So we did not have a white Christmas, instead we had a sunny Christmas morning.
Brad and I woke up at about 10am and had a mocha and some toast before we sat down to open our presents with Mary & Alan. Brad opened his first silly present (a wind-up Mexican horse-rider) at midnight and had played with it all night.
I received a set of Candela lamps from Brad. I remembered that we saw them at the Guggenhein Museum in New York last July and I really liked them. Unfortunately, they came with a US charger, so we couldn’t get them. They were a wonderful present wrapped up in an eBoy gift wrap, which I kept! Mary & Alan got me The Travel Book published by Lonely Planet. It pretty much covers every country in the world with really amazing pictures. It must be a highly satisfaying job to take pictures for publications like Lonely Planet.
Brad had quite a few presents to open, including a Tumi electric adaptor and Japanese product design book from me; a Bill Bailey audio CD and a Leatherman tool from Mary & Alan and a wireless mouse from my mum. Alan received a whole wardrobe of smart shirts from us, my mum and Mary. We bought Mary a few little things such as a mirror and leather bookmark from Shanghai Tang, a picture with handmade prawns (made with dried grass) and some jasmin tea. Alan gave Mary a pen knife as well as a set of necklance and earrings. A fleece jacket was also sent for Mary from my mum.
We also got a lot of goodies from Mary & Alan including bottles of chocolate beer, honey, mango & orange soap and some other bits and pieces.
We had snacks for lunch and saved our stomachs for the delicious turkey dinner and chocolate dessert.