Pipmas! 25th December

Middle of nowhere South Oxford Canal

Father Christmas had visited bring us all three lots of goodies in our stockings. Tilly soon commandeered all four bouncy balls and started to work her way through her stash of Dreamies, old style and the super dooper new ones.

After a leisurely cuppa in bed accompanied by the first of the chocolate Mick got on with breakfast, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with a bucks fizz on the side. Tilly headed out and spent most of the day ignoring us and doing her best to find all possible friends who might be living in the sideways trees.

Next came presents of the Christmas variety. We had done well this year with a big stash that has been taking over the corner of the dinette for a while. Lots of good presents, foody stuff, beanie hats with built in lights, a new frying pan and roasting tin, Inspector Morse DVDs, mugs, books, a new fleece for Mick, a knitted mouse for Tilly and a book of swearing old ladies!

Tilly obliged in returning home so we managed to step outside for a bit of a walk. Our mooring, being a touch remote meant that there was no round route unless we wanted to eat very late in the day. So we only walked up to the next winding hole before returning, it was quite a grey day anyway.

Late afternoon we enjoyed our roast duck with all the trimmings although we nearly forgot about the stuffing, it was still sat in the bottom of the oven. In the past I’ve always stuffed the duck, but this year I’d read in several places that you shouldn’t. However it’s late arrival to the table meant we’d had chance to make some space for it on our plates. No need for seconds, just a rest for a couple of hours. We’ll have the seconds tomorrow.

Then came tree presents. Mick got new hair trimmers, I got Paddinton 2 and Tilly got a fish, except she was still a bit busy leaving body parts on the towpath! As it was now dark she was encouraged to head for home by being picked up. She quickly turned her attention to killing her fish. It is just like the fish I caught a couple of years ago, must get more practice at fishing.

Birthday presents came next. Prime Suspect DVDs, new towels, books, tea towels and a very nice smock from a lady in Cornwall we’d seen at Blenheim, my hefty hint had been taken.

Birthday cake. We think that maybe we will need to invest in new candles for the next birthday as these proved hard to light, some broke and they all did a very good job of covering the top of my cake with wax. This didn’t stop us from having a slice with some buffalo ice cream. Very nice.

Not much to watch on the TV so we carried on with our binge watching of Luther, just the right sort of jolly viewing required on Christmas Day!

The canal was quite quiet with only two boats passing us all day, one of them twice. Our nearest neighbour walked his dog past, he was the only passer by. So a nice quiet mooring for a very nice Pipmas.