And so this was Christmas

Aftermath of present opening part 1

And so this is Christmas: Father Christmas delivering stuff overnight; the kids up at 7am, gleefully ripping into presents; much watching of DVDs and building of Lego; cruising over to my mum’s place for more presents, food, drink, more food, more drink, and sitting about in the garden sipping tea, more food, a little more drink, watching the Queen’s
Christmas Speech (recorded pre-Corgi incident apparently) before heading home to the calm and quiet of Christmas night.

Of course, the whole question of presents for the kids brings some quandaries. Governments the world over have pondered the question of public-private partnerships. Similar issues face parents, as they grapple with sharing the present load with Santa. The kids were expecting at least one major toy each from Santa, but of course while Santa may have final say in the exact present choice and do the delivery, a fair portion of the funding will come from the parent(s).

As in most homes, the balance had to be worked out so that Santa provided toys to protect his reputation as a top-quality provider (Lego sets
4094 and
4479 in this house’s case) but that the remaining meagre presents didn’t make me as the parent look like a complete cheapskate. There is also the question of capital expenditure (the toy) versus operational expenditure (batteries).

As it is, the fine balance was found, and with Jeremy deciding he wasn’t up to the task of building the bigger of his sets, I even got to have a go at the Lego myself. My own presents weren’t too shabby either, so all in all, it’s a been a good day.