Pale Rider
Legendary Member
How was your Christmas Day?
Mine went to plan and was more enjoyable than expected.
Lunch was at a Brewer's Fayre pub/restaurant at Sutton-in-Ashfield, which I think might be in Derbyshire and is certainly just off the M1.
Location chosen because my increasingly frail and elderly mother can only stand about an hour in the car even when driven by my older brother.
This gave me a 290 mile round trip from Sunderland.
Traffic was relatively quiet, which seems to make all the difference to fatigue levels.
Three course lunch at £50 a head was excellent.
About the only fault was some of the bigger sprouts were a touch hard and could have done with a few more minutes on fast boil.
The table was nicely dressed with crackers, streamers, pointy foil hats and whistles.
I get on tolerably well with older brother and mother in small doses, which this was as mother gets over tired after a couple of hours.
Having arrived at just after noon, we were on our separate ways by about 3pm.
No presents - we stopped those years ago - but mummy did give me a couple of slices of Christmas cake and a tin of biscuits, which brother described as 'surplus to requirements' in his house.
Straightforward run home, and I'm now about to sit down and watch the latest Mary Poppins film which should be recorded if the Sky box has done its job.
So all in all, my moderate expectations of Christmas Day were exceeded.
How about you?
Mine went to plan and was more enjoyable than expected.
Lunch was at a Brewer's Fayre pub/restaurant at Sutton-in-Ashfield, which I think might be in Derbyshire and is certainly just off the M1.
Location chosen because my increasingly frail and elderly mother can only stand about an hour in the car even when driven by my older brother.
This gave me a 290 mile round trip from Sunderland.
Traffic was relatively quiet, which seems to make all the difference to fatigue levels.
Three course lunch at £50 a head was excellent.
About the only fault was some of the bigger sprouts were a touch hard and could have done with a few more minutes on fast boil.
The table was nicely dressed with crackers, streamers, pointy foil hats and whistles.
I get on tolerably well with older brother and mother in small doses, which this was as mother gets over tired after a couple of hours.
Having arrived at just after noon, we were on our separate ways by about 3pm.
No presents - we stopped those years ago - but mummy did give me a couple of slices of Christmas cake and a tin of biscuits, which brother described as 'surplus to requirements' in his house.
Straightforward run home, and I'm now about to sit down and watch the latest Mary Poppins film which should be recorded if the Sky box has done its job.
So all in all, my moderate expectations of Christmas Day were exceeded.
How about you?
. A few presents, chocolates, alcohol. All in all a good day.
