Christmas was a somewhat complicated affair this year, consisting of multiple engagements at various locations across Britain with differing company - most of which were unfamiliar faces for this time of year. We did have one D&S Christmas veteran however in Shannae's brother Ryland, who arrived from Canada mid way through December.
The lead up to Christmas was lovely. London loves Christmas. My main points of evidence for this are the Christmas cups at Costa, the abundance of Christmas jumpers, and the generally happy atmosphere (there's also the massive comedown known as January where grey is the colour of choice and frowning is mandatory, but more on that later).
For our work wind up our company organised a night of ice skating at Hampton Court Palace. The ice rink is set up over winter and the palace is illuminated making for a beautiful venue.
Our first celebration, known by participants as 'Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve', took place (oddly enough) five days before actual Christmas. Shannae spent all day cooking, we exchanged gifts and ate a huge Christmas meal with our housemates (and temporary housemate Ryland).
After this we had a couple of days off to rest and relax (and assemble my new Lego models) before we headed over to Wales to spend Christmas Day with my cousins Mark and Nicola in Cardiff. A very laid back couple of days, I was very ill and spent a lot of time sleeping on The couch while people buzzed around, Shannae and Ryland played cards and Nicola worked tirelessly to produce the biggest and most comprehensive Christmas meal ever created.