24 December 2011

Merry Christmas

It's an hour before Christmas Day here - I know some of you are already up and enjoying the day, whilst others have yet to bed down, but I thought I'd put this up firstly to wish all of you a very Happy Christmas (whether you choose to celebrate it or not). And I hope you all have a lovely day. Obviously feel free to leave greetings to one another in the comments.

I daresay there will be a certain amount of commenting on here tomorrow about the chaos that surely awaits us here...it would be wrong not to let you in on it all.

But right now, this flat has finally descended into the most peaceful it ever gets.

Wonder if any of us have been good enough this year to get a visit from St Nick?

And here's a shot from when we were decorating the tree. There is, unbelievably, more things on it now than in this picture.

65 comments:

John H. D. Watson said...

Mmm, peace and quiet. Lovely.

Greg Lestrade said...

Isn't it.

I don't have the energy to make all the required jokes about emptying sacks and coming down chimneys...but consider them all made.

And allow me to drag you off to bed and have considerably more fun than we'd have at Midnight Mass.

John H. D. Watson said...

A truly excellent plan.

REReader said...

Merry Christmas, all of you--John, Lestrade, Mycroft, and Sherlock (and Mrs. Holmes, Mrs. Hudson, Anthea, the rest of the security team, and the Dogs of War)--as well as all my fellow commenters!

L, the tree looks positively magical in that shot.

Have a good night--I imagine Sherlock will have everyone up bright and early!

Greg Lestrade said...

I have no doubt Sherlock will be up at a shocking hour of the morning.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Anon Without A Name said...

Merry Christmas all :-) I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow.

John, Lestrade - have a fun night :-p

Bronwyn said...

Happy Christmas to all of you. I wish you peace and happiness today and all of each and everyday, all throughout the year.
Joy,
Bronwyn

Small Hobbit said...

Happy Christmas to you all.

I hope everyone has a great day, however they may be spending it.

timberwolfoz said...

/delurks again

A very merry Christmas to you all!

REReader said...

Oh, and I meant to say, thanks in advance for sharing bits of you chaos! I'm really looking forward to that, but I also know it will take extra effort, so all the more appreciated. :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Christmas to all! I hope all your holiday gatherings go smoothly (as possible, with minimal chaos) with all your loved ones near.

I hope your day is filled with love and laughter, and just a little chaos to keep things interesting. =)

*hugs to all who want or need one, and sugar cookies for everyone*

~A from NW

Anon from Louisiana said...

Merry Christmas!! I went to midnight mass but at 4:00. Our church has to do 4 masses on Christmas Eve because there are so many people. You have to get there at least an hour before mass starts if you want your family to have a place to sit together.

I hope y'all have a great day tomorrow!

Calliope said...

Merry Christmas All! This weekend is fixing to be wicked busy, so I thought I'd better post this now.

X said...

Put this on your previous post, but it seemed more appropriate here -- pardon the repeat!

It's still Christmas Eve here and we just came in from a massive snowball fight. We had lots of snow today and wanted to try to tire out my niece, haha. I think we're the only ones who became tired though -- she's still running around singing about Santa and pretending to be a T-Rex (I don't know either).

Anyhow, last year she was awake at 5 and jumping on my bed, so wish me luck with getting more sleep this year. Best of luck to the two of you as well! Sherlock, I know presents are VERY EXCITING, but maybe you could let John and Lestrade sleep until at least 7 or 8. We always had to wait until 8 to wake anyone up when I was your age -- it seemed horribly unfair at the time, but I see the wisdom now!

Happy Christmas to you all, and to everyone who reads this and celebrates it. To you, and to all who don't celebrate, I hope you have a lovely and peaceful day.

Piplover said...

Merry Christmas, all! I hope you all have a great day, with lots of good food and good company!

mazarin221b said...

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you have a perfectly wonderful day, full of everything your heart desires.

Ro said...

Hope you're enjoying your Christmas morning! We've had about 5 hailstorms this afternoon. Not exactly what one wants in a white Christmas.

