Festive This-n-That

For those of you interested in our musical Christmas crackers, here they are.  Along with the obligatory paper hat, joke and prize there is a horn with a number on its base.  Two pages of song sheets with a sequence of numbers will allow you and eleven of your friends to form your own musical group.  Or perhaps decrypt Enigma code.  Since six of the crackers are still intact we either have to pop the rest or wait until next year.  The Heiress has her eye on the heart-shaped pocket mirror as yet undiscovered so something tells me that tonight there will be some tooting going on...so to speak.

R was quite excited to find a copy of Blitz Spirit compiled by Jacqueline Mitchell for me.  Love the cover art but am wondering about Winston's 'whiskers'.  The Heiress gave me a copy of Blaming by Elizabeth Taylor which I am in the process of devouring.  A gift to myself, The Queen's Doll's House by Lucinda Lambton arrived in our mailbox today, I can't wait to sit down with a cup of tea and pour over every little thing...literally!  The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph were also courtesy of R, although he wrote on the gift tag that they were from Norris from The Kabin on Coronation Street.  It's a funny game we like to play at Christmas, tying in our gifts to characters from just about everything.  Too bad I couldn't jet over to England to collect my free Waitrose luxury biscuits though!

And this massive bowl of trifle is what R and I got up to this afternoon.  Making it, not eating it!  Quite ridiculous for the three of us, we may have to recruit friends to share it with.  We laughed after realizing that R had been feeding some of the leftover cake to Deacon that had been drizzled with sherry.  Not to worry, no harm done.  And really, a sleepy Border Collie wouldn't be all bad.

R and I have also had the pleasure of taking in two movies over the past few days.  The King's Speech was absolutely charming, the ultimate cosy film.  Colin Firth, Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush were a delightful acting trinity.  The Black Swan was both unsettling and outstanding.  You either sink back in fear or edge forward with anticipation during this one.  An Oscar nod will undoubtedly go to Portman, she was stunning.

In the last few hours of 2010, have a wonderful time celebrating in your favourite way.  We're going to indulge in a few thousand more calories before coming to our senses tomorrow.  Aren't the holidays fun!