Sunday 25th December 2022

Woken by Santa creeping in to the bedroom with our Xmas stockings! I asked her to bring me a mug of tea, but nothing materialised, so I eventually wandered downstairs and stuck the kettle on. Drank our teas in bed opening our stockings...mine was full of chocolate...nice!!! Descended downstairs for another mug of tea, and a bowl of cornflakes. Got the turkey rubbed with duck fat and dried herbs, and put him in the oven. Opened our Christmas presents...

Dad was very taken with his quilted over-trousers! I think the "Get Started in Stand-up Comedy" book that Kath gave me should have been given to him!!! Mum liked her electric toothbrush. The rest of the morning/early afternoon was largely spent in the kitchen preparing Xmas dinner. A lot of things needed to come together at the last minute...crispy roast potatoes, brussels sprouts with bacon and fried onions, parsnip mash, carrots with ginger and chilli flakes, roast parsnips, bread sauce, turkey gravy, broccoli...there was mountains of it. Too much for mother and father to manage, and Kath struggled a bit too...Aki and I cleaned our plates. Kath did a salmon and prawn starter, and dad served up a tasty xmas pud with cream and brandy butter.

We teamed up to clear the table and tidy up. Sat in the living-room to watch Charles III's King's Speech at 1500. It was the usual generic guff, though had a more religious slant than I was expecting. Jim had bought Dad a DVD of Danny Kaye in "The Court Jester", but their new TV is not compatible with their old DVD Player, so I tracked it down on Amazon Prime, and was surprised to see that they had Jim's Amazon Prime account...which, perfectly justly, meant Jim paid for our rental too. Kath fell asleep in her chair, and snored through about an hour of it...Aki nodded off too. Dad and I stuck it out to the bitter end...it's certainly hasn't aged particularly well, but still plenty of laughs to be had!

Played "Am I Normal" which I'd bought for Kath...it turned out to be rather nearer the knuckle than I had anticipated, asking potentially awkward questions...we all had a go at responding, and it lead to some entertaining moments, so we got a few laughs out of it. Mum put some bread and butter out on the dining table, and we made turkey and ham sandwiches, which we ate in front of the telly. No-one was very hungry, in all honesty, after the massive feast at lunchtime. Found ourselves watching an intriguing, if rather thin documentary charting the career of Tina Turner...some interesting contributors...hadn't realised she'd teamed up with Heaven 17...or rather, perhaps, I'd forgotten. Shower and bed, exhausted!!!