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Dec. 25th, 2002 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hnpccChristmas day was fairly quiet.
I went to Dean's family for lunch, which was the traditional fare. It's always odd seeing other families customs - Dean's family do some things similarly to mine and other things completely differently.
The funniest point came when Dean nearly set his father on fire while lighting the Christmas pudding. I swear, they're a family of pyromaniacs... ;-)
This was the first Christmas Dean and I had spent together - previously we've gotten up and then he's driven north and I've driven east. It was nice. We might even do it again next year. :-)
For tea my family met at the hospital where my uncle still was. He was feeling terrible and miserable (as you tend to do when you're sick and in hospital) and so it was a bit depressing. Having said that, it also had its funny moments - particularly when my Mum was reading out the Christmas messages in the cards to my uncle and trying to get him to guess who they were from. Both her brothers simultaneously went:
"Oh for God's sake, just tell us!"
and the likeness was unmistakeable. At times like these you can also hear the echo of my cantankerous Scottish grandfather in both of them. :-) All of us children cracked up.
The other funny moment was when I found out that my cousin was 8 months pregnant, turned to Mum and went "you didn't tell me that!". Whereupon she turned to her well brother and went "well you didn't tell me until last week!" To which my uncle replied: "It kind of slipped my mind..."
(Yeah, OK, it's grandchild #4, but even so...)
After the hospital we all came back to my place for tea (salad, we were all pretty stuffed) and the remainder of the present opening. i.e. mine and Dean's presents from the rest of the family and our presents to them. Which was delayed while my sister returned to her place to get the bag with my presents, which she'd inadvertently left there before going to the hospital. Fortunately she's only a couple of streets away... :-)
My presents went down OK - I was very relieved that my brother liked the copy of "Tin Tin and the black gold" in Arabic as I wasn't sure if he'd like that or not. He'd asked for something practical so I also gave him an adaptor which works in Egypt - apparently they're similar to Europe (according to the company chart at least). My sisters liked their lotions and "365 days of kittens" calendar respectively. And my parents got their immunised children in Sudan.
I ended up with two calendars, an Italian recipe book (which has gnocci quatro formaggi in it! And fettucine gorgonzola! And pictures!), Swahili for the Broken Hearted, and some other odds and sods. It was nice. I may also have scored a T-shirt Dean was given by my Mum, as it doesn't quite fit. ;-)
All in all a quiet Christmas. But fortunately in a different way to last year. As I pointed out: at least this year we're not all playing hymns and at least my uncle can still tell us he's miserable.
And we're all thankful for that. :-)
</lj-cu
I went to Dean's family for lunch, which was the traditional fare. It's always odd seeing other families customs - Dean's family do some things similarly to mine and other things completely differently.
The funniest point came when Dean nearly set his father on fire while lighting the Christmas pudding. I swear, they're a family of pyromaniacs... ;-)
This was the first Christmas Dean and I had spent together - previously we've gotten up and then he's driven north and I've driven east. It was nice. We might even do it again next year. :-)
For tea my family met at the hospital where my uncle still was. He was feeling terrible and miserable (as you tend to do when you're sick and in hospital) and so it was a bit depressing. Having said that, it also had its funny moments - particularly when my Mum was reading out the Christmas messages in the cards to my uncle and trying to get him to guess who they were from. Both her brothers simultaneously went:
"Oh for God's sake, just tell us!"
and the likeness was unmistakeable. At times like these you can also hear the echo of my cantankerous Scottish grandfather in both of them. :-) All of us children cracked up.
The other funny moment was when I found out that my cousin was 8 months pregnant, turned to Mum and went "you didn't tell me that!". Whereupon she turned to her well brother and went "well you didn't tell me until last week!" To which my uncle replied: "It kind of slipped my mind..."
(Yeah, OK, it's grandchild #4, but even so...)
After the hospital we all came back to my place for tea (salad, we were all pretty stuffed) and the remainder of the present opening. i.e. mine and Dean's presents from the rest of the family and our presents to them. Which was delayed while my sister returned to her place to get the bag with my presents, which she'd inadvertently left there before going to the hospital. Fortunately she's only a couple of streets away... :-)
My presents went down OK - I was very relieved that my brother liked the copy of "Tin Tin and the black gold" in Arabic as I wasn't sure if he'd like that or not. He'd asked for something practical so I also gave him an adaptor which works in Egypt - apparently they're similar to Europe (according to the company chart at least). My sisters liked their lotions and "365 days of kittens" calendar respectively. And my parents got their immunised children in Sudan.
I ended up with two calendars, an Italian recipe book (which has gnocci quatro formaggi in it! And fettucine gorgonzola! And pictures!), Swahili for the Broken Hearted, and some other odds and sods. It was nice. I may also have scored a T-shirt Dean was given by my Mum, as it doesn't quite fit. ;-)
All in all a quiet Christmas. But fortunately in a different way to last year. As I pointed out: at least this year we're not all playing hymns and at least my uncle can still tell us he's miserable.
And we're all thankful for that. :-)
</lj-cu
