That went quickly, didn't it? Thank you all so much for your good wishes. I have missed blogging and am back here at the first opportunity.
We had a lovely family time which was only slightly affected by the fact that the oven followed the example of the laptop and packed up. We had visitors at the time so it was an interesting exercise in damage limitation. Thank heaven for the microwave.
This was Christmas Eve, no chance of buying another one, so on Christmas Day we had to cook a large turkey in the small top oven. It was decided to remove its limbs to make it fit and it was at this point that the electric carving knife gave up! At least that was the third thing. Anyway, we managed very well. I was so pleased that the big family meal on Boxing day was outsourced to a local restaurant this year.
In the morning of Christmas Eve we took the three biggest grandchildren to the movies (saving daughter's sanity) to see The Golden Compass. I was so worried that the filmakers would ruin the story, but it was wonderful. The cinema was full of overexcited children beforehand but everyone was spellbound during the film. The children haven't stopped talking about it and we have had wide ranging philosophical discussions about souls, religion and whether Leo's hamster could turn into a daemon. Great stuff.
We went for a walk just as it was getting dark on Christmas day and I took these swoopy pics. One of Val's ideas - you set the camera to night setting and then swoop slowly over a light source when you've pressed the shutter. Takes a bit of practice but it's great fun. I've got it in the book with ideas for using the results. Margaret R http://digitalgran.blogspot.com/ has a lovely 'proper' night pic on her blog.
The one above was a fast swoop of a brightly lit house. The pic below was slower and you can just see the shape of a star (and a couple of cars). Good time of year to play this game.
I'm off to buy a new laptop - the cooker can wait but I need 'puter power now!