A White Christmas

The snow didn't stop us picking up our rental car and hitting the M4 to Cardiff. It was an easy drive, little traffic and despite lots of snow along the route the road was clear of any ice or snow. Once in Cardiff there was a bit more snow and ice on the roads but we managed to find our apartment and navigate all the entry and safe codes to get our key. We heaved our luggage up to our apartment which was spacious and well appointed. We dumped our stuff and headed out to have a look around town before it got dark and everything closed up. Town was reasonably quiet with just a few last minute shoppers and a few Christmas eve drinkers out. We picked up a gingerbread latte before finding the mulled wine and bratwurst stands which we had to stop at...

Home via the friendly local pub called the cricketers. We had the Christmas phone call with our folks, Jackie set up the Christmas tree and we put out our Christmas stockings for Santa.

Christmas morning arrived, bright sunshine and pristine white snow, what a perfect start to Christmas day, the sun came streaming into our lounge right onto our tree.

We decided to start the day with a light healthy breakfast in preparation for our afternoon feast...

After breakfast we got in to the serious business of present opening...

And then went out for a walk in the hope of building a snowman. Unfortunately the snow was too powdery (like dry sand but cold) to build a snow man, so we gave snow angels a go instead. Jackie's was by far the best.

Some more photos from our walk:

Us modelling our new hat and scarf sets...

The SWALEC stadium, home of the Glamorgan cricket team, an ashes test was played here last year

Lots of snow

Jackie throwing the powdery snow in the air

After our walk in the snow it was back to the apartment for Christmas music, mulled wine and cooking. We decided to do a roast duck this year as we had turkey last week with the family. I'd never done a duck before but it was pretty straight forward, just a lot more fat to deal with.

Here I am modelling a new shirt from Jackie and the apron was actually a present from me to Jackie.

Work in progress, duck, potatoes and stuffing in the roasting dish. Brussel sprouts with water chestnuts and bacon in the pan and mulled wine at the back.

 Jackie provided us with a beautiful table setting.

Dinner is served (by this stage we'd eaten so much cheese and crackers and chips that it was quite an effort to get through the roast

Jackie modelling her new tunic along with all her presents laid out under the tree

We finished off the night with a game of scrabble while watching Christmas movies.

Thank you all for your lovely gifts and cards, we were thoroughly spoilt.

We had a wonderful Christmas day and would like to extend a heartfelt invitation to our families to join us for a winter Christmas in the English countryside in 2011, we can't guarantee a white Christmas but we can guarantee a good time!