Our enforced deadline worked and we got there in the end with our sitting room.
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This was Christmas eve morning (three coats of floor varnish, just dry).
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But by the time Santa had delivered the presents we'd got furniture in and a tree up (thanks to lots of help from Hugh's brother and sister-in-law). Even if we were putting curtains up at 1am on Christmas morning.
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It's been hectic, beef wellington, turkey, ham (a yummy Jamie ham recipe), we didn't even get around to Christmas pudding, mainly thanks to Hugh's brother cooking a fab alternative lemon and passion fruit roulade pudding from Nigel Slater, and mountains of cheese and mince pies.
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Coco trying out a new Christmas present while wearing her (pretty hideous) Cinderella dress... I put aside my taste for a while for her present, and she loved it, insisting on wearing it everyday. My mum got her some pink glitter shoes which have been equally popular.
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There's a lot of my sister's Christmas cake left...
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Snowflake decorations... very similar to Anabelle's.
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We've got to an age where we receive lots of edible gifts...
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A basket of opened presents waiting to be put away... including Hugh's new Rhino head to add to the collection (a present to him that really I wanted, cheeky, I know).
I didn't take nearly enough photos, (didn't get any of my hand-made crackers, or presents being opened). Hosting Christmas is hard work. Respect to all the old hands out there. It was wonderful to be able to do it though and to have our house full of family for four days.
Hope you all had a great time.