Merry Christmas!

Blip, it's been a while, but here's hoping to be back on track.

It's pretty mild in Inverness, so no cold and crisp Christmas. We gave the first present of the day to a neighbour who invited us in for a dram. "Only a wee bit", I requested. An hour later, I'd easily imbibed a fair amount of Old Pulteney, which went down surprisingly well considering it was pre-noon. So fuelled, Fred and I walked the three miles up to my folks. I had a bet that it would take more than 45 minutes, whereas Fred thought it would be under. I won – we arrived just short of an hour.

A present fest then ensued, with Benny the dog shredding all the wrapping paper in an excited frenzy. We all did very well in the present stakes, but Rory surpassed everyone, especially with his "To Me from Me" presents. 

Mum was a star in the kitchen and the cracker jokes were ones I'd not heard before, but were suitably bad:

What's the difference between a normal alphabet and a Christmas one?
The Christmas alphabet has no "L".

We played Bop-It! and Fred managed more than 100 before the whole thing shut down. We spent half an hour changing batteries and pressing buttons, putting the original batteries back in, shaking it a bit, and giving up, before the game bopped back into life. 

We were utterly bemused by Dr Who, then ducked out when the Christmas Strictly came on. The walk home took 5 minutes less (downhill) and we barely passed a soul – a few dog walkers and a younger chap weaving haphazardly down the pavement (more Old Pulteney damage).

Merry Christmas, all!