Greg Lestrade said...

The flat is slowly filling with people, so Sherlock is having to slow down a bit...

Food going well, Mrs Hudson has already made two hints about cracking open the sherry and kissed John under the mistletoe. (he wasn't fast enough. His face was a picture)

X said...

4:45 for my niece this morning. Ah well. Merry Christmas :)

Greg Lestrade said...

I think Sherlock managed to contain himself until about half five. Or at least, Mycroft managed to contain him.

Then we sent them off to see if ST Nick had been, and they brought one present back to our room to open.

Mrs H is now drinking champagne. Sherlock is on his second slice of panettone. despite dire warnings of not being able to manage his dinner.

Mycroft running Operation Five Loaves Two Fishes like a drill sergeant.

X said...

Haha, guess you didn't get much sleep either then. My niece opened her first present (a Rapunzel doll) and decided shed much rather play than open anything else.

Got my new Discworld book, and one line made me think of you: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a policeman taking a holiday will barely have had time to open his suitcase before he finds his first corpse."

Cheerful. :)

Anon Without A Name said...

Sounds like you're already having lots of fun. It's going to get confusing with two Mrs 's today though...

*currently tucking into breakfast of tea and ferrero rocher*

REReader said...

And have you managed to catch John under the mistletoe yet, L?

Greg Lestrade said...

X - happily I've never found a corpse whilst on holiday...yet. Been called back to corpses plenty of times, though!

Nameless - what's more confusing is my phone keeps trying to change 'Hudson' to 'Hotson' - could get embarrassing!

RR - Some mistletoe may have found it's way onto the ceiling above our bed last night. No idea how it got there.... heh.

Greg Lestrade said...

By the way, I've been told that if you have a Twitter and you follow the tag #mpsXmas then they're telling people about the calls they're getting today, to show what officers on duty are dealing with.

REReader said...

It must be a Christmas miracle. *nods sagely*

REReader said...

(I was referring to the mistletoe, not Twitter!

Greg Lestrade said...

the miracle is that the cooking is all going very well...

Sherlock is on dog minding duty. Stopping them getting in the kitchen. Was all going well, he even got them to wear tinsel around their collars. But no one noticed he'd also decorated them with fairy lights. Which, obviously, were still plugged in...

It's lucky that Anthea and the security team can deal with any situation, even a panicky-electrified-dog one.

REReader said...

Oh, dear. Lights too hot, or cords got tangled?

I bet they looked great until they noticed, though...

Greg Lestrade said...

dogs, being dogs, didn't appreciate they should stay close to the socket.

Dinner is officially entirely under control, so I'm having my first drink of the day (Champagne breakfast doesn't count.)

REReader said...

Ah. Oh, well, a minor emergency, it doesn't count.

And of course neither does breakfast champagne. :)

Do you open presents before or after dinner?

Anon Without A Name said...

I have no idea why you think it's a miracle that dinner is going well. Between Mycroft's planning and your cooking, I would have been more surprised if it had been going wrong :-)

Nice one with the mistletoe...

Not even going to comment on the Hudson/Hotson complication :-p

Greg Lestrade said...

Ha, true. Mycroft's got stopwatches going...

(we're having it late - in about ten mins - because some people didn't get here 'til late. And we have amuse-bouche.)

And the Queen's speech is on. Must go.

REReader said...

Mycroft's got stopwatches going...

For some reason this made me extremely happy.

Cheers!

Desert Wanderer said...

Merry Christmas/Happy Sunday everyone.

Anon Without A Name said...

Hello timberwolfoz :-)

*waves* at DW. Are you having a good day?

How was dinner at Holmes/Watson/Lestrade Towers? Everyone happily stuffed?

Greg Lestrade said...

Stuffed, definitely. I may never move again.

Security bravely volunteered to wash up. (I'm not being rude calling them that - been warned against using names on here!) Everyone is happily asleep/absorbed with talking or gifts or both.

And, I would let him break it to you, but he may not come back near a computer any time soon, seeing as he's rather distracted... there is a degu on my head.

