Christmas Catchup!

Sorry it's been a bit late - it's all been a bit mental here. Huge thank you's to everyone for our lovely presents!

The muhassive thing my mum gave me (that weighed a ton and took up most of the suitcase!) turned out to be a log. A mouldy log.

Yup, it's a piece of wood seeded with shiitake mushroom spores. I love shiitake mushrooms, as they have a unique texture and taste. I'd describe them, but that would be like trying to describe a strawberry to someone whom has never tried one. Try it, and see for yourself - describing the taste of a strawberry I mean. But then again, I wouldn't discourage you from trying shiitakes either, they're lovely!

I also think that, yes, next year the sprouts should be available commercially. They're just so cute and googly. I was very proud to hang it at the very top of my tree. Though I am immeasurably glad you didn't add ew-de-pong of the original Brussels... (Lost as part of a game some months previous, and rediscovered as a shrivelled, malevolent mass of evil. EUGHHHH!)

We have a new TV from His Father for the bedroom, just a wee one with a built in DVD player, but it's exactly what we wanted. We'll be able to put the nice telly back in the living room and have a more appropriately sized bedroom TV now.

His Father had the scare of his life when he came home to discover his Christmas present lurking in wait for him. I think we did a stunning job of giftwrapping the monster Meerkat, complete with his humongous Christmas cracker and ridiculous oversized gift tag. We're very proud of that!

I got a marvellous stack of books to ponder through (The Lucifer Box collection is brilliant. Very debauched Bond style.) and His Lordship got more sweeties than he possibly knows what to do with - besides eat them, of course! Grandad's plum loaf with a cup of hot chocolate is the perfect bedtime treat too, and finished off Christmas day nicely.

We ate exceedingly well, come to think of it. We had a small half-turkey crown packed with stuffing similar to a kiev. Butter basted, then covered with a layer of smoky bacon, it was a delight with veggies, stuffing balls, turkey gravy and yorkshires.

The lizards had their favourite dinners, and got some nice toys to play with, including a mechanical toy bug. Tsam was especially delighted when he discovered that he gets a juicy waxworm if he just licked it instead of trying to chew the bright orange, rattles-your-teeth-violently thing!