: what physical fight scenes *have* you liked? I have to say there are some Buffy the Vampire Slayer fights I really enjoyed, perhaps most iconically the Buffy/Angel fight at the end of Season 2.

I am also looking forward to Sherlock! Although I am frustrated that BBC America sticks commercials in everything... I have only watched Sherlock before through Netflix and I worry that having commercials will diminish the experience.

[identity profile] greensword.livejournal.com 2016-01-03 04:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Mostly though, then why does saving the world mean punching so many people? /rhetorical question

Yeah, let me see people save the world through creativity and cleverness any day. :)

I hope you found a way to watch it advert free.

I did! It was on PBS, not BBC America - the latter has commercials, but the former doesn't. The stream did give out a couple times, which was frustrating, but luckily not during any particularly tense bits.

[identity profile] geekslave.livejournal.com 2016-01-01 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like you had a good Christmas! That was nice they had mass for those that missed it.

LMAO at your cat's sulking.

Happy New Year! Hope 2016 is great for you and your family!

Stacey

[identity profile] geekslave.livejournal.com 2016-01-04 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

Glad your cat is starting to get over it. :)

Stacey

[identity profile] geekslave.livejournal.com 2016-01-05 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
Awesome! :)

Stacey
desdemonaspace: (Orange Kaylee by Eyesthatslay)

[personal profile] desdemonaspace 2016-01-01 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I so get the "cats love a drippy faucet" scenario. Mine is forever conning me to turn mine on, which I than forget, and there goes my water bill...

Happy New Year to you and yours, Elisi.
thisbluespirit: (dw - amy)

[personal profile] thisbluespirit 2016-01-01 12:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you had a good Christmas! And here's wishing you all the best for 2016, too! ♥

[identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com 2016-01-01 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohhh, Sherlock!! SO EXCITED!!!

I think I love your priests! How awesome is that?!?! That is just....wonderful! I hope they enjoyed doing that extra service for you all. Bless them.

Sounds like you had a marvelous Christmas. As it should be.

(and chocolate Santas ARE the best prezzies ever! And so are boxes. And wrapping paper. :D)

*HUGS*
double_dutchess: (Driving Home for Christmas)

[personal profile] double_dutchess 2016-01-02 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds like you had a lovely Christmas. I hope you will have a wonderful new year as well! I see a lot of turning on the tap for the cat in your future in 2016... :-)
sea_thoughts: Ruby in *The Legend of Ruby Sunday* (Christmas - ibroughtuflours)

[personal profile] sea_thoughts 2016-01-02 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
And then our parish priests displayed the mostest Christmas spirit ever, and said mass just for us. <3 We were about 20, maybe, and it was just the loveliest mass ever. :)

Awww, yay! That was lovely of them.

Loved The Force Awakens. LOVED IT.

[identity profile] flowsoffire.livejournal.com 2016-01-02 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Happy new year and here's to a lovely 2016! :) Yay for nice family holidays—and haha, that stuff about your cat is adorable :D

[identity profile] flowsoffire.livejournal.com 2016-01-04 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
And not being disrupted!