REReader said...

Awwww--that's wonderful! He's probably the happiest 6-year-old on the planet right about now. (How many?)

And did anyone else get dream gifts?

(You are something many steps past a good sport, frankly--you probably deserve a knighthood, Order of the Degu--for letting it perch there. :))

mazarin221b said...

Awwwww! That's wonderful. You guys are so ood to those boys, really.

I have to say Sherlocks degus are indiectly responible for my son getting a hamster this year, as we hadn't had a pet for a while and it sounded like fun. He's over the moon about her. I can only imagine how Sherlock is about his degus (how many did he get?)

Can't wait to hear what everyone else got! And how dinner went!

Greg Lestrade said...

He has two. As yet unnamed. Both girls. He is fascinated by them, and is spilling out Degu facts to us all.

I was more concerned with the amount of carrot Sherlock decided should go in my hair to make it stay there, really. He said "It won't go to the toilet on you" *put Degu on head, watches it grab carrot* "Probably." Thanks ,Kiddo. (they are very cute though.)

John bought me an amazing set of chef's knives. They're beautiful. The goose was carved with one :)

I'll let others tell you what they got.

Anon Without A Name said...

there is a degu on my head

Awww. You and John are lovely, giving him degus for Christmas (I assume they came from you and John?) And letting one sit on your head already - you soft git, you'll be combing degu poo out of your hair for ages :-p

Sherlock - you lucky thing, getting the degus you've wanted :-)

Sounds like you've had a good day so far? And even help with the washing up, thanks to your wonderful Security people.

I hope everyonregot something good for Christmas :-)

Small Hobbit said...

Glad to hear your Christmas is going so well and that you and Sherlock got great presents.

I am sitting here wearing socks with hamsters on and slipper socks with detachable monkey heads, next to a large glass of wine. Hope everyone else is also having a good day.

REReader said...

Ha! Sherlock has some fine comic timing there! (Carrot smells nice, at least. ;))

Chef's knives are a perfect gift for you--and there's nothing better than being able to use a special gift immediately, is there? :)

Gonna be fun to hear from everyone else about their best presents!

I'm just back myself from my family Chanukah party--homemade latkes AND sufganiyot--my sister decided to make a liar of me be trying it after all! (It all looked wonderful, but I played it safe and stuck with one plain bagel--and brought two sufganiyot home with me for later or possibly tomorrow. :))

mazarin221b said...

OMG, you guys are *GOOD* to the boys. Not ODD to them. Well, you might be a bit odd but that's ok. Stupid phone, I hate using it to post comments. Idiot mistakes guaranteed. Sigh.

Kholly said...

RR nice to hear you had a happy holiday as well today.

I had been thinking that my nifty new gloves with the special fingertips so I can use my phone while I'm out with the dog was the best, but degus might beat that. You must have been very responsible with Snoopy Sherlok, I'm proud of you.

And nice investment gift with the knives there John. Lestrade is happy and you get the results of them being used. :-)

John H. D. Watson said...

I just hope he likes his present as much as I like mine. He got me motorcycle riding lessons!

REReader said...

Woo hoo! That IS a super gift!

Anon Without A Name said...

Oh, John, how great is that? And given Lestrade described his knives as "beautiful", I'm pretty sure that means he likes them :-)

REReader said...

"Amazing" is a pretty good tip-off, too. :)

Rider said...

He got me motorcycle riding lessons!

Greater love hath no man!

You should do well in them, the instructors usually have to deal with cocky young blokes who know it all.

Just remember.. head up, arms relaxed, and the low speed stuff really is vital.

Things were quiet at work, the only excitement being the Very Big Boss turning up bearing chocolate! That's never happened before....

Greg Lestrade said...

I love them - they're proper, real, professional knives - and a sharpening steel.

He also 'got' me something else...not sure I should tell you lot though...

REReader said...

Oh, well, "should"...

*reverting to childhood*

TELL US!!!

*ahem* Please? ;)

Anonymous said...

