FRIENDSHIP, FOOD AND FUN...

...and in that order!  Apologies for a very late Blip from me today, but I knew that as we were going to friends for lunch and games that it would be late, but I told them that as long as I was home before midnight to do my Blip, that was fine!  I also knew that it would NOT be a Mono Monday Blip today, but I make no apology for that.

We had a wonderful time with Louise and her two daughters and they “pushed the boat out” and made us so welcome.  We had some great food and I have to say that Louise did make the best roasties we have tasted for a very long time - certainly better than the ones we had on my birthday at Blunsdon House Hotel - and SW rules went “out of the window” today, but sometimes it just has to be done and how could we/I be rude and refuse to eat the lovely food that was put in front of us?  

However, there were no mince pies, so I am still able to say that I haven’t had one mince pie this Christmas.  Mind you, I stopped counting when I saw the roasties, roast parsnips and then the sticky toffee pudding and ice cream and just the smallest smidgen of Christmas Pud!  

I did manage to take a selfie of us all, but should have used my selfie stick - in fact, Mr. HCB loses a point for not wearing his hat, although we did all wear our cracker glasses! You can see how pleased he was though, to find that there was a very large trifle and he was even happier when just he and Mia shared it!  

We exchanged Christmas gifts and there were lots of “oohs and ahhs” and we felt really loved and welcomed into their family, which is such a great feeling.  Even their little dog, Chops, was happy to “sniff us out” and I think gave his seal of approval!

After our meal, we played UNO and although Mr. HCB and I had never played it before, we did remarkably well - only Sophie didn’t win any games, but we have promised a re-match in the not-too-distant future to try and address that and I have already looked online to get the game for us so we can practise before then.  We have also promised that we will play Monopoly so that will please Mia - and Mr. HCB said that we will also teach them how to play with our 100 year old Bagatelle so we can’t wait to put another date in our diary.  We taught them the game we used to play many years ago, “Three Lives”, and Mr. HCB won that - but although Louise, Sophie and Mia had never played before, they did very well.

All in all, a wonderful day - we did get lost on the way home, but Mrs. Satnag soon put us right.  It’s the furthest Mr. HCB has driven at night for a long time, but he did very well and got us home safely and thankfully it wasn’t as foggy as it has been of late.

Hope you have all had as good a day as we have had - only one more day of 2024 to go - so hope the last day of the year will be one of good memories for you all and if not, then we hope you will look forward to 2025 with anticipation.  

With love and best wishes to you from Mr. & Mrs. HCB xxx

P.S. Almost forgot to mention the Christmas slippers that Mia was wearing - I would have put them into my bag to bring home, but they were all watching!! ;-)