Friday 19 December 2008

Christmas Cracker number Seven!!

Haved just waved the children off to school with Him in charge, (laden down with badly wrapped presents for teachers, long overdue dinner money and reply slips for 47 letters from the last half term) and have now retreated back into the warm to drink tea and watch trashy TV, with the totally legitimate excuse that I'm awaiting a call from a journalist for a telephone interview. Definitely feel that I have the better deal here, which has provoked a guilty awareness that, for all my moaning about the shortcomings of the domestic male in general and my own specimen in particular, this is actually quite often the case.

I'm not just thinking about his services as spider exterminator and putter-up of shelves, but about the bigger stuff too, like the fact that he kept the faith (and-- more to the point-- kept me) during the long years when I was writing lots and earning nothing. He brings me cups of tea and glasses of wine (according to time of day/level of desperation) while I wrestle with deadlines and listens endlessly (or at least makes and effort to look like he's listening) as I try to work out plot twists and character motivation. He graciously puts up with my enthusiasm for searching out new hero material, and my unrestrained and voiciferous appreciation of certain character prototypes (James D'Arcy/Orlando) So, in view of all that, and since today is our sixteenth Wedding Anniversary I thought that today's Christmas Cracker really ought to be Him.

Us on our wedding day-- December 19th 1854 (or does it just seem that long ago?)

(...and here we are later, in a spooky foreshadowing of Things To Come, doing our very own version of a Mills & Boon cover shot...)
In other news, tonight-- right after we heft the giant Christmas tree in from the garden and watch the children decorate the bottom left hand corner of it-- I'm going to draw a winner for my half of the competition Kate Hewitt and I have been running, so if you haven't done so yet, leave a comment to be included! (If I don't do it soon I'm going to give into the temptation to keep the sweet little Hultquist necklace I bought the other day, which would be very Wrong of me.)





12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aaaaaah, you've made me come over all emotional. Gorgeous pics you little mills and boon heroine you. sniff.
x Abby

Anonymous said...

Aaaaaah again! Lovely, lovely, lovely.

You both look so gorgeous. And massively in love. And SO perfect for each other. Happy anniversary you two, with twinkly festive bells on.

Have a splendiferous day,

Lots of love,

Rach.
XXXXX

Donna Alward said...

Cripes, the kids must be gorgeous because LOOK AT YOU TWO!

Happy Anniversary!

Unknown said...

Aw, shucks girls, you're too kind. Sadly the pics are not gorgeous at all (and neither are we!), but the blurry snaps of one of our drunken friends. Our formal photos were utterly hideous and have long since been buried in some forgotten corner of a dusty cupboard somewhere. Did anyone else waste lots of potential champagne-drinking time/scary amounts of cash on pointless wedding photographs? These days they're all like something from Vogue, but back in the day... Gruesome.

Michelle Styles said...

Many congrats.
You both look very happy.

I reckon you have a keeper...

Unknown said...

I think you're right Michelle. (sigh) No getting rid of him now. Not with my best years behind me...

Anonymous said...

Ohhhhhh (sniff, sniff), how perfectly WONDERFUL the pair of you are together! Happy, Happy Anniversary, you lovely M & B heroine! Have an absolutely delicious day!

Love,

xxxTrenda

Jane said...

Happy Anniversary to the lovely couple.

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! Lovely photos!

Kate Hardy said...

Happy (belated) anniversary, India. Thanks for sharing such gorgeous pics. (And why am I not surprised that you were an utterly stunning bride?)

Unknown said...

Girls, thanks so much for the good wishes-- you're all so lovely!

Unknown said...

(And gorgeously polite...)