Yesterday was Bonfire Night and the whole clan went off to nana's house for what will probably be the last Bonfire Party there. Chris and me got there at about half past one so we went with mum and nana to Strikes Garden Centre near Northallerton to look at their Xmas displays. Nana is giving us one of her Xmas trees because mine's got a bad case of the Leaning Tower of Pisa effect so I decided we should probably get a few more decorations for it or it'll look a bit sparse. I wasn't really taken with their range of tinsel, especially at their prices, so we got a tube of red glass baubles and a little box of wooden tree ornaments, then chose a few pressies for my bestest bud, her boyfriend and my mum. I think we'll have to go to Peter Barratt's in Stockton to look at their Xmas decorations next week because they always have loads of lovely things in and tinsel in almost every colour imaginable.

Anyway, everyone else was due to arrive at nana's shortly after dark so dad lit the bonfire and it went up like a bloody rocket. It was that fierce that we could feel the heat about 25 feet away and the sparks that it sent up made it look like the garage had gone up in flames when we went round the other side of the house. People started to arrive shortly afterwards and then when everyone had said their hellos and been sorted out with something to drink we went out and watched the fireworks. Some of them, it has to be said, were a bit pathetic but others were almost like professional style ones in blue-purple and white. Halfway through we had out customary mug of hot soup and dad started putting all sorts of things he'd found in the garage onto the fire. That included an old wardrobe that I was meant to be getting when nana moves and some doors from god knows where. They were meant to be 1960s fire-retardant doors but they went up remarkably quickly, sending sparks and ash all over the place so we retreated a bit after I got a hot ember on the face.

After the fireworks were over we retreated inside to sort out the dinner. Mum had told me to buy 60 sausagesand 60 buns, although we only made 48, with fried onions on most of them, plus there were enough spuds for everyone to have a jacket potato each. A lot of the spuds didn't get eaten and even 48 hotdogs were too many, although my brother did manage to eat seven and only one of those was bun-less. Nana had made a trifle and a pavlova, which I decorated with whipped cream, kiwi fruit and strawberries, and I made my famous cherry pudding with the addition of some sherry to give it a bit of a kick. The pavlova went down a treat as usual despite nana saying that it had come out as flat as a fart LOL However, there's a lot of cherry pudding and trifle left over so it's just as well that my aunt and uncle were staying over to take nana to Otley because they can help her finish some of it off.

Yesterday was also my uncle's birthday and after dinner my cousins came in carrying a tray full of chocolate birthday cake, which no one could manage to eat after all the hot dogs and puddings so it went untouched for my uncle to take home. Then we all went into the living room so he could open his pressies and cards. He's a bit of a DIY expert so he'd asked for some B&Q vouchers from us but mum said she thought it didn't look like much, so when we were in Strikes Chris saw an apron with "Merry Berry Christmas" written on it and as it's my uncle's surname we decided to get him a little pillow and a large stocking with it written on for him to display next month. Nana reckoned that the pinny was too feminine for him though so he didn't get the full set.

So now we've returned to normal again, for a while at least although Chris is coming down with the early stages of tonsilitis so I whisked him off to see the nurse this morning and she gave him some penicillin to knock it on the head. Hopefully, they'll kick in fairly fast so that we don't have a repeat of last year's tonsilitis, which he was incredibly ill with. His neck was so swollen it looked like someone had implanted stuff into it. I made him some bacon sarnies for lunch to make him feel better and as dad's still off work he had some too.