the twelve days of christmas.

one.
coal fires. every evening.

two.
lazy mornings involving hot coffee, wooly socks, bbc news breakfast show and watching nana knit.

three.
boxing day evening. little cousins, emily and chloe engage in interpretative dance to many christmas carols.

four.
playing uno with family.

emily was glued to my lap as team awesome (that's us) managed to win three rounds. we also strategised and caused a lot of problems for her brother, alex who sat next to us as we dropped many bombs of miss-your-turn, pick-up-two, and the odd pick-up-four. he wasn't impressed.

that's us. team awesome. that's alex. probably picking-up-two. aha. i'm not sure what the deal is with the hands. i just followed her lead. kids like when you do that. it builds confidence. it encourages imagination, and it validates them when you give them your undivided attention.

five.
i skyped with both sets of grandparents and my parents christmas day. it blew my mind a bit. my grandpa ended the call with one piece of advice for us all, and to our amusement nana repeated what she thought she heard, "hold your water, and what about your asshole?" oh we howled. them in canada. us in england. my nana's a bit deaf, you see. what my grandpa really said? "hold your water, and let your gas go".

six.
merry christmas to me from mom, dad, nana, grandma and grandpa. thank you for the gifts. they're exactly what i wanted. aha. so. this perfume is intoxicationinabottle. so. unbelievably...happy it makes me. sign this girl up. thanks for introducing us, sarah.

seven.
christmas day dinner.

complete with silly hats.

and my new favourite thing, mulled wine. who invited the goofball? goodness, i don't even recognise myself in this photo.

eight.
this bed. it's epic. it's like an abyss and it's heavenly.

nine.
the best of mr. bean. nana and i killed ourselves laughing. i've seen every episode a million times and i still laugh. i can be soooo english.

my fascination with this man is uncanny.

ten.
scrabble with nana. she always wins.

eleven.
story-time with nana - hayley, you know your dad told his teacher once he was "paul john" as i received a report from school one day with that written at the top. your dad explained to me, "well, my brother, stephen has a middle name, stephen richard...so i told my teacher i was "paul john". hayley, nana says, when you have two children, you should give the other child a middle name as well. i know now, but it is a bit late in the game.

of course, nana i said.

twelve.
rural english countryside walk to bagnall.

this is the pub my grandad and nana use to visit. grandad said, they always did a nice meal. we held the wake here after his funeral.

bagnall church. i walked a mile uphill and it kicked my ass, or maybe my thigh. the back of my right thigh stills hurts. but, its the good kind of hurt.

and because i'm a rebel, here's...

thirteen.
spontaneous pub meal with cousin laura. complete with tacky, flashy christmas decorations. it was english. i loved it.

beer and a burger. it's like the perfect marriage. geez, look at all those carbs. oh well.

we're like the sister we never had.