IF YOU'RE GOING OUT TODAY...

... GET YOUR THERMAL UNDIES ON!
It's absolutely freezing out there! We went down to Morpeth earlier and the cold nearly took your breath away.
We went early to try to avoid the crush, but then so did everyone else it would appear, so that plan didn't work very well.
We were taking advantage of our £25 Morrison's vouchers. Charles and I had one each, so we were able to stock up on Christmas drink and stuff without feeling as though we had spent much at all.
After that we mooched around the town a bit and bumped into James and Emma (the lovely Kate's equally lovely sister) in the new coffee shop, so they came to join us for a bit of a chat, which was nice.
Now we're back home (obviously because I'm writing the blog!) and Charles is nicely settled in front of the telly watching the football. (It must be Portsmouth, because I can hear the crowd singing that annoying 'Pompey bells' chant that they , but I don't know who they're playing.)
I'm going to make a batch of mince stars in a while and then James is coming over for a while.
The puppies are being fab today. We had a discussion with James earlier about whether or not they are technically still puppies. I suppose they're not really, but then again neither are they adults, so I guess we've now got teenage dogs. Whatever they are they are going through a really lovely settled phase and are just delightful. When I think back to the weeks following their arrival, it's hard to believe the huge amount of time and energy we had to put into their care. They are so much easier now and bring us so much pleasure. (Now that I've said that they will almost certainly turn into a couple of little monsters for the rest of the day!)
Well, my feet are beginning to thaw out a bit at last. Goodness knows what we're going to feel like tomorrow at this time. We might have to abandon our anti-Ashley principles and go for a half time hot chocolate to warm us up a bit!