Christmas Eve after midnight

Midnight Mass, C of E style

The local C of E church had a midnight mass at midnight, and it's a pretty building, so we went.

Wow, those guys are religious! I mean, I was brought up Irish Roman Catholic, and I have never seen pomp and piety like these guys did it. The incense permeated the church and our larynxes, which made singing a little difficult; my voice dropped a register during the service. They chanted or badly sang the first reading. They put their hats on, they took their hats off. It took 90 minutes. Communion was brief, though. The congregation was at least 25 strong, and only 6 went for communion.

We sang carols though, and there was a great sermon about how Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and Narnia are all basically about Good and Love and things, and that their message - now showing at a cinema near YOU - was important to all humanity and things. Er, there was a bit about Jesus, too. And things.

Two priests shook hands with us on our way out. We felt very churched, and thoroughly religionned.

Santa Claus

We (me and Niamh) sent Rob and Janice to bed and then we got ready to Be Santa. We had the stockings all ready (Niamh and I have red stockings with teddy bear heads at the tops, and Rob and Janice had the green ones Mum made ages ago. The cat's one was a little one from Niamh's Christmas in Cork, so lots of sentimental value was lying around looking like goodie-bags) and the gifts in various plastic bags - mostly wrapped gifts, this year, to make secrecy easier.

First we did Rob's and Janice's and the cat's stockings, and then we split up to do each other's. Then we bounced up and down a bit and squealed in excitement and hugged and it was lovely. For the first time in ages, Christmas was really exciting. Then I found Niamh a book and a candle to read it by, and left her to sleep on the inflatable bed in the dining room (Janice was in the spare room for Christmas).

Then I went to bed and inflicted cold feet on Rob's warm shins.

Christmas Morning

Well, I think I woke at about 9:30 am, which wasn't too bad considering we'd been up until after 3. Rob made tea, and I went downstairs and sat on Niamh's bed in the dining room waiting to wake up. We put the turkey in the oven and turned the oven on. Rob went and looked at the stockings laid out in the library, but didn't open anything (good boy!). Niamh had woken up twice in the night feeling sick with excitement!

Janice came downstairs and we all had some tea and woke up a bit more. Then we trooped into the library. My stocking was laid out on the wing chair, Rob's and Janice's were on the two folding armchairs, and the Mustard's was on his scratching post.

The stockings were really good. There was enough stuff that everyone had some presents piled up outside the stocking. Everyone got socks, and I got knickers. There were little cars, and plastic diggers, and diaries, and chocolate and toffee and sweets. Everyone got a Terry's Chocolate Orange. I got a Fiona Apple CD! or maybe it was the soundtrack to 10 Things I Hate About You that was in my stocking, and the Fiona Apple one was under the tree. I can't remember what everyone else got, but it was all good.

We had breakfast then - Kellogg's Variety Pack, as is traditional in our family. Believe it or not, some people will eat Corn Puffs, or whatever they're called.

Um, after that we cooked - carrots and parsnips, mashed potato, roast potato, baked ham, stuffing, gravy, breadsauce, the aforementioned turkey, brussels sprouts, mixed frozen veg. . . sherry trifle (sponge, raspberry jam, fruit cocktail, sherry, custard, whipped cream, glace cherries to garnish) and steamed pudding.

Then we laid the table beautifully again, with crackers and so on.

Christmas Afternoon

We ate. We ate vast mountains of food, and small hillocks, and drank Amé and water and apple juice. We pulled crackers and wore silly hats, and eventually we gathered to open presents.

From our eldest sister, Niamh and I got mugs. They say "To the World's Greatest Auntie". Wow. The shock almost killed us.

Janice got a pair of purple dungarees from us.

Purple dungarees

When I was 15 and depressed and running away from home and refusing to go to school and being generally miserable, my sister Gráinne brought me out to Dublin's Temple Bar (a pedestrian area that used to be full of wonderful poor-student alternative-lifestyle places and is now yuppified) and told me solemnly: "There comes a time in every woman's life when she needs a pair of purple dungarees." Then she bought me some; I still have them.

When my sister Niamh was 16 or so and being horribly bullied at school and going through a similarly awful period of her life, I told her the same thing, and bought her a pair of purple dungarees. She got her life sorted out and stopped needing them, so I have them now.

A friend in New Zealand had a teenage daughter going through a tough time. I emailed her some sage advice, and her mother bought a pair of purple dungarees.

Janice is now officially a member of the Purple Dungarees Family. I think she was pleased. She's had a tough 18 months or so.

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So we opened the rest of our gifts, which took a while (one gift at a time is our tradition, so that everyone gets to see what everyone has). Rob got slippers and pyjamas, among other things. I got some lovely clothes, which I'm very pleased about, as I have been getting incredibly tired of the ones I have. My old clothes were all terribly respectable.

Christmas Evening

This is where I remember all the things I forgot before.

We spoke to our sisters in Ireland, and Rob spoke to his family in Sweden, and Janice spoke to her parents who weren't in Canada.

Janice liked our trifle; apparently she usually doesn't like trifle, because of not liking cream, but the rest of ours was so good that it made up for that. Lots of people who don't like trifle like our trifle. It has no jelly in it (that's Jello, as distinct from Jam, for you North Americans!) and not too much sherry.

We liked Janice's Quebecois pies. One of them is pure sugar.

The cat got used to his new collar eventually.

We watched DVDs. Shrek, 10 Things I Hate About You (my goodness, a teenage romantic comedy that I love!), Save the Last Dance (pretty good, but I prefer Strictly Ballroom), Galaxy Quest, um, And Lots, Lots More. I may review some of them at some stage.

We didn't stay up very late. We were all exhausted from staying up until 2 am having that Cultural Experience.