My Own Santa

This is what greeted me when I came downstairs this morning. Dene and his work colleagues went to work in fancy dress today. Dene and another lad went as Santa, therewas an elf, a fairy, a nurse, a reindeer and someone who wasn't in fancy dress. They finished work at 4.30pm and then went to the pub for a few drinks. I was half expecting him to come home sozzled but surprisingly he was fairly sober.

Kate finished work at 2.30pm and she too went to a pub with her work mates. There were two blokes who were leaving today, so it was as much to say goodbye to them as to celebrate C'mas. Kate is now off till 2nd January, and has gone to Matty's till Sunday, but Dene is at work for three days next week. He's gutted.

I have now put all my stitching away till New Year and the sitting room is more or less tidy. I've even managed to clear all the junk off my arm chair so that I can sit on it! And the table is ALMOST cleared. See...miracles DO happen!

Ian came home for the holidays this afternoon. I had to phone the Child Benefit centre up today as we received a bank statement that made us realise we hadn't been getting any money for him since at least October. As he's still at college, in full time education, we should be getting some every week for him. They normally send a form out for us to fill in to find out if the kds are staying in education or starting work or what. We didn't get one this year, so his CB stopped the day he went back to college in September. The lad on the phone was really helpful, and once I'd told him what course Ian was on, which college he attends and when he went back, he said that we should get our arrears in 5-6 working days (so that'll be early in the new year seeing as the banks'll be shut most of the time) and our weekly payments should resume soon after that. No wonder Craig thought the money going in the bank every week was a bit short. LOL.