Holiday Activities

Merry Christmas! Here you can see York under a blanket of snow! There is nothing like a white Christmas and we certainly had one this year. York doesn't get a lot of snow, but this year we've had about 4-5 inches so far. More is forecast for the first week of January. I don't mind the snow in most ways, but since I get around on my bicycle, the snow is a bit more of a problem these days! It is beautiful falling at night like this. These pictures were taken from the window in the roof of our flat.
The picture below is of Tracy and I decorating our friend Rose's Christmas tree. We had a little Christmas dinner at her house with a bunch of us single adults the week before Christmas. It was fun and really helped bring in the spirit of Christmas.
This next picture is of me next to the little tree in our flat. We don't have room for more than a table-top tree, but we like it just the same! The English like to give chocolate at Christmas and the boxes in front of me represent all the chocolate I was given by nice people. How in the world I'm going to eat all of it is another question. I think I have a stock that will last at least six months! I'll just have to give it away as often as I get the chance. I really appreciate English chocolate, but there is such as thing as too much of it!
Here are the chocolates close up! Look at all that stuff!
This is a picture of me with the new hair-dryer that Debbie gave me. Mine died about two weeks before Christmas and she kindly replaced it for me. I am pointing at the back of it, which is pink! We have a joke about neither of us really liking pink and being tom-boyish. Debbie almost bought me a completely pink dryer as a joke, but didn't, and when I opened this one and discovered that the back was pink it was a fun moment for us both! One day perhaps I'll be more girly.
Here you see Tracy and I together at the New Year's Eve party we attended together down near London. It was a semi-formal ball and thus we are all dressed up. We had a nice time there. It was fun to put on our finery, including the black gloves (how often do I get to wear something like that?), and enjoy ourselves. We had all been asked to wear a 'touch of pink' somewhere on ourselves, but I don't have anything pink (pink again!) and had to rely on the fact that my dress is rather 'rose' coloured to get be past the 'pink' inspection. Though you can't see it, Tracy has a pink hair clip in her hair!
This is one group shot of some of the enthusiastic dancers enjoying themselves with one traditional song. Some of the people I know and some I don't know, but you get the idea of the dancing and if you look closely you'll see pink appearing all around. We all welcomed in the New Year together with a rousing chorus of 'Auld Lang Syne' and the shooting off of confetti crackers and other pressurized party favors. After that, our party left so we could drive the three hours back to York again. It was a late night/early morning, but it was New Year's.