[Edit: And danke to the other sundry Germans who helped get me this t-shirt. It's much appreciated, even if it isn't sweaty.]

You may consider this my recommendation.

Amongst other things I got stripy zebra cow pants, tomes of Judge Dredd, pink fluffy slippers, jelly beans, and a turquoise, skinny-fit, sequined Rebok girl’s t-shirt. Hmmm. Oh, and Pete got a bread maker.

We went to Alan’s and played Formula D and felt immensely geeky. Rosie turned up and we drank beer and ate chocolate. Lizzy wandered over and gave us a pooing penguin. We spent a day in Sheffield and did the family-thing and made my mother happy. It did involve getting fed another turkey dinner though so it wasn’t all bad. And Pete’s dad came down and took us for a meal.

And in between all this we did a spot of shopping. And now, finally, we’ve got carpets. Huzzah! They’re wonderful. No more clunky floorboards, no more howling gales, no more clumping elephant noises as Pete walks around upstairs. Just warm, cushiony goodness. And rather an excess of fluff.

And also rather an excess of off-cuts. So if anyone’s in the market for a bit of stuff to put in their boot, or stick in the shed or something, please see me.

And then Pete buggered off to work, affording me the opportunity of snuggling up with Dini and a blanket on the sofa and cracking on with my book. Which took up most of the day. I cooked little sausage rolls, and ate little sausage rolls, and generally lounged about the place. I even managed to quell my lethargy-guilt by doing the washing up and tidying a bit before collapsing back underneath my book.

And then Pete came home and we watched The Polar Express which was really, really good and slighty creepy (Pete enjoyed the Steven Tyler elf). As it was officially Christmas we decided to forego eating properly and sat down with festive nibbles (including more little sausage rolls, and cheese and biscuits, naturally) in front of Muppet Christmas Carol. We did our usual sing-along, with a few “God bless us, every one”s and a couple of “Fah la-laa”s. And we all got a special treat of smoked salmon. Dini, especially, was rather pleased.

Next, I purged the last of my bah-humbugginess by taking a present round to the nice next door neighbours. In return we got a visit from their cat, Torty. And on the way home we got to overhear the shitty next door neighbours having yet another fight out in the street. Something about people shouting through letter boxes and knocking on doors. Who knows.