Christmas morning,

time to start unwrapping presents!

and there were plenty of them under the tree,

first a black sparkly top,

Diana was so excited! next a dress,

then some thing that was purrrfect!

an evening top,

three pairs of earrings, not counting the ones that came as a set with the ring from the gold shop!

then a pretty turquoise dress,

and a couple of hand painted and embroidered tops, a green and yellow one,

this one in yellow and purple,

then over to Nick and Maureen's as we were going to spend Christmas with them, Diana in one of her Christmas presents,

before lunch we took a look at some of the flowers that Maureen was growing from seed, these are I think a type of succulent,

and of the 10 sunflower seeds that came in the packet 3 have started to grow, they are now about 4 or 5 inches tall, (but not for long, wait till Boxing Day!),

Ta-Taa taking things easy,

Diana poses by the pool in her new dress,

and 'Cheers!', from me,

Ta-Taa receiving a bit of TLC from Nick,

all hands to the pumps to help out in the kitchen, well I just offered words of encouragement!

prawn cocktail starters,

then the main course, turkey of course and delicious it was as well, Maureen is such a marvelous cook,

'Cheers!'

then time to pull the crackers,

a tug of war was had by all,

one, two, three, go!

the gifts in the crackers were quiet nice, like the silver necklace Diana is wearing,

and the silver bracelet that was in Maureen's cracker,

the hats were nice,

and we had plenty to go round, but instead of the customary jokes there were general knowledge questions in them, for example what is the name of the Irish national who was knighted in 1911 and then hung for treason in 1916? or what is the largest country in the Horn of Africa? answers on Boxing Day, but did I buy the mastermind edition of Christmas crackers or what?

then time to open the presents,

followed by a game of Monopoly, using all of my usual skill, cunning and expert knowledge of the housing markets, I was the first out!

Nick the grandmaster of the evening holding the Monopoly master trophy,

you too can be a winner!

Diana decided it would be cute for me to wear the wrappings from one of the presents,

but I thought it looked better on her, by now it was really late, it is surprising how long a game of Monopoly takes! then off to bed.