Happy Boxing Day.
Well, Christmas was great. It started off bright and early in the traditional way, waking up to see what presents Santa had left under the tree. Then Iris and I got dressed, went and picked up the kids from their mum’s and we skedaddled off to the airport to pick up my sister Susannah, arriving for her Christmas visit.
On the way back we drove through the new tollway tunnel, which they’ve at last pumped enough water out of that you don’t need scuba gear to enjoy it. So down far below the Yarra we drove, then up again and out the other side. Yep, I thought it was definitely a tunnel.
We stopped off back at my place for a millisecond to pick up my allocation of the Christmas food. I guess my culinary skills were judged fairly because I was allocated to buy the ice-cream. However, I made the extra bit of effort and also managed a very passable chocolate banana cake, which got the thumbs up from all concerned.
So we and the food headed over to my mum’s house, where we proceeded to eat, open presents, eat, play backyard cricket, eat, chat, eat, watch the Queen’s Christmas Message, and eat. And eat. Actually we probably didn’t do all that much eating, but a merry time was had by all. The presents Iris and I had bought for people all seemed to be hits, and we got plenty of great stuff too. The kids were drowning in Lego and all the rest of the stuff they got by the end of day.
There were more presents waiting for the kids when I got them home, which kept them occupied for a while. When the time was right, I tried to ring the rellies in England to wish them a happy Christmas, which was confusing at first because I managed to get the number for my Uncle Kevin wrong, but the woman who answered the phone sounded just like his wife Liz. She wasn’t Liz, but sounded cheerful enough, so I wished her a happy Christmas instead.
I eventually got hold of my grandparents and another uncle, who were also pretty cheerful. The kids had a word, then got back their new toys. By the time they got to bed, long past their usual bedtime, they were tired, but thoroughly happy. Yep, everyone had a great Christmas.
