Christmas Day

The kids are still kids and so woke at 5:30 am to go down and open their stockings.
They started banging pots and pans to get us awake around 8, and thus the day began. Rhiannon and Sioned were just taking cinnamon rolls out of the oven when we stumbled downstairs to brew some coffee and we had a lovely start to the day opening stockings and marveling at all the presents! We sat down to open presents properly around 9:30 and then took a break for breakfast at 10. The experimental 'savory bread and butter pudding' that we concocted last night went down a treat this morning. Result!

We headed out for a walk around 11:30 and took the scenic route down to the Coach and Horses which was open 12-2. We stayed nearly that whole time and enjoyed visiting with friends and neighbors in the sunshine of the garden. Our friends Grace and Sharon even rode their own horses here along with some other riders, so with all the people, dogs, horses, sunshine and beverages it was a wonderful place to be! 

We walked home and put the oven on, then started cooking dinner so that we could eat around 6 pm. It all worked out pretty well and required amazingly minimal effort somehow to prepare, so that was pretty good too! After dinner we watched the movie 'Nativity' and talked on the phone to family members from afar, then cleaned up and called it a day. I think we all had a really good day actually. There were no big crazy presents, no high drama, no meltdowns, no real shockers - instead we had some very thoughtful gifts, good food, some lovely beverages and generally enjoyed each other's company.