What do we think of it so far?

The snow finally fell in the early hours of this morning. It had been threatened every day for the last week, so we were lucky that it didn't come while D. and valydiarosada were on their way here from Ely to help us celebrate the New Year; or while they were here, and prevent us going out to lunch dates with J. (at her home) or with D.'s sister and brother-in-law (by the Tees barrage, on their way home from somewhere else); or while they were driving home again ... Two days of cold but brilliant sunshine, and we welcomed the New year in the way that suits us best, by completing the crossword and going to bed at our usual time.

So I'd call it an entirely satisfactory visit, if it weren't for the flush of the upstairs toilet deciding to malfunction, spraying water in all directions every time it is used. This is an inconvenience rather than a disaster: when I say "water" I do mean "water", and it's easy enough to fill a bucket from the bath and avoid using the flush, and the downstairs toilet is fine... But it's not something you'd choose to put up with, let alone inflict on guests, even guests who know you as well as D. and valydiarosada know us. The plumber has agreed to come next Friday, and to replace the dripping tap in the kitchen while he is here, so there's a silver lining, but not yet.

"Not yet" covers the rest of the news, too. The snow has come just as the year was re-starting, and cancelled all our plans for today. Being the first Sunday of the month, it should have been Farmers' Market in Sedgefield: the market was putting out mixed messages about whether they would go ahead (and eventually cancelled, but too late to stop the vegetable farmers turning up) but there was no way we would risk driving down our road. Likewise for S.'s Christmas leftovers party this afternoon: we stayed home, and will eat our own leftovers, such as they are. F. had already cancelled our tentative plans for a Twelfth Night dinner tomorrow: initially we turned her down, hoping to go to the Phantoms ghost story event that evening, but when Phantoms was fixed for a different date (which we could not make, dammit) we reconsidered. Negotiations were complicated by our landline being out of order (durham_rambler had accidentally unplugged it, needing the socket and thinking he was unplugging the printer) - well, whatever we all wanted to do, it's unlikely we'll be able to go out tomorrow.

Habitually, I think of Twelfth Night as the end of Christmas: we celebrate the New Year on the first of January, but really Christmas isn't over until the sixth. So what I think of it so far is that we aren't there yet.