Dec 2008 b

Fri 19 Dec 2008
Tonight Steve left his work Xmas party and headed over to meet up with Jen for her work's BIG Xmas party - and it was a masked party!

Above: Jen went peacock themed, while Steve has a large-beaked mask which he received many many compliments on.


Above: one of many entertainment pieces at the party - this juggler balanced a spinning basin atop an umbrella, on his head.

Sat 20 Dec 2008
Steve drove off to Cardiff for the weekend, taking Dan and Elizabeth and Tom with him. They went and took part in a fighter practice there, and its nice to turn up and help out with training and merriment.
Meanwhile, Jen worked on Steve's purpoint for the weekend. Here it is pinned together before the quilting of the layers.


Mon 22 Dec 2008
Christmas shopping continues....

Tue 23 Dec 2008
...and just the last few things to be bought for Xmas. Jen was pleased to come across some real actual Mistletoe! It's now hanging between the lounge and dining rooms.

Wed 24 Dec 2008
Christmas Eve. In the morning Soph and Steve did lots of food shopping! Deb and Clancy arrived and stayed overnight. Late in the evening we made various calls to Australia, as relatives were already celebrating (time difference) and opening pressies. Here's Jen's family Xmas shot....


Above: we heard and now saw that our niece Alex enjoyed her colourful jigsaw, made up of her name.

Thu 25 Dec 2008
Christmas Day! This morning saw the usual frenzy of unwrapping...
Below: Soph loved the new high heels.


Above: Steve in happy horror at the "Arkham Horror" boardgame he had wanted for Christmas last year.
Below: Jen with and wearing her booty (scarves, heated footwear, handbag, W&N oils, tang). We also discovered that Deb and Clancy can get "Tang" at their Commissary store.

Present unwrapping over, it was time for cooking and FOOD. Game hens, roast veg, pork, sauces, pineapple, cheesy potato-bake etc etc! Yum! Lunch courtesy of Soph and Steve, dinner thanks to Deb and Clancy.

Later in the evening Jenni B came over and joined us all for another gift exchange and dinner :-)


Fri 26 Dec 2008
In the afternoon, Jen and Steve flew off to Geneva. Well, the flight was cancelled, so instead of arriving at a decent time like about 7:30pm, it was two flights (via Zurich) rather than direct, and we touched down around 11:30pm. At least we didn't have to pay extra for the re-booked flights.

Sat 27 Dec 2008
Kiriel drove Terry and us, to Chateau de Chillon - famously written about by Lord Byron. It was a really fantastic castle sat on a rocky outcrop near the edge of Lake Geneva. Would LOVE to have an SCA event there!


Unfortunately at this point, the camera ran out of battery power, and Kiriel ran into the gift shop and got us a disposable film one. Using it, here's a view of the lake from the Chateau's bridge.


Above: a bit hard to see, but there were heaps of turnings and passageways to explore.


Above: the best shot from the disposable camera - the view facing north and west, along the shoreline.
In the evening Kiriel drove us to a wonderful modern bath-house come spa centre, where we swam about in lovely warm water, lazed in the bubble-jet area, the sauna, and swam round and round the whirlpool, etc. Terrific!

Sun 28 Dec 2008
Today we spelt in terribly late again (ahhhh holidays) and visited a town market in France. It was pretty darn cold (-3C) , and we stopped into a cafe for lunch and hot chocolate at the end.
Back at home in Geneva in the evening, Kiriel introduced us to the TV show The Tudors.

Mon 29 Dec 2008
A relaxing day. Kiriel took Steve to the big Spice Shop on the other side of town.
In the evening we had a cheesy fondue for dinner before being dropped off at the airport. This time thankfully the flight was straight forward.

Tue 30 Dec 2008
Today was the great Lord-of-the-Rings-athon! Extended DVDs, all three movies played back to back. Not for the faint-hearted! Here's a photo Nick took of Steve with his hair up - how cute!


Wed 31 Dec 2008
Steve and Soph did lots of food shopping day for tomorrow's New Years Day party which we run every year. We welcomed in the New Year at a cosy party at Nick and Jenny's place (William & Edith).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!