Christmas Day

A relatively early start this morning to get the duck in the oven in good time, but apart from that a nice relaxed morning. After everyone was showered and dressed we opened our presents.

I received lots of good stuff. Brett topped it off though, by buying me the model Dalek I always eye-up when I’m in Forbidden Planet. In addition he bought me a decent set of poker chips for playing Texas Hold’Em – a game I learned while we were visiting his family in the summer – and a joint present of the Monopoly board game. Rosie bought me the Little Shop of Horrors DVD along with a book on philosophy. The parents bought me the final Lord of the Rings DVDs, along with three other books from my Wish List. Owen bought me the Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy TV series on DVD.

I’d bought Brett a couple of things he’d mentioned he wanted – a hardwearing wallet with a soft leather interior and slots for pretty much anything you might want to carry with you – and a smart leather satchel kind of shoulder bag since he’s always moaning about his roller-blader’s day sack being inconvenient and admiring Ping’s leather satchel.

We sat and played poker for a while, teaching Rosie the game, until it was time to set the table for lunch. I have to say that the meal went very well considering it was the first time I’d done a full roast dinner here. The duck was lovely and the pork, apricot and stilton stuffing gave a piquant twist to the flavour. Brett enjoyed his first taste of Christmas pudding, but felt it was too rich to finish – so I helped him out and had an extra helping of Brandy Cream too!

We settled on the sofa for a while after lunch relaxing and listening to the Carols playing on Classic FM. We’re off to spend the afternoon and evening with a couple of friends, John and Nick, shortly.