At our place. It goes something like this: It’s Christmas Eve – the kids are either in bed, asleep (we hope!), or have departed for their own homes. Wearily, we totter around, picking up the mess, and cleaning up Mince Tart crumbs and the remains of the Eggnog. Can we go to bed yet? No, there’s still the stockings to be filled… we’ve already sorted them out into four bags and removed any price stickers, so all that remains to do is fit everything in to the individual stockings. As we work at that, we discuss the program for the next day… who’ll do what, when, and did you remember to get the gravy? The kids stockings done, I repair to the bathroom to get ready for bed, while himself goes to see if Father Christmas has seen fit to leave anything for my stocking. Then we swap places, and, without even glancing at my stocking (well, maybe a quick peek? 😉 ), I find that Mother Christmas has left me with a pile of stocking fillers for himself. We go to bed…

Christmas morning: Why do I always wake up around 5.30am? So I just lie there with my eyes closed, wishing that I could get back to sleep… Is he awake or asleep? I don’t know – but he’s not snoring… After what feels like at least a week, the alarm goes off at 7.30am, we both groan, and winkle ourselves out of bed. “Merry Christmas, sweetheart!”, “Unnngh, Merry *yawn* Christmas, dear”. I head off to my bathroom, he heads off to his (yes, we have separate bathrooms! I don’t have to put up with beard hairs in my sink, and he doesn’t have to put up with… well, my stuff… it works well! 😉 ) I scamper (scamper? Since when have I ever been able to scamper?!) into the Den for my weigh-in, then back to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Back to the Den for a cup of tea, check our email, and then it’s time for breakfast. Are we done here yet? Can we go and see what Father Christmas has brought us yet? We try to race each other to the lounge room, and fall upon our stockings, as gleeful as small children at what we find. Then we give each other the presents that Father and Mother Christmas have left us. Himself got a new HP Netbook from me, a black mug and apron with the words “Grumpy Old Man” in white on them from the mysterious Mother Christmas, and a calendar from Flipper. I got a Dyson Fan for the bathroom – it has one of those tall, narrow oval tops with no blades, does everything except whistle Dixie, and is remote controlled. I’ve wanted one for a very long time, so I was very well pleased! 🙂

By this time it was about time to start cooking lunch: roast turkey breast, baked smoked ham, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, tomato and onion pie, and snow peas. He did forget to get the gravy, but there was Cranberry jelly, so it was OK… There was also plum pudding for dessert (with extra brandy added, for those not driving), and cream to go with it. There was Chandon Brut champagne, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, and mineral water to drink, and Christmas Crackers to pull – and a table to set, as soon as my favourite youngest daughter arrived.

Lee and Neale arrived around 12.30pm – Kate and Terry just after 1.00pm, and once again stockings were attacked and presents were passed around. Kate got a new Toshiba laptop, Terry got a Garmin GPS what’sit for his car from us, and Terry also got a toy boat from Lee and Neale – but I can’t remember what they gave Kate!  Sorry… Himself got the entire 4 seasons of “Enterprise”, starring Scott Bakula, from Lee and Neale, and “Callan, the Colour Years” (6 CDs – 1000 minutes worth!), starring Edward Woodward, from Kate and Terry. I got a DJ’s voucher for a bottle of Estee Lauder’s Chrome Violet nail polish, which they didn’t have in stock, and a small, “plushie” Darth Vader from Lee and Neale, and a bottle of my very favourite perfume, “Cinnabar”, also by Estee Lauder, from Kate and Terry. Julian and I also got a desktop calendar each from a friend who knows our sense of humour all too well! 🙂

A huge lunch was eaten by everyone – I had my Optifast Berry Crunch Bar and some mineral water, as usual. Almost too full to leave the table, everyone stumbled into the lounge for coffee – I just walked as usual 😉 And after said coffee and some more chatter, the kids left around 4.00pm. Himself had a postprandial snooze, I repaired down here to the Den and decided to shuffle off (yet another) Rift level 50 character, to make room for a new character (with the same name), because I didn’t want to have to play another level 50 girl by myself, and besides, I wanted to try another race – Mathosian, this time.

And that, folks, was a typical, Traditional Christmas at our place! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning was exactly as I predicted – I stayed the same, at 111.4kg. After all, I did drop half a kilo the day before, so my body was probably still recovering from the shock! 🙂 But! It’d better be down again tomorrow, or I shall get really annoyed!

So tune in again this time tomorrow night to see if I went up… down… or stayed the same (again!) – and how well we recovered from our somewhat hectic “Traditional” Christmas Day! 🙂