Each year as the children age we start Christmas Day later. Compromises are still made – ten year old Owen would prefer 7am and seventeen year old Megan would prefer noon. This year we settled on 9am.
For the first time we didn’t leave out a snack for Santa. Here is the tree just before Michael and I went to bed.
We met in the family room where another first happened: there were no gifts from Santa. Owen tells me he knew there was no Santa last year, but didn’t want us to know he knew. I took the traditional pre-present-opening picture on the couch and then we began opening gifts. Stockings are opened concurrently by all. Gifts, we open one at a time, starting with the youngest opening one gift, then the next oldest person opening one gift until each person has opened one gift then back to the youngest for their second gift and so on until everything is open.
Megan and Alun would have preferred to still be in bed.
Then we tidy up and have breakfast – the more sensible among us eat breakfast foods, the others begin on the Christmas chocolate.
Michael enjoys spending the day cooking and has it down to an art. This year he began two days before Christmas by brining the turkey.
My sister and her family and my father and his girlfriend arrived about 1:30. We snacked and visited and then began round two of present opening. It doesn’t take nearly as long as it used to since Grandpa doesn’t like shopping and the children are happy to have money and to spend it themselves.
We served dinner only half an hour after the planned time of 4pm. It was probably the best we’ve had with turkey, bread stuffing, sausage stuffing, gravy, mashed and roast potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts and parsnips.
After cleaning up from dinner and giving our tummies a rest, we cut up fruit and melted chocolate for a fondue. Delicious.
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