Everything's easy if you only try

This year I decided I would put on my own Christmas party. At various times throughout the year I have gone to parties at other people's houses and although it is great, It means that there are taxi fares to be considered and there has to be a point where I make the decision to go home dragging my half asleep children with me.
For Once I thought I would make everyone else do the traveling.

Saturday the 17th December seemed to be the perfect choice. The week before Christmas so it isn't too early for festivities to begin and near enough to Christmas for giving out cards and presents. All the invitations went out and most of the important people accepted. Of course then Mr G had to upset the apple cart by announcing a Gig for the day after. It seemed impossible at first that I could successfully hold this party and then travel up to York the following day...Especially as these parties usually go on well into the early hours. So at first I said No to The Griff...The expense and the stress was just not something I could handle at this time of year.....Well of course I was persuaded that I had to be there....

Last week was so hectic. I was scrubbing and cleaning and shining and de-cluttering like I had never done before. My hands were red raw by the end of the week and they are still very sore even now. I was running round town trying to buy party food, Christmas presents, cards and not to mention get a new outfit for the gig (Failed on that one unfortunately) I made an appointment at the hairdressers to have high-lights put in my hair too but I had to cancel in the end as I just couldn't fit it in with all the other stuff that I had to do.

Saturday morning I had a great long list of things to be done and I was up before 9am which on a Saturday is the middle of the night still for me. I was still scrubbing and cleaning and cooking and baking.

By 6pm all the food was laid out on the table, the decs were up, the whole house was spotless all that was left for me to do was go and get changed and put the war paint on.
My first guests arrived at around 6.40pm. It was my sister's old school friend with her husband and daughter.
We fell out for a very long time and she said that it was about 7 years since she last visited my house and of course her husband and daughter had never been so they were both on an exploration mission. He was asking me loads of questions (Mainly about my autographs) except he never mentioned Alistair...I guess he has learned in the short time I have known him to stay well clear of that subject LOL!!
By about 9.30 the house was buzzing...There were kids running riot and my lovely clean and tidy palace was turning into a war zone with toys strewn all over the place. There also seemed to be a bit of a Boy V Girl war going on...but to be honest I didn't really take much notice as I had already got halfway through my 1 litre bottle of Vodka by then.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. I can remember my Bro-in-law and friend's hubby having a bit of a karaoke session to the Xmas cd. That was hilarious. My bro-in-law is usually the strong silent type but he was really going for it.
I think it was getting on for 4am when everyone finally left. My younger sis (D) was staying over so we got ourselves some choccy and a coffee and sat down to watch some TV...I never realised what pants TV is at 4am on a Sunday morning. What are the late night workers supposed to watch when they get in? I am going to make a serious complaint to the TV companies about it...There wasn't even a decent movie on any of Sky's 12 movie channels!!!
Mind You as I was catching a train at 12.30 the next day and I still hadn't packed it was just as well I got to bed and got a little sleep. Not forgetting that I had to get DD up at 7.30 for her paper round....She and her friend seemed to be necking back the wine a lot and I wasn't sure she would be in any kind of state the next morning for that.......