January 5th 2016

So we arrived home and it was pouring with rain. Bucketing down, as they say. The entire house had been shut up and everything felt moist, slightly sticky and slightly off-kilter as your house always does when you have been separated from it for even a brief period. I always feel as though walls surprise me, furniture looks unexpected, and you spend an entire day feeling your way awkwardly around this known space afresh.

Or maybe it's just me.

Considering we had left at midday on Christmas Day there were a number of rediscoveries to be made on a rainy day. Ted discovered his love of goggles, courtesy of a crystal growing kit.
 

Ted also discovered how to create that perfect character for Tarantino's newest genre hybrid - space opera meets mad scientist. There was a brief, five minute reprieve from the madhouse rain which saw Ted run outside for a mad, solo, lightsaber training session.

















































I don't really post photos of Hobbes. Here he is, commanding his post as he is wont to do.







Harriet was eager to start on an artistic endeavour, courtesy of her gift of a watercolours starter kit plus some beautiful pencils from Aunty Brooke. Given the level of my artistic knowledge and skill, we praised the wonders of the internet and YouTube for the ready availability of tutelage on the subject.




























There was unpacking and a necessary short shopping trip undertaken by James (what a star!) and by day's end we had all dipped into our Festivus gifts with renewed excitement. The evening finished with a round of Munchkin, in which, yet again, James proved why being an elf sucks. If you have never played Munchkin then suffice to say it is akin to having the immunity idol in Survivor. And if you don't watch Survivor then good day to you sir, move along and do not pause to chat. Your kind are not wanted here.