Christmas Day

After the fun of the night before, we didn't do the usual Christmas Day thing of bouncing out of bed at 8am to eat Chocolate Orange and open stockings. However, we did make it up at 10:30am and popped open the champers straight away (hard core!!)! We had a very relaxed, posh brekkie of croissants and strawberries, with a couple of glasses of bubbly and then Jen phoned her family who were all at Auntie Anne and Uncle Tom's in New York and were just off to Midnight Mass!

We had loads of cool pressies, thanks to Debs and Neil coming to visit and bringing presents from all the Barkers, so we ended up with loads more pressies than we expected. Thanks Debs for your excellent choices on behalf of the Barkers! We also had parcels from Nige's mum and dad, Jen's mate Sarah, Auntie Anne and Uncle Tom, and Jen's bro, Rob. Most exciting of all, we had a surprise package that we didn't know who it was from until we opened it, which turned out to be a wooden hamper from Jamie and Linds with lots of wine, chocolate and a BBQ tool set - quality! So thank you everyone for thinking of us - we are so chuffed with all our pressies :-)

After the excitement of the present opening, we had a very chilled few hours in the sunshine, drinking bubbly in our front yard, and we also strolled down to Oriental Bay and sat on the beach in the sun, watching the world go by, and all the small kids with their new roller blades/bikes/scooters etc on the prom!

As we are both used to mad family Christmases, we really enjoyed spending Christmas Day chilling, just the two of us. It did make a lovely change, but never fear, with promises of family visits next crimbo, we're looking forward to the madness starting again!

In the evening, Darren and Emete came round with a huge dish of scrummy lasagne and lots of festive cheer! We had a massive dinner - thanks Emete for your delicious creations! - and cracked crackers, played games and drank more bubbly!



Breakfast bubbly