(Greg! You can't say something like that on here, and not expect us to give you very intrigued looks. ;D)

I'm so glad to hear that you've all had a wonderful Christmas together. (I take it that the security team has conquered the dishes by now?) Though I have to admit, I did not have the panicked Dogs of War in mind when I mentioned "a little chaos" in my last comment...

We've heard of Greg, John, and Sherlock's gifts -- Mycroft, would you like to share?

*hugs to all, with pets for the new degus*
~A from NW

Amy said...

Degus! Yay! Sherlock, could you draw them for us? Maybe perched on Lestrade's head? ;)

Merry Christmas all!

Greg Lestrade said...

Ha.

Yes, security have taken care of the dishes (I think they washed them...but with this lot, the dishes may just have disappeared, never to be seen again.)

The poor Dogs have been sent of to Mycroft's room now (having been thoroughly worn out by a walk in the park) as dogs and Degus probably don't mix. Although Sherlock and the Degus are about to go to bed.

John gave me a very nice hand-made voucher redeemable against certain body piercings I may or may not get done... Mrs Hudson started fanning herself when I opened it.

REReader said...

Aha!

So that's two extra special presents. :)


Mycroft? Anything that you are particularly pleased with this year?

Anon Without A Name said...

Oh, you two definitely treated each other this year. I love the hand-made voucher (and Mrs Hudson's reaction).

Did everyone else have a good day?

Ro said...

Degus!!!! I'm so glad. I must admit, I had my fingers crossed that Sherlock would get his Degus :)

Here in Melbourne we ended up having 5-6 waves of hailstorms. Thankfully, where I live I am quite sheltered. And I don't have a car to be smashed up, unlike my friend. So for me, it was just a noisy inconvenience. When they finally stopped and I could hear the television I stuck on "Nativity!" and giggled myself silly over some more Shiraz.

REReader said...

It's a ridiculous hour here, but so long as I'm up--good morning! (Is it appropriate to wish people a happy Boxing Day? We don't have it here, so I've no idea. If so, happy Boxing Day!)

How are the degus today? Are they settling in nicely, Sherlock? Are you back to work today, Lestrade? Did you have any gift you were especially delighted with, Mycroft? Any big plans for today, John? I hope everyone is still enjoying the holiday happy and manages to totally sidestep any post-holiday blues.

Desert Wanderer said...

It is indeed a ridiculous hour to be up, RR, and cold to boot. Go back to bed! Are you feeling any better?

Greg Lestrade said...

Well, I suppose it's never inappropriate to hope people are happy? But no, it's not a 'thing' we do :)

Degus are good - but meant I didn't get an alarm call this morning. Degus are more interesting than waking us up. So I was almost late for work. Which I am at, yes.

London is chaos, with the Boxing Day Sales and the Tube Strike a perfect storm of angry stressed people in massive numbers. Good times.

Anon Without A Name said...

I didn't realise you'd be working today Lestrade. Do they at least pay you extra for working bank holidays?

It's very sweet that after however may years of getting up at too early o'clock for work, you're now so used to being woken by sharp elbows and knees :-)

Sounds like everyone had a good time yesterday. Big gatherings can be fraught, but it sounds like you guys missed the drama and just had a lovely day instead. Nice one :-)

Greg Lestrade said...

Nameless - I wanted to work today, as Nicky will be down from tomorrow until New Year, so I wanted my days off then. And no, no extra pay.

We had a brilliant day, yeah.

REReader said...

DW--mostly better, yeah, thanks! (Except for waking a bit iffy at 4:00 am, but I did fall asleep again after an hour or so. :))

Thanks for the info on Boxing Day, l, although it does sound like a bad day to be out and about! It's the same, or almost, here--lots of sales meant to relieve people of their gift cards, insane lines to return-or-exchange...I do NOT shop today! At least we have no subway strike, that would be a true horror.

So glad you all had such a wonderful day--and have more fun to look forward to!

REReader said...

(That was supposed to be "L" I was thanking!)

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