Lovely Family Sunday

I've had a lovely day with three-fifths of my children plus their significant others. Unfortunately DS1 had to work and DD1 and her wife couldn't make it here from Basingstoke today.

Thankfully I'd done most of the preparation yesterday so that everything just had to be reheated. We had chicken, pork, gammon, pigs in blankets, sage and onion sausagemeat stuffing, roast spuds, parsnips, shallots, Chantenay carrots, whole green beans, sprouts, cauliflower cheese, yorkshire puds and gravy...plus a Quorn roast, vege sausages, vege stuffing etc for DD2. Dessert was cheesecake, strawberry gateau, mince pies and Xmas pud...although the pud didn't get eaten.

I left it all out buffet-style on the worktops in the kitchen for folk to help themselves so that the table wasn't overcrowded with dishes as well as people. All went extremely well and there's enough grub left over for several meals during the week.

I'm thankful that I did prepare everything in advance as this morning DD2, son-in-law, DD3, her fiance and I were at DD2's mother-in-law's as she (another Helen) is making the cake for DD3's wedding in July next year. This is the cake she made for DD2's wedding in May 2015

Complete with Batman for the comic book mad bride.

If DD3's fiance had his way the cake would be Stargate themed (and DD2 did consider it) but in the end she's gone for vintage rustic, similar to this one by Amy Swann.

Unlike with DD2's wedding I haven't had much to do for this wedding; they both know so many people who are giving them things/doing things for them such as DD3's hair, nails and makeup, printing the invitations, taking the photos etc. But I will be making my cupcakes, we've paid for the venue, wine etc. I'm really glad I didn't have to make the invitations; DD2 had 70 for her wedding, DD3 has over 100 coming to the ceremony plus the same number coming to the evening do.

I'm now relaxing with my third glass of wine (courtesy of a lovely little winery in the Loire Valley) and I might just have another mince pie in a moment.

Our American visitors seem to be enjoying themselves although they've mostly been out at night to our British pubs and clubs, still on US time I think so they're sleepy during the day and wide awake at night. They joined us for dinner and loved the idea of cauliflower cheese; they'd never had cauliflower with cheese sauce before.

I'll be seeing DD2 again on Tuesday before she and son-in-law return to Gloucester on Weds morning. They'll be popping in on DD1 on their way home and delivering our pressies for them. Hopefully we'll get to see DD1 in the new year.

No further news on our house move. The building society evaluation survey should have taken place on Weds but I haven't heard anything yet.  It's been such an intense few weeks that I'm quite happy for things to just coast along until after Xmas.

I had my docs appointment to discuss blood test results on Thursday and surprise, surprise my cholesterol is raised (as usual). He prescribed statins...again...that I won't take. The side effects I've read about sound horrible and I don't have any other precursors to heart disease. My weight is okay, blood pressure has always been fine, not diabetic, no history of heart troubles in my family, but he doesn't ever take that into account. I think he's one of those doctors who gets paid for each patient he prescribes statins for. I don't like taking medication for no good reason so I'm willing to take my chances. I intend to try and eat more healthily in the new year, anyway, so hopefully that should bring the cholesterol level down a bit.

On Friday I visited the dentist and had my filling replaced with a recommendation that I should see my regular dentist and enquire about having a crown as a more permanent topping to my broken tooth. I have a check up scheduled in January so will mention it then.

I think that's about it for now. Hope you've had a lovely weekend. Enjoy the run-up to Christmas.

Love, Helen xx