Jingle bells, Jingle bells...

In your head did you read the title or sing it .. bet most of you sung it, so here is the chorus to get you in the Christmas spirit (I know you like to sing, its like being at choir practice sometimes in the wine club !)

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

Thats enough for now, full version at the end..

Jacqui & Nick were the hosts of this years Christmas special, we braved heavy rain and high winds to get to them but it was worth it.  I think I speak for all of us, we had a really fun time, leaving after midnight.

Host Hummers in love

We all dressed up for the evening, some of the chaps in Black Tie & ladies in evening dress, well it is the party season.. shame we didn't get a group photo.

As you know, if you have followed the Blog for a while, we dress the bottle of wine in a Christmas theme, Mick and I went for a musical theme..which tied in nicely with Jacqui's table setting with the musical crackers, more about those later.

I have to say though, awful poor show chaps with the bottle wrapping this year.. two out of six bottles dressed and the other four.. well.. two in poundshop Santa outfits (if you paid more you were robbed), one in a bottle gift bag with a token bauble hanging from the handle and one that had hoped to become a cracker but apparently looked like a five year old had done it so it came naked..

Mick won  with his multi tasking bottle, the four hours making it paid off, I am sure he couldn't have done it without Karens help (for those that know Karen will be rolling on the floor laughing now)  not only dressed in an advent calender theme under each flap were one of the 12 songs of Christmas, we had to guess the song and year, by humming the tune..someone thought this would be a good idea (?).. Mark is a super hummer (or so he told us!!) it was very funny.

I am a winner (again)

Now those crackers, inside were whistles with numbers on the base and a music sheet, the 'idea' is the Conductor (Steve) calls a number out and you blow your whistle, sounds easy but no it took us a number of false starts then we were away, needless to say no tune could have been recognised if you didn't know at the start what it was supposed to be, the funniest part was when Mark got the giggles and couldn't stop.... then he couldn't stop blowing his whistle.  Luckily when distracted with a glass of wine he lost his whistle.  I found out Sunday his sister in law had removed it ..ha ha ha.. well done !

The wine plays little part in the Christmas wine club get together its more about fun and games, we started with a bottle of refreshing Processco, apparently there are 2 million bubbles in a glass, or was it a bottle ?? (As read in readers Digest by Terry so it must be true) we then had a couple of bottles of red one from the Lebanon which was past its best, a Rioja that wasn't too bad.  We had been asked to bring our favourite wine what we actually bought was whatever was handy in the wine rack.

We played our favourite game, don't know what its called but should be something like 'Give it to me now' ..thats the present, nothing else.. the host buys wine related gifts and wraps them up, we all get a strip of raffle tickets, if your number comes up you have whichever present you like, collecting as many as you can, taking from others as you please..  you keep what you end up with... we are like children we all go for the biggest & heaviest until someone mentions the smallest is probably the best one... I haven't made it sound fun but it really is.

After the yummy food was eaten, teas and coffees drunk the Secret Santa gifts were handed out and as always Mark had to be stopped from opening his, this is the man that doesn't like Christmas, you'd never know it with the eagerness over his gift each year.

Now the bit you have been waiting for.. Jingle Bells the full version

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

A day or two ago
I thought I'd take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot
We got into a drifted bank
And then we got upsot

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh yeah

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh

Well time to stick a cork in it, wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  See you all then, although no-one seems to know who is hosting January ?????

Bye S x