Merry Christmas!

A photo of me wearing a rainbow santa hat

By the power of a scheduled post that was written last Saturday, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas if you are celebrating today. As per usual, we’re staying with my parents in York for the Christmas period, having arrived last night.

Unlike the past couple of years, my gift to Christine hasn’t been Discworld-related. Instead, I’ve bought her a gift sponsorship of an endangered frog at the Manchester Museum. At the top level, this includes a one hour behind-the-scenes tour of the vivarium for the sponsor and up to three guests. So that’ll be something to look forward to doing in 2026, especially as the Manchester Museum is one of our favourite places to visit.

As for our gifts to family, this year Christine has made most of them herself. She took up crochet in a big way earlier this year, and so our relatives will have opened a selection of blankets, hats and gloves this morning.

Christmas is also an opportunity for us to relax and recuperate. I’m off work for two full weeks, having finished last Friday. As our past two summer holidays have been a single week, this is actually the longest time I have had off work since our 2023 summer holiday. Thankfully, my workplace closed at lunchtime on the 23rd, and doesn’t open again until the 5th, so I shouldn’t have too much work to come back to.

This is the first year where our nine-year-old doesn’t believe in Santa. It means that they know their gifts were bought for them by people close to them, and not just provided by a mythical being.

Once again, I hope you all have a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Just like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas 🙂 . I hope Santa brought you everything you wanted and that you have an enjoyable day.

A brief overview of what arrived for me this morning:

  • Pass-plus lessons (extra driving lessons for when I pass my driving test)
  • A new shirt
  • A new electric razor
  • 2 boxes of Turkish Delight
  • A bottle of Spanish Cava
  • A sonic tapeless measuring thingamabob
  • A handful of books
  • Money
  • Christmassy sweets

And socks, of course. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a pair of socks.

Merry Christmas!

Cute Christmas Card

Probably about time I posted my annual Christmas Message, so:

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Since it’s about 9am here we’ve opened our presents here already – I’ve got:

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (film) DVD (sponsored link)
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (BBC TV series) DVD (sponsored link)
  • Cocktail shaker and two cocktail glasses
  • Hiking boots
  • 5 small bottles of Absolut vodka
  • A bottle of Cockspur rum and a bottle of Diaquiri cocktail mix
  • Limoncello nougart
  • Green & Blacks organic dark chocolate
  • 2 tubs of Cadbury’s Heroes
  • A fawn-coloured Next long-sleeved t-shirt
  • A black zip-up top
  • A Van Heusen silk tie (in a posh box)
  • A black Mulberry shirt
  • Some Lindt chocolate Reindeer and a chocolate Santa
  • A box of Hazer Baba Turkish Delight
  • Some House of Commons dark chocolate
  • …and a bottle of Fentimans Curiosity Cola

In other words, I’ll be sat watching DVDs wearing some new clothes and hiking boots, eating chocolate and getting drunk on cocktails 🙂 .

Anyway, for those of you who celebrate Christmas (in whatever way you choose), I hope you have an enjoyable and happy day. 🙂

Present-ing…

Hope you are all having a good Christmas! I got lots of presents this morning, including:

My dad also got a DAB digital radio, although it only gets a digital signal upstairs for some reason (and even then can’t pick up all the channels), which is a pity because he wanted to have it in the kitchen.

Update: It would appear that the radio itself is actually faulty – it also has FM and while every other radio in the house gets perfect reception this one seems to pick up interference from somewhere.

My grandparents got a Freeview digibox and a DVD player, along with some DVDs to go with it.

Merry Christmas!

(oh come on, what else could I have called this entry?)

So it’s Christmas morning, and in fact I have rather more presents than expected – I wasn’t expecting that much since the new laptop was supposed to be a present.

Anyway, you can divide my presents pretty much into three categories: sweets, booze and socks. I have all manner of chocolate, Turkish delight and Kendal mint cake to devour over the coming weeks, plus a selection of mini-bottles of Absolut vodka and two pairs of socks. I also got one of those chargeable mini remote control cars, a new top (which I’m wearing now) and, the main present: a tripod for my camera. It’s quite a good one since it can stand around 5 feet off the ground – I’ve wanted one for doing decent night-time shots as I need something to keep the camera steady, otherwise the picture becomes blurred.

So, it’s off for breakfast. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and I hope that you get all the presents that you wanted. And don’t get too drunk on the brandy. 😉