Santa's Little Helpers

The first disturbance was around 5.30am. Something, possibly Mel or maybe his stocking, fell out of bed with a thump. The chatter of four excited children babbled away in the next bedroom, discussing the relative merits of a pink, orange, blue or star-shaped version of whatever was in their stockings.
An hour or so later, stockings clearly explored, eaten and abandoned, someone decided to play the piano. Shortly after that, Eartha poked her head around our door, took a long look, then bellowed down the stairs.

"They're still asleep!"

Urgh.
So, after breakfast, we gathered in the living room to open presents. The kids got cameras, which were an instant hit. I got a guide to China, which is my next big adventure, and one I'm looking forward to very much. Mel got a Lego helicopter to build.

We trooped off to Mum's where Ang and Uncle Mikey were cooking the turkey. The snow meant we had to park at the bottom of the drive. It was just too slippery to attempt the hill. Mike spent half an hour with snow chains on, trying to get up the drive on Xmas Eve.
The feast was magnificent. They are really into their cooking and do it very well. There was no way we could eat it all. My offering, the Xmas pudding, went down well with Brandy sauce and Vanilla liqueur. Although, I'm sure that if Ang and Mike had done it, it would have been home made. (Mike and Ang, apparently, steep their vanilla pods. I'm not even sure I know what this means.)There were more presents and some excellent TV before we finished off with a game of "in the manner of.." which I've not played before. It was funny and entertaining and we all cracked up at Mike miming in the manner of "enormously".By the time we got home, the kids were dog tired and the dog was ravenous, being several hours past his normal dinnertime.

A good time was had by all.