England Day Five: Christmas Day

I've definitely never had a Christmas like today. We all slept in until 11. We had no presents to open, but the souvenirs we placed under the tree (to remind us that we were actually getting presents). Instead of buying presents, we gave the girls a set amount of money they're allowed to spend while we're here.

We lit another fire and the girls opened their Christmas Crackers Eric had bought. After they "popped," there were little toys and jokes in each one. We played with the mini cards (that was one of the gifts in the crackers).

We decided at the last minute to drive to the closest beach, which was a two-hour drive to Weston-Suer-Mare. At least the beach can't be closed on Christmas Day! We stopped by some interesting castles on the way, then arrived while it was still light outside. It was rainy and windy, but we walked along the beach anyway and watched the lighthouse blinking from Cardiff.

We drove back to Stratford where we had dinner reservations at Bamboodle (a Thai restaurant) only to find out they had no chef and decided not to open. Lovely. We had nowhere to to go and I was frustrated that we didn't take that last available table they had at The Swan. Thank heavens for Indian restaurants! We ended up at Avon Spice and made the best of our situation. We all love Indian food so it worked out, although that's definitely not a typical Christmas meal. We went back to the park near the Avon River and fed our leftover naan to the swans and geese and ducks.

I don't think we'll ever forget this Christmas!