Christmas Day

We had an absolute hoot!!

I cheated slightly and put my gorgeous new silk bedspread on the bed on Christmas Eve (I did it on the basis that after a wine or five (...aherm) I would not really appreciate it when getting into bed on Christmas Day) so we awoke on Christmas morning covered in luxurious silk!! (Good Start eh!!). We then got up, had breakfast and opened our pressies. OMG....Chris had outdone himself.....not only did I get the aforementioned gorgeous bedspread but he got me the stunning 9 days in Thailand photography book I had been hankering after (We had gone to the exhibition and it was just amazing), a small camera and photo printer (he sat on our last one so it no longer works!!.....the camera not the printer!!) which we will both use and best of all......he bought me tickets to see Maroon 5 (OMG OMG OMG......I love that band.....he is definately number one husband!!!). Chris got a soooper doooper zoom lens for his new camera (I have to admit that I am slightly intimidated by his new camera - he keeps talking about apertures and white balance.......I think I will just stick to the good old point and press!!), a tripod, a couple of funky T-shirts and a new bean bag which is olive green and in the shape of a chair. (This prompted much grumbling along the lines of 'There was nothing wrong with the old one' - I beg to differ... it had.....maybe about 5 beans in it and looked like a big black wrinkly puddle on the floor!!). I made up a photo album for Moon - she doesn't have many photo's of her kids so I included lots from when they were here including her 30th birthday and there were some very funny ones of her when she's been out and about with us (Yes Jo - there was one of the two of you fighting over the driver!!) and we're going to take her for a night out when she gets back from seeing her family. (The cats got toys too - god we're sad!!)

We then got organised and headed over to Claire and Roger's - there were 8 of us (us, Claire and Rog (obviously), Louise and Gordon and Sue and Graham). I have to say that their house is absolutely stunning - they have one section which is like a huge conservatory which looks out over their swimming pool. Two sides of it open up completely so it feels like you are outside when your inside and the outside feels like an extension of inside (does that make any sense what so ever??). We started with Champagne and smoked salmon sprinkled with caviar nibbles and then sat down at the table which I have to say looked absolutely gorgeous. We had all been given a course each to prepare so we had carrot and coriander soup which was made by Louise, followed by the full traditional meal, beautifully done by Claire, followed by a choice of Christmas Pudding with brandy butter, chocolate and orange cake or Mango Ice-Cream, made by my fair hand (Except the pudding which my friend made for me) and then after a good long break ham sandwiches followed by cheese and port which was brought by Sue.

It was a very drunken affair (we started at midday and got home at midnight!!) - we discovered that none of us are very good at charades and I ended up in the pool with all my clothes on!! (Don't ask!!). We laughed a lot (you may be able to tell from the photo's) and I have to say a HUGE thank you to Claire and Roger for inviting us over - it was a brilliant day!!