I hope you've enjoyed reading all about Christmas Around The World over the last couple of weeks; I know I have! It's been fascinating to learn about how this special time of the year is celebrated across the planet, and I've been surprised to discover how unusual it is to have turkey for Christmas dinner! For anybody that's missed it, you can still check out the insider guides to Christmas in Australia, Belgium, India, Kenya, Poland, Singapore, Ukraine and the USA.

Now it's time for an insight into Christmas in England, or at least Christmas in my house...


Breakfast normally consists of sweets and chocolates from our stockings, but this year we decided to go with something a bit more sophisticated; pain au chocolat accompanied by a cocktail of sparkling wine and orange juice. You know you're celebrating when the breakfast menu includes alcohol!


Next up, it's time to open the presents. My brother and sister got the best gift this year, even if I do say so myself! I made them a copy of the board game Chardee MacDennis from the TV show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia; only those as obsessed with the series as we are will realise how amazing this is!


After a couple of hours prep, dinner is served! While the traditional dish for Christmas Day is turkey, we normally save that for Boxing Day and have lamb shanks instead. This year the lamb was accompanied by mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, parsnips, carrots, stuffing balls and Yorkshire puddings; quite a feast!


After everybody's had a nap and let their dinner settle, it's time to play some board games. Our usual favourites are Articulate and Cluedo, but this year we tried out Chardee MacDennis for the first time. Highlights of the game included seeing who could fit the most marshmallows in their mouth, covering my sister's hair in mousse and giving my dad a temporary tattoo! Given that most of the rules of the game involve drinking, it got a little messy after that!


As well as some wonderful presents from my friends and family, this year I received a couple of blogging related gifts that I would like to say thank you for. Ladbrokes Bingo recently organised a special Christmas themed blogger event. Unfortunately I could not attend the actual event, but I still got involved with their Secret Santa and received this lovely diary. It will come in very useful when planning my adventures for the coming year, so thank you very much to whichever blogger chose it for me!


CityConnect also gave me this great selection of York goodies, including gifts from Bettys, Vincent's Coffee, The York Dungeons, Jorvik Viking Centre, York Museums Trust, York's Chocolate Story and Browns Department Store. CityConnect provide free wifi across York city centre and I cannot wait to give it a try!

What have you been up to this Christmas?