***CHRISTMAS***

  Woking, England, United Kingdom
Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Mass 1

Happy Christmas!!! I woke up to the sounds of everyone else bustling about down stairs. I took the chance to hop in the shower as I knew it would be in high demand this morning, before going to Christmas Mass. After my shower I went downstairs to wish everyone a happy Christmas. Then I had a 1 1/2 pieces of toast: one half with pate, one half with nutella and one half with peanut butter. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of room left for Christmas lunch/dinner later on.

After everyone was fed and watered we all (apart from Uncle Nigel as he was sick) went to Christmas Mass for 11am. Andrew was alter-serving, Samantha was reading, I was Eucharistic ministering and Auntie Theresa was organising. Mass was lovely and the priest gave a good homily about the importance of the beginning of the bible ("In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God") to the Christmas story. Apparently Genesis was originally written in Greek and the word used for "word" was logos which in Greek means logic. As we all know, at the beginning of Genesis, the term "word" or "logos" is referring to the Son of God, incarnate in Jesus. The priest showed how this related to the Christmas story (or the birth of Jesus) by talking about how Jesus' coming into our world is the meaning of living [can't remember exactly what he said but I will find out and add it in!] At the end of Mass the priest was handing out chocolates to everyone which was really nice.

Mine and Sam's Christmas Dinner (Guess Who?)

After Mass we went home and Auntie Theresa continued getting the afternoon meal ready for 4pm (she had started earlier in the morning and possibly the previous day). We all sat in the living room and had a chat which was really nice and I showed grandma and grandad some of our photos from Rome and London. At about 2pm Uncle Stephen arrived which surprised everyone because apparently he's usually late :P After that we started to open presents. One person handed out their presents at a time and then one person opened at a time - just like at my house! Auntie Theresa continued preparing food in between present rounds and then not long after 4pm we sat down to a magnificant spread. The table alone looked very classy with folded Christmas Napkins, fancy cutlery, candles and a lindt santa for each person. For our Christmas meal we had: roasted parsnip, roasted/crispy potatoes, boiled carrots, swede, cauliflower cheese (made by Samantha - delicious!), pigs in blankets (mini sausages wrapped in bacon - yummm!), ham (double yum!), turkey, stuffing, cabbage, brussel sprouts, yorkshire puddings, gravy and other garnishings (I don't think I've forgotton anything).

Me and Sam 2

After dinner we finished opening presents with just Thomas', ours and Uncle Stephen's to go. Everyone seemed to like our homemade painting/photo framed thingys that we made which was cool. Me and Sam got some awesome prezzies even though Auntie Theresa, Uncle Nigel, grandma and grandad had already given us our Rome trip for Christmas. I got some fancy Lacoste, Dolce & Gabana and Hugo Boss Smellies from Auntie Theresa/Uncle Nigel as well as some chocies; some slippers, PJs and gold chocolate coins from grandma/grandad; a cute keyring from Andrew; more delicious chocolates and sweeties from Samantha; a book voucher from Thomas (perfect for a new book for Africa); and Barack Obama's new book from Uncle Stephen which I'm really looking forward to reading.

After the last prezzies for the day (apparently there's still Auntie Christine's tomorrow where we're going to for boxing day), we moved back into the living room and played the parcel game. Auntie Theresa put out a selection of parcels in the middle of the floor and then cards were drawn to determine the order parcels were to be picked. If you picked a parcel and unwrapped it but preferred someone else's parcel, you could swap with them as long as they hadn't already been swapped in that round. It was really fun and got a lot of laughs. The chocolates were the most popular and I ended up with the two things I wanted most which were the face wipes (good for Africa) and the Nestle Walnut Whips which mum had told me to try (however I think I only got those out of the kindness of Uncle Nigel's heart as I hadn't actually ended up with them). Other things in the parcels included a toilet roll, a floral shopping bag, pegs, brazil nut chocolates, malteasers, toilet soap things, batteries, Christmas teatowels, pens and a bicycle puncture repair kit (which Sam willingly ended up with - he said he's going to fix the African's bikes when we go to Tanzania).

Christmas Family Photo!

After the parcel game we chatted in the lounge some more and then had dessert: white chocolate cheesecake (made by Andrew - yummmmmy!), blackforest chocolate cream log, chrismas pudding, christmas tarts as well as cheeses and crackers with grapes. I was so stuffed from all the dinner and dessert as well as various chocolate I had eaten. Before grandma, grandad and uncle Stephen left, I made sure we got some family Christmas photos with everyone and put the camera on timer. After they left we watched Cool Runnings, Wallace and Gromit, and now we're watching Iron Man with Tom and Andrew (our present to Andrew).

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas and were made to feel very much at home by everyone :) Of course I did miss my family as did Sam miss his. It especially hit me when we were doing presents like we do at home and also when I talked to dad on Skype. Hopefully I'll be talking to mum and dad sometime tomorrow evening, there morning of the following day. The internet is amazing! Anyway, back to Iron Man now, it's up to the bit were Tony's robotic heart has been taken out!!

Happy Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo