Oh the Christmas day at the in-laws, surely every husbands idea of the perfect Noel. To be fair the in-laws are actually really nice people. Hmmmm, how then can we change this. I know lets hire a big hall and invite 20 of the family down, as we do every year. That should put the fear of God into anyone. Ahh marital bliss.
See, Christmas day at the Edmonds' house actually starts somewhere in September when all the old matriarchs come together and begin to plot the day, like old witches around the pot. Hehehehe, you can do the sprouts, hehehe. But what of the parsnips, THE PARSNIPS Hahaha, glazed in honeyyyyyy, and the yorkshires, ohhhh the curse of the yorkshires. Remember the Christmas of '85 Hahahahahahahaha,,,,,,,,,,,, And so it goes on.
The preparation of food is dispersed, arrangements to book, clean, set up, turn up, music, etc is all dished out. Fortunately living so far away from the coven we tend to not get involved until the last moment. Sam enters where no human dare or has indeed returned from alive..... THE MOTHERS KITCHEN !!! Things are criss crossed, poached, par boiled & meringues are made and the missus who is actually incapable of poaching an egg, helps mum to prepare what turns out to be some fabulous food. It is still, keep in mind Christmas Eve.
Christmas day arrives and we are I believe one of the luckiest families around as Jacob, though as excited as any 7 year old at the prospect of a room full of presents for him just beneath where he is lying, has managed to contain himself until waking Dad at 0830Hrs. THAT'S MY BOY!!! He also insisted that everyone had breakfast before opening any presents, the boy is far too sensible and he doesn't get it from his fathers side!
If at first it appeared that the Edmonds househoold had been invaded one of Dr Who's enemies the Chrimbly wrapped robots or something similar yet more sinister. Never fear, TAN-TAN-TARA, 7 yr old boy to the rescue, the cruel robots were systematically destroyed and left powerless to be replaced by nought but bits of paper and defenders of the empire in the form of overly priced Star Wars/Power Rangers figures, board games , jigsaws and a whole load of niff naff and trivia with an attention span capturing life of maybe a day and a half, that and a whole plethora of football stuff.
Lets face it what boy wouldn't be happy. Father Christmas however is a cunning type and had also hidden an envelope half way up the tree. Not cunning enough SantaFella, not cunning enough at all. You may know who all the good little boys and girls are but you haven't got a handle on the inquisitive eyes and mind of a young boy. He had spied that straight away and it took all the guile and at one stage a clothes line and body slam to keep him away from it till last.
Perched on mum's lap he opened it up only to find some paper. Tickets actually. They said on them, Manchester United V Wigan Athletic, 26 Decenber 2007. He read them, half smiled and then looked worried. Then became excited again and in a slightly high pitced voice looked to mum for confirmation. Mum nodded amidst tears and dad confirmed, he then started to jump up and down like a demented tigger toy utterly thrilled and possibly the only 7 yr old in the land wishing for Boxing Day. Check out our Old Trafford page for a full report of the day's events.
After clearing away the disguarded wrapping paper, and trying to find room for all the presents, everyone was dressed in their Christmas Day best and departed for the family gathering at 1.00pm. After the final preparations were made to the Christmas lunch, the turkey carved and the serving dishes filled with every kind of vegetable, roast potatoes, stuffing and the list goes on, we sat down to enjoy the fabulous fare.
After lunch, the adults take possession of the children's new board games and a marathon of different games are played, more food eaten and wine drank. More family members arrive later in the afternoon and after supper which really no one needs, we set off back to the in-laws to get some much needed sleep for the early alarm tomorrow to travel to Manchester.
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