Monday 25th December 2023

Woke to find that Santa had visited us in the night with a stocking full of chocolate. Got up and made tea, which we drank in bed before heading downstairs for some breakfast. Wished ma and pa a Happy Xmas. Kath had had to go visit a client first thing, but turned up around 1100. Did some prep in the kitchen. Jim and Emma showed up around 1300 and we opened presents. Kath had managed to find me a nice hardback edition of Nicholas Nickleby. Ma and pa had gotten generous with the cheque book…hope it doesn’t mean them having to turn the thermostat down come the New Year!!! 

Aki put together a good looking salmon starter, while I heated up the ovens and stuck the turkey crown in. Had to time when to start cooking the carrots, potatoes, the parsnips etc…the top oven just seems to work itself up uncontrollably to 300C or something, quickly incinerating the vegetables! Had to keep taking them out to hold back the growing tide of carbon! The nut roast looked blackened on the outside. Got everything to table eventually, accompanied by bread sauce, mushroom, and turkey gravies, cranberry sauce etc. Emma enjoyed the frazzled nut roast. Xmas pud for afters with stem ginger ice cream, followed by cheese and biscuits. Retired to the living room to play the Book Game. Dad introduced a line about someone with a smelly swollen leg, a theme which various competitors repeated during the course of proceedings to great comic effect. Emma and Jim drove off into the night, and the rest of us nodded off in front of the telly…