Near Perfect Christmas
If only it hadn’t rained during the afternoon, we would have been able to go out for a family walk and it would have been a perfect Christmas, but who needs perfection. As it happened it was near perfect. I managed to get a good nights sleep and was very relieved to find that yesterday’s flare had dissipated when I tentatively put my feet on the bedroom floor. Taking advantage of the only rain free hour of the day so far I managed to get a good walk in before the kids woke up. Buoyed along by lots of friendly greetings, mostly, from dog walkers I headed along the golf course to Fairhaven Lake and back through the dunes, it was dry but cloudy, with just the hint of a sunrise on the far horizon.
When I arrived home I had just enough time for a slice of cheese cake, while Anna busied herself sorting all of the presents out into piles for us all. Tess and Ann insisted that their presents (joint) to each of us be opened first and sequentially so they though could wallow in the joy of giving and they lapped it up, they’ve made such an effort to buy meaningful gifts for everyone this year and they were really buzzing. After that it was a free-for-all. As per usual I gave Debbie a fund of cash to spend on visits to the theatre and holidays and other joint experiences and she gave me a lovely walkers journal. For the kids I dug deep this year to give them their last big cash gift, hopefully enough for Steph, Jennie and Anna to make a good dent on furnishing their new homes and for Tess, enough to learn to drive and help to buy a cheap car, or pay the extra insurance to allow her to drive mine. Everyone seemed to really enjoy their gifts, expect for Tess who was more than a little shocked to get a ‘sexy Santa’ outfit from her Grandma – what was she thinking – Anna was relived that she provided Grandma with a list of suggested presents!
While Debbie was at church and the kids made breakfast I had a quick nap and then made home made bread for lunch, which has become our tradition. We like to eat only simple fare on Christmas day as it allows us to maximise the time we spend together as a family. In that spirit we watched Love Actually during the afternoon and then Thom arrived so the girls headed upstairs for another orgy of present giving and I headed back to the kitchen to make a simple family favourite, cheesy baked potato’s with a Christmas twist. We had two big family ‘Christmas meals’ last week and tomorrow (my birthday) we will be having another traditional Christmas meal for ten, which Debbie will be making.
Tonight we will be watching Age Of Adaline as our primary movie, maybe not a traditional Christmas choice, but one that comes highly recommended and most of us haven’t yet seen.
