Christmas in England with the Vidlers

Last night I had to ‘play Santa’. James was tired, so I let him get to sleep and I put out the presents and stockings from Santa. I also had to take care (eat) the stuff Tony left out: Carrots for Rudolph, and a Rice Crispy treat bar & Gamers Cider for Santa. It was quite amusing. I also finished “prepping” for James’ Christmas game.

Tony woke up around 9ish, so everyone slowly got up around then, Alice made a pot of tea, and we opened presents. Tony opened ALL his presents first, then Sam(next older), then Harry, Then Me, (skipped James because at this point he didn’t have any presents), and then Alice.

Alice got me a Union jack Pillow.

Harry got me a vintage Doctor Who Mug.

Sam got me a Doctor who DVD with 3 episodes from the last series(with Amy and Rory).

James got me this home bath kit…coconut smelling. J Yum!

Tony got me a forget me not box.

Also in my stocking, James slipped in a gift voucher to go get a massage! J The works too: Mani/Pedi, and a long nice massage. We’re going on the 7th of Jan for that, and he’s going to go work out in the gym while I get a massage.

After that it was on to the Christmas game! I set up a lovely game for him. In the tree was a note with a beginning clue. He followed that clue to an envelope with a puzzle piece and another clue inside it. He was a bit slow at first since he’s new to the game, but he caught on and was enjoying himself, concentrating really hard. Here’s some pictures of him trying to work out his clues:

After the last clue, he put the puzzle pieces together and it said “Log on to your computer using this riddle: The Pope has it but does not use it. George Bush has a little one. Arnold Shwartzeneger has a big one. Nuns do not have it, neither does Madonna.” It took him a while to figure it out, just because of cultural word differences, but it was all settled. The real fun was watching him log onto his computer and seeing that I’ve changed his password (to the answer of the riddle).

Eventually he got onto his computer, there was a note basically bragging that I got onto his computer, and that he can log onto mine using a password, which I point blank gave to him. From there he answered 4 rounds of 5 questions each. For every answer he got right he got a 50pence coin. he needed 13 coins to buy back the location of his presents(cause there were 13 presents of his hidden). He bought them back, I gave him the location(the downstairs cupboard), and then he got to open his presents.

James got a bunch of DVDs and books, a poster from my mum, a fear and loathing costume from me (which he was absolutely chuffed to bits about--extremely happy--), a shirt, some underwear, and the LA Galaxy Donovan shirt that he was just as chuffed about. :)

After presents we chilled out for a while, packed an overnight bag then went to the hotel for Christmas Lunch. Apparently everyone goes out to a restaraunt, a pub or something for Christmas. No one stays home and cooks or anything. It's a nice new tradition for me. The meal was quite good. I had a 3 course meal: 1st-Duck, 2nd-Goose, 3rd-winter berry crumble. :) i like duck, not so much goose--too tough.

At the table, another Christmas tradition is "Christmas Crackers":

Basically some guy long time ago came up with this and it's been a tradition ever since. You take this 'christmas cracker' and you and another person take hold of each end and pull. Whoever gets the most of the cracker(the 2 cylindar bits, not one) gets whatever prize is inside. Above, is a fan that James won, but he gave it to me anyway....awww, isn't he so sweet? :)

Oh and in the christmas crackers are those little crown hats that you see in movies....

After Dinner, we all went up to the flat inside the hoetl(where James Sr. lives) and watched Toy Story 3. The movie was good, but James Sr. left halfway through to go take a nap, and conviently came back at the end of the movie (I can tell he likes to be a singular person, not a family man, plus he had a rough day, what with all the business of Chirstmas Lunch)...and then John, the eldest brother, left in the middle because 'the chairs in the flat were uncomfortable', so he went to the pub.

After the movie, James and I went to our room in the hotel(James booked a night so he wouldn't have to drive), to watch Doctor Who, the Christmas Special. :) We missed a bit of the beginning because some co-worker, that james doesn't even like, stopped to talk to us, but it was an okay episode.

After that we went down to the bar in the hotel for a pint:

James showed me the kitchen (since it wasn't being used) and James Sr. even recommended that we take some of the left over food from Lunch today that had been stored in the refrigerator.

Overall it was a nice Christmas. ....strange, but nice. I have some new traditions and some new craziness to look forward to. :)