The girls get up early and open stockings we eventually wake Jonathan up and any remaining stockings are opened in our bedroom and all gifts are displayed for everyone to see.  highlights this year were Rebekah spilling her tea over my lovely and expensive (certainly by our standards) Laura Ashley duvet cover which needed immediate dealing with to stop it staining (it didn’t stain ) and Martin receiving some luxury loo roll (as one of his Grumping subjects this year  has been my choice of Lidl loo roll) – there was the usual assortment of chocolate, hairbands, magazines, pants and socks etc.

Then we have a yummy but easy breakfast, in this case a selection of croissants, pain au chcolat and muffins.

Then off to church – reasonably early as we are doing the music – the whole family doing O Come All Ye Faithful, Ruth on keyboard, Jonathan on leading child for the chorus, Martin on guitar, Rebekah on recorder and I just sing.

Then home for dinner.  Dinner lasts all day in our house we just spread the courses out through the day.  So we have a starter when we get home – easy and quick – veggie sticks and dips with bread-sticks and Pringles.

Ruth struggling with the bottle - Jonathan can't wait for the rest of us.

Martin has managed to get in to Lidl 99p Perry

Martin has to rescue Ruth

Rebekah attempts to drink her Bucks Fizz

Ruth shows us how it's done with more dignity

After the starter we open our presents (pics on martin’s camera so they’ll probably never make it onto the blog).  Things have moved on this year as no-one has any toys any more.  Jonathan got a 3/4 sized Guitar; Ruth got mirrors for her room, book tokens, waterproof gloves and most wonderfully of all some edible glitter; Rebekah got a packet of buttons (but she had already had a contribution towards her new guitar) and Martin and I got a DVD that we had agreed between us (and two more to come but Amazon has disappointed us!).

Then we all decided we were still not hungry so we played a game of Wizard then I shoved the dinner in while we played another game of Wizard – it was the first timer we had played it since Ruth and I received it as a birthday present and we all really enjoyed it.

Then dinner.  Not for us the traditional turkey – some time ago we decided it would be less stressful to have a different meal and we all said we loved lasagne so that is what we decided to have.

After dinner opening of other presents, we loved the biodegradable plant pots and seeds and the very pretty tiny espresso cups which we thought would work wonderfully with mulled wine.

Then we were waiting and waiting for Doctor Who to come on the iplayer.  Watching it as soon as it was on (well as soon as I had finished with the Archers on the iplayer!) and eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream – and this was the only negative moment in the day I had mistakenly bough the wrong ice cream – there was no cookie dough only phish food and chocolate brownie – but we survived this by eating it while we were watching Doctor Who which was excellent as usual!

And that was pretty much it

We had a good time in London with friends afterwards. The highlight was going to the CBBC tour at Television Centre. Ruth was literally jumping up and down (and flapping her arms like wings) with excitement when they saw a real Tardis (not the one they are currently using but a previous one.

We did heaps of other stuff too, Hampton Cout, The globe, the Aquarium and Princess Diana Memorial gdns (lovely play park).

Jonathan meanwhile, stayed with my mum and sister and went to legoland, swimming and played with remote controlled boats, he had a great time too.

Now we are back and we have all the normal stuff to do, home ed committee meetings, dentist appointments, letters to write, companies overcharging us to harrass, playgroup trips, shopping, unpacking blah blah blah. So we definitely feel back again