Happy Christmas everyone.........

Well, I don't know about you dear readers but we had a perfectly splendid Christmas..... hope you all did too!

After such a truly awful trading week last week as the rest of the country struggled with freezing cold temperatures and unprecedented snowfalls and people were unable to travel, it was looking as though we were in for a quiet Christmas - and we had resigned ourselves to it being so........ but no, on Thursday the faithful Salcombe visitors started to arrive and what a welcome sight they were! Following a couple of Christmas parties the Victoria quickly got it's Christmas sparkle and a lovely 'buzz' went through the pub. What followed was a couple of days with old faces popping in and saying hello, I had a great time with my staff behind the bar spreading joy and goodwill(!) giving out packets of Christmas sweets to the children and generally having a lovely time as pub landlady.

Christmas Day we opened our pub from 11.30 to 2 - and my goodness what a great session!!! We were packed out and had a fantastic atmosphere in the pub. After that we were able to take our lovely Archie and Rosie out for a quick walk before going home and having OUR lunch...... Roast Duck (cooked by my handsome Husband) and all the trimmings followed by one of our chefs Xmas Puds............ some gorgeous pink fizz and a big snooze!! Pure heaven........

Talking of heaven, I did my bit at Church on Christmas Eve. My new found spirituality is fast becoming so very important to me and there is a communion service most mornings which I try to go to at least once a week. In that forty minutes or so I find great peace - I am at last learning to lose myself into Him. We sadly have a funeral next week for someone in our community who was very much loved and respected and I'm 'doing' it as Church Warden......... so I'm hoping that God will guide me and look after me and help me do the best job I can.

Aside from all of this I've only managed to go out in my little Betsy once........... I was quite nervous to start with as it was a little icy, but I settled int o it after a while and all was good. Such a great freedom to be able to just hop into her and go to the shops.... no more waiting for buses at cold bus stops or asking SOH for lifts! My next big challenge will be when I eventually get to go to Portsmouth to visit my son - a 3 and a bit hour drive...........

So for now that's about it - I'll do a quick blog before the end of the year, but in the meantime there are New Year menu's to sort and finalise, staff rota's to finish, business plan for 2011 to start and at least another dozen tasks to do!!!!