Christmas in USA is a quiet time, with all our family still in England.
On Christmas eve we enjoy our invitation to share time & food with our neighbours Joanne & Earle and their family and friends – it’s always a big gathering, with lots of excellent food (especially the meatballs!).
This year we also had a “Yankee Swap”: everyone brings an inexpensive wrapped gift, then one by one you choose and open a package then decide either to keep the gift or swap it for someone elses opened gift – the best gifts get swapped many times! Of course the first person to open a gift has no choice, so at the end they can choose to swap with ANY other gift (Earle was first, and did not exercise this option).
On Christmas day morning we shared time with Pat & Dave and some of their family (many of their family are spread around USA – some as far from them as England is from us!).
Pat & Dave have a quiet christmas day with light snacks but a lovely warm “wood stove” fire (burning pellets, not wood).
Eventually in the afternoon Margaret & I opened our gifts, which included some DVDs and Tshirts … and some winter (rubber) floor mats for Margarets Audi!
