It's C*****mas time, There's no need to be afraid...

We had our family c*****mas day yesterday. Both our families gathered in our house for a big meal and games and crackers and presents, and it was a wild, beyond our hopes, kind of success. We'd never hosted c*****mas before - We've always spent the day either at my parents or Michelle's sister's house, for various reasons - children, our vegetarianism (we couldn't expect people to have a day without meat, apparently) or space being the main ones. Those and my grumpiness, of course.

So we took the bull by the horns and had 12 people in our house all day. It was great! We prepared most of the food, a huge vege-friendly roast, the night before, in-between drinking wine with our neighbours, and were up and about (despite the wine!) early. Chairs had been borrowed, and in some kind of psychic forsight our table, which had been bought 8 years ago, expanded out to cater for all 12 of us with a bit of a squeeze. Lights had been put up, and the house looked festive.

Everyone turned up on time, and we handed out gifts for our families. Smallish, well thought out gifts. No piles of toys, un-necessary jumpers or joke socks. Dinner was 20 minutes late, and went down very well, which was great because we'd spent a lot of time preparing it all. After coffee we broke out a few family presents that we'd held back - 'Ludo', 'Blow Football', 'Hoopla' and 'Flippin Fish' - all traditional family games, and you know what? It was great! Everyone joined in, we filled the whole day with the whole family laughing and playing and participating before forcing more food on them in the early evening, and eventually waving them all off.

We probably won't see some of our family now until March next year, and it was emotional saying goodbye. But it was nice to say goodbye after having such a fun, festive pre-C*****mas day.