Christmas Day 2008

On Christmas morning, I opened the blinds and greeted the day with utter disgust. It was a beautiful sunny and warm day with blue skies and not what I like for Christmas day weather! I wanted it to be at least overcast or raining, if not snowy, and my pretty Christmas lights throughout the house were having a hard time trying to outshine the brilliant rays of sunlight pouring in through the windows. Nevertheless, I made a large mug of tea and snuggled in bed reading my Rupert Bear annual with the blinds half closed so the tree lights in my bedroom could sparkle.
Mid morning, I arrived at Debbie & Jim's home and stepped into a lounge knee deep with wrapping paper from the gifts ripped open by the family. It was a wonderful atmosphere and the boys were loud and excited. With my arrival, more paper started flying round the room and the piles of opened presents were added to. I was ecstatic to receive the complete set of Seinfeld and it took all of my willpower to not retreat to a quiet corner and read the coffee table book that came with the set.
After a couple of hours we sat down to a fabulous lunch of turkey with Paxo stuffing, chipolatas wrapped in bacon, roast potatoes, parsnips, brussels, carrots, peas and gravy, and of course we pulled our English crackers and compared the gifts inside.

This is Debbie after lunch carving up the rest of the turkey with the two resident woofers, Brice and Lucky, in keen attendance.

While we were sitting down, we decided to play some music so Max played guitar while I beat the drum and Debbie thrashed a tambourine (which she broke with her excessive enthusiasm).

After a while, once our tummies were less distended, we were able to move to the family room and play Jim's new Wi. Jim and Heather had a bowling match providing lots of amusement for those of us observing. Note Jim's fancy footwork!
Debbie, Aston and I took it in turns to play tennis which was equally amusing and surprisingly involved a lot of physical effort.

After a couple of hours of intense activity, Debbie and I felt we had made enough room for dessert so we shared a whole Christmas pudding with English cream. I had to concede defeat halfway through, but did manage to polish the rest off after another break. By midnight, our stomachs and laughter muscles had had enough so we had to reluctantly end the day. After a final cup of tea, I wearily left for home and tumbled into a bed that thankfully, but surprisingly, didn't capsize.