"Have yourself a Merry Litle Christmas..." WE had to laugh! We are just watching last night's Eastenders ready for tonights Eastenders, and this is how it started! A Merry Christmas?? In Albert Square??D

Today my OH and I went shopping. WE had some tokens given to us from relatives and we bought... Torchwood on DVD and Afterlife Series 2. Excellent stuff
Oddly enough my sales shopping was quite quick. I bought myself two new ties. Whereas my OH spent quite a bit of time browsing throught the stores. As she looked at certain items I began to notice something. Every item she picked up or looked at where surprisingly famiiar. And then I realised... they were all items from the list that I hadn't bought! Is this a woman thing? Haha. It's Ok though, I was happy that she was happy List or no list.
PS: SHe did NOT look at other shoes

Boxing day, and it is the day of the big family get together!
WE got up early to do some cooking. Well when I say we, I am of course using the Royal We, as I was tucked up still in bed when my OH was up cooking. But why was she cooking on a day when we were going out for dinner? Because this year we decided to try something new! Instead of my Mum catering for the whole event, we decided we were all going to do a different course. My mum was going to do he main course, my Sister was going to bring the Sweet, my Brother (and his new girlfriend) were going to provide the starters, and we got the Supper/tea party food. Thank god for Tesco’s party food nibbles and things. We had loads to take. Unfortunately, it took us ages to cook it all off, so we were slightly late leaving for the Dinner/lunch. And that coupled with the slow traffic on the M25, meant we got there just before 2pm when dinner was at 2!
The afternoon/evening was actually more fun than I expected. The kids were a bit of a handful, which they always seem to be at this event… why is it that everything they do has to involve screaming???. There was plenty of singing, as the big party activity was a Karaoke machine. My OH and I performed a must unique version of ‘Killing Me Softly’ where the words almost become literal events!!!
And later, and several bottles of wine later (Not for me though as I was Des that night- Des-Ignated driver, not Des O’Connor as you may have mistaken me for having heard me sing) it was Trivial Pursuit time. And the biggest shock of all… my Mum said the word Penis! It was in response to a question about sex toys , but really I didn’t expect it from my mother! We all looked at her stunned!
“What!” She exclaimed “Just because I am your mother, means that I can’t say rude words?”
At which I replied “I am sorry but I wasn’t expecting a penis to come out of your mouth!” which I realise I had worded badly
After that the only embarrassing thing to happen came from my OH. One of the questions had the answer Gaia. (which we pronounced Gayer). Not someone we had heard of.
“Who’s Gaia?” My mum asked to which my OH piped up (thank you!) “He is” and pointed at me.
“What do you mean?” asked my brother
“Well, he’s Gaia than most men I know!” Thanks a lot! They didn’t need any more reason to become suspicious! That’s my OH for you!
Anyway, a good evening was had by all. And even better was, we were able to drive away and leave the kids there! HAHAHAHA

... And now to continue my little saunter through Christas day. We started opening presents at about 10am. Stopped at about 1pm for dinner part 1: The starter- which was salmon and shrimps in a thousand island dressing. Very nice. Then we continued to open presents until about 3pm when we stopped for dinner part 2: The main course. We never have Turkey for Christmas dinner. We always have Lamb. it is tradition! In fact we get our lamb from a local farmer friend, who rears sheep and gets them sliced and diced by a local butcher. For some reason my OH did not enjoy me telling her that this was a real lamb that I saw jumping around the fields just this Spring gone! And for some reason it made it worse when I told her that it was a lovely playful thing that I used to pet and it's name was Flower! Tch! Women eh?!
Then we had a little doze during Monsters Inc, and finished opening presents at about 6pm The last few presents were the 'large presents' and included the shoes that I was going to give to my OH. This wasnt her main present- her main present was one of those digital photo frames which scrolls through all the pictures stored on a memory card. She loved the frame, but the shoes..... got a surprised reaction.
"Oh." She said "Where did you get these?"
"From ........" (No shoe shop is getting free advertising on my blog.)
"OH. Well they look nice" And she gave me a smile. Now I am taking that as a resounding success! And if anyone disagrees, then I'm not listening! Next time I am going to choose her entire wardrobe!
After the presents, we sat down and watched all new Doctor Who, which was very good. I thought Catherine Tate was very good in it. Totally different to Rose, which was what was needed to keep it flowing. Roll on the new series.
Then at about 8pm it was time for Dinner part 3: The desert. And once again a tradition is maintained. Trifle. SO refreshing- we have it every year!
Then it was more TV until bedtime... Because the most tring day of the year was yet to come...... Boxing Day, and the trial of the Family!

To be continued.....