Two Christmases

I obviously have not totally got the hang of this blogging thing yet, as I think vanishing offline for a few weeks is definitely bad, however I am back now and therefore have a few catchup posts to do. First up Christmas; even back when Mr Owl and I were still just courting, we decided that we wanted to spend Christmas together. As my family live at the other end of the country the only option was to alternate which family is lucky enough to get us for Christmas. However as my sister and brother-in-law work in the emergency services, and therefore never get Christmas off, we always have Christmas Day 2 (or CD2: Revenge of the Mince Pies) on one of the days they are off. This means two Christmases- which personally I love!
This year we were staying up north with Mr Owl's family for Christmas Day itself, but were in our home for Christmas Eve. My family have always had a tradition of eating ham sandwhiches with a glass of champagne late on Christmas Eve. This purportedly started when my parents were waiting for us kids to fall asleep so that Father Christmas could visit and is one that we are happy to adopt as our own! (it involves champagne, nuff said!). The pub crawl around our locals beforehand is an element we inventively added in ourselves.

Ham sarnies and champers darling!

All the decorations up

Christmas Day itself was lovely, far too much food was eaten and definitly too much alcohol, starting with cheeky Buck's Fizzes in the morning.

Starting the day the right way!

The highlight of the day has to be the Playmobil castle that our nephew got with catapults, flying dragons and slingshots. I am not sure how much he got to play with it, but all the adults loved it!

Then it was off down south to do the whole thing over again. My family's Christmas (whether it is the actual day or the second go at it) always has presents under the tree, followed by a walk which inevitably ends up in the pub. Then it is back home for pre-dinner drinks and snacks.

We always have smoked salmon to start (are you starting to sense that we are very traditional/stuck in our ways) and of course turkey with all the trimmings.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with lots of lovely goodies. Do you have traditions in your family for Christmas or do you like to try something new every year? Finally what Christmas would be complete without a slice of Christmas Cake! Merry (belated) Christmas.