Merry Christmas

Today has been nice. It is perhaps one of the first Christmas's where we have had fewer people than usual. We are at a stage now where a lot of the kids have their own families and some have even moved to Wales and more are expected to this year. So we had only 7 for Christmas dinner, which is definitely low for us. In the past it has been way more, and even local ice hockey players at the table!

So it is strange in some ways, and a quieter Christmas. Needless to say we had several people visit anyway. I suspect next year will be similar, we will see.

Even so, this is the sort of visitors we had :-) Seriously, I googled, No results found for "chocolate orange gun" - this must be a world first!


And lots of presents from the kids, and some friends, thank you all. Lewis had a lovely time here in the Bracknell, and I know Bobby had a great time in Wales. Sandra got loads of Harry Potter stuff which was nice.

I now have a Phaser to go with my Communicator. Impressive. Lewis likes it too :-)

It is actually a TV remote which I have yet to program successfully. As a Phaser it is pretty impressive as it managed to give me an instant migraine. Nearly the only downer on the day for an hour or so. Well, hard to be sure it was the phaser, but not had one for many months until today.

I got many other things too, thanks all.

I also got an electrical muscle stimulation foot device to try to improve circulation, and to help with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Sounds good, and listed as suitable for diabetics. Thanks to my lovely wife. Looking on the internet it sounds like this may be beneficial and not bullshit. I will see. What is good is you can feel what it is doing, and it is plausible that it could help, so I really hope so.

My real present to myself is actually a work thing, an new Mac for my work from my home office, but sadly the Santra tracker has stopped for now in Germany :-)

Obviously not Santa, and actually UPS. The irony is that if it were not a bank holiday for Christmas I would have got it today, but instead I have to wait for Wednesday. I'll no doubt do a post on that when I have had a chance to play with it.

However, I do have to say how impressed I am with my wife, as always. She puts a lot in the Christmas, even if not so many for Christmas dinner this year. She spends weeks, or months, planning.

She did a lovely dinner, and lovely trifle and desserts.

She really takes everything very seriously and thinks of everyone else, especially at Christmas.

I may have many technical skills, but she excels at what is needed for food and hospitality and presents at Christmas.

Obviously she deserves to wear the tiara all the time :-)

It is a shame when people mess up plans a bit, but she copes.

Of all the daft things to do on Christmas day -  I actually ordered a load of bootlace crimp ferrules and a crimp tool to come this week. I plan to try them out on an alarm system. I hear good things, and I'll post more on that, i.e. whether more or less hassle than not using them. Given how frustrating I found wires and screw terminals last time (even good ones) are, I am thinking these will be good.

I also watched Dr Who, and opened presents in Ironforge, just for fun. I have a quiet week to follow.

Oh, I also dropped the sofa bed on my finger. That is not looking good, and I expect that will be painful for many days. My own bloody fault. Why the electrocution device has such a short lead is beyond me.