Home from Christmas

[pensnest]

I'd ask, where'd everybody go, except that I expect you're all busily working through the cornucopia of SeSa and other seasonal fic goodies. I'm impressed with the SeSa standard this year - almost through, despite a late start, and I'll ponder what I want to rec in a while. But for now, I'll just say that there seem to be some wonderful titles in this year's crop. Whether that's always the case, I'm not sure, maybe it is, but there really are some most enticing titles this year. And I have no clue at all who wrote what, with the exception of those I knew in advance.

Anyway. So. We bundled ourselves off to visit debsfarm on the Saturday before Christmas, leaving home at 0808 and arriving at 1126, which was pretty good. The farmhouse is very splendid, though sadly deficient in bathrooms... well, there are two, plus two extra loos, but with one of the dogs shut in the kitchen for the night, one of the actual bathrooms is effectively out of commission, unfortunate when the house fills up! However, we managed well. The kitchen, freshly decorated, looks splendid, and is large enough to accommodate a table round which nine adults and two smalls can sit. And the living room, in which we sat on squashy sofas and watched telly or read the papers or opened presents (oh boy), has the most fabulous, huge inglenook fireplace, with a wood-burning stove. Very Christmassy. I did tend to get a bit seasick, walking along the long upstairs hallway; because of the age of the building there are no straight lines, and the floor isn't always quite where your feet expect it to be. But the rooms are large and pretty, painted with muted colours, and the views over the valley are lovely.

My sister kept us well stuffed, and the boned turkey which I bought here, stuffed, re-tied into a mighty bundle, and carted off to Devon, turned out to be tasty and moist, so I did well, too. We left after lunch on Boxing Day, and got home in a mere three hours. Obviously the travelling hordes were not, by and large, on their way home on Tuesday. And the house had not been burgled, which was nice, obviously, and the cat was even moderately pleased to see us, though she insisted that she had not been fed in weeks. Mendacious creature.

Since then, I have pretty much been reading DWNOGA stories. Fifty-three feedbacks sent so far, including for my own delightfully cracked one, Windows 2006, which is a Trickyfish (no, really?) with a wonderful combination of references (from Torchwood to Jane Austen, which is some accomplishment, I reckon - only in Popslash, eh?) and a whole lot of fun. :-D I have a feeling there were a few I had open on tabs that deserved comments, only it seems the video card in this machine got into a sulk when we were away, because Odd Things keep happening on my screen. :-( I had to shut down to let my Beast have a look. But I shall get back to them, nobly striving to do my bit for the festive season. Those of you for whom I did any beta work won't get anything further, but I do hope your recipients were happy.

Also, and you probably want to know this, I got a box of cream-filled willies for Christmas.

Comments

[turps33.livejournal.com]

I've just finished reading the story for you, and man, it's so cool! I especially liked Lance seeing Justin and Chris, two Chris pairings in one story is a good thing ;)

I'm so glad you had a good Christmas.

I got a box of cream-filled willies for Christmas.

LOL. Did you open them in front of company? That's what I want to know.

[pensnest]

Heh - my sister had cunningly written 'not in public' or something like that on the label, so I was cautious and Robinsony and just opened one end of the parcel, instead of going with my natural instinct to rip the paper off!

I must inspect the 'eat by' date. Might bring them to Camp Sparkle - we could award them as prizes for, er, something.

[withdiamonds.livejournal.com]

Your Christmas sounds delightful. I

I read a story last night that I thought might be yours, only now I don't remember which one it was.

[pensnest]

It was very nice to go and spend it with my sister - she has an 8-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, and the orgy of present-opening was quite astonishing. But it is fun with little'uns around, and we usually host Christmas for my father-in-law, who'd otherwise be rather alone.

Hmm. I find when I'm writing, I sometimes think my style is So Obvious, but maybe not. I did two, and one at least is Not My Usual Thing. I certainly can't figure out what other people wrote...

[topaz119.livejournal.com]

The farmhouse sounds wonderful, and 53! feedbacks sent? You rock! I haven't even had time to hit the page yet.

[pensnest]

The only way I can possibly deal with feedbacks is to send them as I read, and I'm too indolent to do anything useful while there are stories to be read! Otherwise I'd be all, oh, there was a really good one with, um, and no feedback would happen at all. It's so well set up, too - I'm collecting copies of what I sent, so as to remind myself which stories I must re-read.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

that sounds like a pretty fine Christmas, all things considered :D

[pensnest]

It was, indeed, most agreeable. There were even two dogs, Rosie, the house collie/mutt (I don't think she's a purebred, but may be wrong), and Bobby, recently adopted by D's in-laws, who was utterly placid and asked nothing more of life than to lie on a sofa being petted.

[turloughishere.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you had a very good Christmas. And I'm sooo envious of the inglenook fireplace and woodburner!! I would love to have even an ordinary fireplace but alas, they're not very common in Sweden even in houses *pout*

I'm almost through the Trickyfish stories and I think it's a bit sad that only those who's written stories can feedback while the stories are still anonymous. I understand why it is that way but I know I at least won't go back and send feeback after the unveiling because if I don't do it immediately after I read a story I never will.

*snickers at your Christmas present*

[pensnest]

I wish I'd taken a picture of the fireplace...

You should do what you did last time, and put your personal responses to the stories on your own LJ. As a SeSa writer, I can assure you - one can never have too much feedback! Even though it doesn't go direct to the writers, a link in sesa_discuss will have most of us popping in to have a look.

A goodly quantity of Trickyfish this time, and some *very* good stories among them, I think!

[rikes]

Whoa, you're quite a feedback machine! I wrote ten myself last night and already felt exhausted. I wish I could send them to the authors immediately.

[pensnest]

Actually I do feel a bit machine-like... I did this last year, hurtled through all the stories instead of rationing them. But, there are plenty that are worth re-reading. :-)