Another Christmas Day...

[sawyl]

Suprisingly gentle start to the day, although I later discovered that although pater had got up early to put the turkey in the oven, he'd failed to actually set the temperature so the thing wasn't actually cooking for its first half hour!

My sister and all her children arrived at half-past twelve, fresh from opening presents at home and with only an hour or so before the two oldest were due at the Oak in Baginton for lunch with the other half of their family.

My nephew stands in front of the tree watching while someone else opens a present; my sister seems pretty into proceedings too!

K got a guitar for Christmas. Let's hope he can tear himself away from his computer games long enough to pick up a few chords.

My uncle scores a bottle of Hobgoblin ale — it's an in-joke: hobgoblin used to be his nickname at school...

The slightly frenzied opening ceremony was rather more successful than last year, when someone smashed a bottle of red wine on the cream coloured carpet, but mater was not best pleased to be given a thermal cooker — apparently she & pater had already discussed it and she'd categorically refused to have one, only for pater, in an entirely characteristic move, to buy one anyway. In a similar move my parents gave me a guide to identifying birds even though I'd repeatedly stressed that I didn't want them to even think about buying me anything, so for all her complaints my mum wasn't exactly able to take the moral high ground.

In another breach of the present amnesty, my mum bought something for her brother. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to know quite what to make of it...

Finally she explains that it's not something to eat, it's actually a bird feeder!

C was very impressed with his personalised Christmas book.

While all this was going on J was loafing around on the floor, looking after her new baby brother. Somehow, by some Christmas miracle, she managed to avoid being stepped on.

C and his daddy pose for a portrait!

C takes a moment to check out one of his new books...

My sister strikes a characteristic pose...

... while my mother attempts to get into a Playmobil set...

After smoothing over another incipient flare up over whether the turkey was cooked — no a subject which greatly bothered me! — we settled down to a late Christmas lunch.

Sat around the table while pater carves up the turkey. This year the numbers were somewhat reduced: without granny and with the my sister's oldest two absent, I spent the whole of lunch feeling as though we were missing something.

A completely characteristic moment as pater fills his plate with food. Apparently, when he was growing up, his Christmas servings were so famous for being overloaded, they became a byword within the family for a plate filled to overflowing with food.

With the uncle having been ill & the mater disinclined to go into Coventry, it was a less extreme event than usual and I was spared the endless canapés that, despite repeated attempts, I've never been able to convince the others that I don't really like — obviously it's nice that they want to make a special effort for me, but it's unfortunate that their idea of what I might like doesn't match with my actual preferences!

Finally, with everything served up, it was time to tuck in. Even I put the camera down for a moment and got down to a lunch of potatoes and carrots — but thankfully no finger food this year!

As ever, enthusiasm for crackers and hats was largely limited to the younger generation. So limited, in fact, that we still had seven crackers left over — although mater thinks she ought to be able to use them up when pater's sisters come to visit early in the new year.

My sister, her husband and their new baby pose at the dining table for a informal portrait.

With the afternoon pretty much gone by the end of lunch, my sister and her lot collected their remaining bits and pieces and went home, leaving pater and my uncle to sleep things.



Rather than put our feet up, Mater and I went for a short walk in the park to recover. Before lunch the sky had looked distinctly ominous, with dark clouds chasing out the blue skies.

I slipped out into the garden just before lunch and caught the sky just as it was starting to change for the worse. But the clouds didn't seem to do much for the temperature and by the time we went out for our walk it was beginning to get seriously cold.

When we got back, we fitted in some late cups of tea, I had some toast, put my laundry on, and that was the day done for another year.