Christmas Time

Merry Christmas one and all. We've had a good time so far. Before the holiday actually arrives we have a European Market on in Manchester, which is famed for its bratwurst and gluwein. So here's Annie, smiling away whilst she munches on her sausage!

Manda and Colin were kind enough to invite us to feast with them on the 25th, so we were wonderfully fed and really enjoyed our day. Over here, Christmas dinner is much like Thanksgiving over there, in that it features a turkey and then some very traditional trimmings. Manda excelled herself in the kitchen and they also have a very fine wine waiter at that house ;-)

I joined Manchester Community Choir in September and this is one reason for less blog-time since then. Despite such an obvious drawback, the choir is really good fun and I love to sing (I think you knew that already). I've taken part in two gigs with the choir, over the holidays. Firstly we went and busked in the streets of Chorlton, to raise money for the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture and then we sang at a Christmas Party for asylum seekers. Annie came along to the first gig, and so here's a picture. We must be doing the reindeer calling song at this point as Liz, the conductor, has her special hat on!

We've had some winter weather too, which is pretty unusual over here. Snow arrived a few days before Christmas and actually hung around for a bit too. It has almost cleared now, but we have more forecast - amazing for us - and not terribly good news as the country is generally poor at coping!

However, Annie and Millie and I had a nice walk around the field over the road in the snow, with Annie safely on her "buggy".

My sister and niece are currently on a train heading north to visit us, so I need to get moving now and fix some good stuff for tonight. However, I'll be back soon :-)