Be Excellent To Each Other

Pacman pie

We were given Christmas Eve as a bonus day of leave, this year.

I'm going to make the biscuit case and the banoffee filling, then I'll do the vanilla cream topping just before I serve it.

My little doggie has been poorly since yesterday so I'll probably just spend Christmas cuddling him under a blanket.

Well, got the family "duty visit" out of the way, so short of dinner at the father-in-laws tomorrow, I'll be cooking our Christmas dinner on Boxing Day, then at a friends party in the evening. The rest of the time is ours, so a stack of DVDs, several bottles of wine and that is about it.

Inevitably I'll end up doing Mrs Ps tax return at some point - joys of being self-employed! Oh, and reading a lot of SharePoint manuals.

My youngest two are showing signs of being under the weather, I'm hoping they are going to be better by the morning as the youngest one is really weepy because of it at the moment.



Malc

Doc G (Anonymous X) do either of you (and your partners) have one of these on your tree?



It's a glass pickle. It's supposed to be an American tradition (perhaps) via Germany (though the second bit seems debatable).

I'm really glad you explained what that was, because I was seeing something completely different.

What? If you mean you thought it looked like a penis then I think you are well overdue a trip to a doctor.

Heh.

Not a penis, no, but I've seen plenty of, erm, things for a similar purpose that looked not too dissimilar to that pickle.

Eh?

He's talking about a dildo.

Malc

That would be a bit of a weird shape, wouldn't it?

Anyway, it's a pickle.

I have 18 beers and 2 bottles of bubbly in the fridge. This is going to be the drunkest/strangest christmas ever.
Followed by the worst day at work ever.

Yes, there are a lot of very weird shaped sex toys around, even just on the Ann Summers website. I'm told.



I'll take your word for it.

Really pleased to hear Mrs Grim... is feeling better, matey. Yay! Hope everyone here has a super-awesome Christmas.

Well, still in work but I get off at half three. Then it's a slow train up to Yerkshire, I think I'll be watching some DVD's on it or playing XCOM on the way. Hopefully I'll get back by five past eight, but who knows, right?

Christmas Day I'll be spending with mum and dad and then Boxing Day the more extended family. My sister won't be up sadly as she's working, NHS is a cruel mistress. Also, the beloved dog Chester won't be around having died two months ago. It'll feel odd without him and his shake-paw obsession. Miss him. *Sniff*

And the day after Boxing Day I'll hopefully meet up with my friends J'Atkinson and Jess before catching the train back down to the 'diff. So just a short break. Tchaw.

Wonder what my parents have got me? It's a complete mystery. I confidently predict a Hassleblad system camera with Zeiss 80mm 2.8mm lens.

THEY'RE HOW MUCH!?

It's Christmas Eve and I still haven't heard Slade, The Darkness or Jona Lewie.

EDIT: Or Lennon, come to think of it.

Yes, we do. It's an American-German tradition, rather than a German one, IYSWIM. Danielle's family are roughly three-fourths of German descent.

As always (and very inconveniently) Mrs B went down to her family in Ayr this evening and will be there for the next few days due to public transport inadequacies. And for my part I'll be in Fucking Stewarton (it's official name!) for a few hours tomorrow to see my folks. Boxing Day will be our first time back together (after tonight) at which point we'll hit our local (and contender for Best Pub In the World) The Clockwork Beer Company and get joyously drunk as hell. It'll be pretty damn sweet.

Please note for anyone that's bothered to Google it: the website is awful, but the pub itself is wonderful.

On the upside:

• Mrs B's lovely and excellent gran is coming to Scotland for only the second time in her entire life next week and both families are lined up to have an excellent night when she's up. She'll also get to meet our cats and see out flat and generally get a sense of our life together which she's never had and which we're both hoping will result in her coming up to Scotland more often. Which isn't to say that the delights of Cardiff's City Arms aren't tempting after our last visit, but it'd still be nice not to have to leave home.
• Mrs B's mum has embraced the fun things in life after a really shitty last year so her few days in Ayr is more likely to be 'Prosecco and laughing' as opposed to last year's 'weeping and commiserations'.
• My parents have already handed over their present to us both and it's a massive voucher for the best restaurant in Glasgow; The Ubiquitous Chip. Some delicious shit lurks in our future!
• After leaving work early today we had a few hours in the pub with a couple of our favourite workmates setting the world to rights which was very nice indeed.
• All the presents we got for my family are excellent and beaming happy faces are guaranteed when we hand them over (me in person and Mrs B via Skype) tomorrow which I'm very much looking forward to. My mum and niece's laptops especially I think will be well received, although my dad is going to stoically love his Jacksons tickets I reckon. Giving presents is just fucking ace!

Man, I fucking love everything about Christmas. Who's with me?

o/

Both of my kids have colds, so odds-on I'll wake up tomorrow feeling like crap.

Really pleased to hear that Mrs Grim... has improved.

Hope you can all sleep tonight!

Squeee!

Hotel Choc Xmas write-off bag Free choccy!

My brother has just told me that he (again) bought a huge lump of Havarti cheese.

This means he will be giving me sizable chunk to take home with me tomorrow

The last bit he gave me stayed in the freezer for a year and I bought it out last Christmas, tasted great was the most popular cheese I had.

I'll have some of that, Bamba

\o

Yay Bamba \o

I'll join with Bamba & the Christmas is pure gid brigade



Been excited since I woke up for no real reason other than it's fucking Christmas tomorrow *and* I got to save it for people at work this morning

You saved Christmas? Well done, that man!

\
WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

Quiet one for us.

Collecting Chloe at 11am, was supposed to be having her here for lunch and dropping her back off at 3pm, but Lisa has decided she doesn't want to spend Christmas day on her own so only wants me to have her for a couple of hours now so she doesn't even get to stay for dinner.

Sam will go around his Dad's after lunch and Darryl is in Afghanistan so it will just be me, Joans, leftovers, alcohol and the telly/x-box. Terrible.

That was the weirdest christmas ever. We got a good spread of food. Which was nice, but at one point we had a guy feeding a possum shrooms.

nickachu's Christmas: