Went to bed 1am and was up again at 3 to assure Cesca the presents in her Santa sack would still be there if she went to sleep again. 5.30 Cesca up again prodding Tim as she went and so the day began.
The kids enjoyed their Santa sack presents very much and they all noticed how they got the present they had been shown on Portable North Pole. Inside my Santa sack was a book of medical humour 'Dr Copperfield' & Country File Calender - both being used now as I write this on New Years day.
Down stairs and sorted cats and tea. The other families awake now (7.30 ish) and everyone enjoying their Santa sacks. Breakfast of kippers and toast.
Into the sitting room and we each over saw a child and opened presents. As you will see in the picture it was a merry occasion and much wrapping rubbish was generated!
I am very pleased with some Per Uno clothes, a bed side lamp and bedside radio alarm clock. Some spinning shoes remind me I need to loose weight. John & I received a beautiful Nepalese rug - it is now on the sitting room wall adoring it. My kids got Didi cars and pedal walkers. Instant hit especially the didi cars and & Bea. Good to have got the presents correct. Matt became a bit obsessed with making mechano and I was not going to help him with so much wrapping around. Gran stepped in and took him to her room and made him feel special making a helicopter.
Bex, Rupe, Ruth, Guy, Bea and Gran joined us in heading to church where we all sang good and loud - celebrating Christmas properly. While we were busy with that Tom was starting the Turkey off in the oven. I gather the plans altered slightly as he apologised on our return, but i could not tell you what he thought he did wrong!
We found our selves with a sledging opportunity which Mum, Rod, Adam and I took up. Mum sledged!!!! What fun. She and I also had a go together. A priceless moment at the end of what has been a fairly hard year for mum.
Back home and kids playing and food cooking. Sprouts, parsnips, bread sauce all sorted by other folk! I made my rum sauce for the pudding, can say I did very much beyond that. Crackers for the kids started things off. The dinner was fantastic if a bit chaotic as there were such big numbers and some hungry folk. The turkey was really moist and and totally worth his price tag as a happy turkey. Cesca did her best to eat the sprouts single handed, much to the pleasure of Bex & Rod the sprout haters. The main meal was cleared, dish washer set off and much chat had, while the pudding was microwaved and space for pudding was made. 2 puddings this year - Ruths home made pudding with brandy set alight and rum sauce, and the panatoni icecream pudding that i had made with a caramel sauce. Both were very popular despite how well fed we already were. At the end of the meal the 'center table' presents were distributed and opened. This is the past present of the day, and the adults had done a secret Santa for this one. I did well with a Jami Oliver recipe book - which Radio 4 tells me is the fastest selling recipe book of all time, so Santa did well.
We watched a bit of TV and played games - but early to bed for those with kids as we were exhausted!! A very full and happy Christmas.
Ruths birthday on this day and the ladies had a day of pampering planned over on Bressay. Breakfast of what could be found and various shifts as folk woke more gently than previous mornings. None the less our schedule meant folk did concentrate on Ruth in the morning opening her birthday presents. I think she liked them, though Guy did not - crying and getting stroppy at the song 'Happy Birthday.'
