Balderdash!

Had a really lovely Christmas day with the family. We got up late, had cups of tea then present opening (ooohs and ahhhs and thankyous - I got a printer and cat slippers from Mum and dad, Yay! Plus lots of books from Claire and Andy and Clark. V pleased! :) followed by our traditional family breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and bucks fizz. Then everyone alternately gets involved in cooking and showering and getting ready. Dad and I stay away from the kitchen on account of dad never ever cooking and me needing to go and have a lie down. Dad's friend and regular Christmas guest Rodney joins us around four and we all have a tipple. Things get a bit fraught in the kicthen. Dinner is served around five. Everything is perfect, Claire and Andy have taken over so mum is less harrassed than usual. Scallops, pancetta, pea puree and melba toast to start, then goose and all the trimmings followed by a chocolate and beetroot cake made by mum and Clark and iced by Andy. Lots of wine. All very tasty except for the very expensive goose mum thought we'd try this year which hardly had any meat on it and what little there was was tough as old boots, bad plan. Luckily she cooked a turkey yesterday just in case so all was not lost... I pretty much only eat pigs in blankets, roast tatties and lashings of bread sauce anyhow, bit of cranberry here and there plus the odd sprout for variety ;) Well stuffed we retire to the comfy seats to groan for a while (I look for ways to escape for another nap but am foiled in my plan) before gathering to play our once a year family game. Theres much debate over the choice of game and then the rules. Quite a bit of disagreement. Then a trial run. This year we opted for Balderdash again which I was secretly quite pleased about, having won by a clear streak the last time we played it. It was loads of fun, helped along by our very own family mixologist, Andy, providing jugs of Tom Collins and Lime Daquiris, interspersed with GnT's at regular intervals. Brian of course tried to get involved too but was largely ignored by my hugely competitive relatives. Not that I'm not just as bad if not worse than the rest of them, only quietly so. Sneakily competitive! And for the record, Yes I am still the reigning Champion of balderdash! What can I say, I'm clearly brilliant at bullshit. It was touch and go towards the end though, I was half a board ahead of everyone else most of the way through and then very nearly pipped to the post by Clark. We had to have a tie-breaker. Dad tried to cheat by colluding with the boy, then forgot his role at the last minute and I won fair and square! Dad and Rodney were rather unimpressed by the whole thing, apparently a game is not a good game unless you can show off your general knowledge while complaining bitterly about the state of education these days... It'll no doubt be Trivial Pursuit again next year! This takes us up to around 1am. Andy has given up and gone to bed and everyone has switched to cups of tea except Claire who is still loud and larey and demanding more G and Ts. Rodney heads off home. Mum and dad watch the obligatory Christmas Eastenders they missed earlier. Clark disappears, I head off to bed and Claire has lots of say then falls asleep and snores on the sofa. Cat and Alfie have split up again, Max and Tanya get a big surprise. Derek dies.
Perfect family Christmas day :D