Birmingham Open Christmas 2006

December 26th, 2006

With our first overseas Christmas complete I have taken a few minutes to record the experience.

Christmas Morning 12am - 2am

We originally had planned a quiet night in on Christmas Eve but a late text message from Sanje changed all that. Before we knew it we where preparing for a night out in Solihull. Sanje, Ads and I built up a little Christmas cheer before heading out to Apres with Sarah for a dance and a couple of beers. The music was good and we danced early into Christmas morning.

When we arrived home I couldn’t help opening a few of my gifts, it was technically Christmas after all. Thanks for the great presents babe!

New Jumper Finally I got rid of our copy of 'The Bodyguard' Openning my new K.Swiss Showing off my new kicks

Christmas Day 6:30am onward

Our alarms sounded at 6:30am on Christmas day and despite only 4.5 hours sleep we where all still 95% (there was some slight mumbling about sleeping in) dedicated to making it to Birmingham Open Christmas to help feed those in the community who had no home or family on Christmas Day.

We all performed many different jobs at the community hall including, packing up sleeping materials, sweeping floors, setting tables, serving breakfast (bacon, sausage, eggs and beans) and serving coffee, tea and hot chocolate. The ‘guests’ to the breakfast where very pleasant, polite and the thing that sticked us most, extremely thankful that we had taken some time out of our Christmas day to spend with them. There where plenty of genuine volunteers at the Open Christmas however there where one or two who seemed to be a little too self righteous ordering people around and generally being wankers.

After our three hour shift with karma points under our belt we headed back home to prepare for our Christmas lunch and open more gifts. The Christmas menu included Roast Duck w/ Grand Mariner Orange Sauce (my first attempt at roast duck), Nut Loaf (for the vegetarians), an array of roast vegetables and dinner rolls. Dinner was delicious and very satisfying, a huge success all round.

Five minutes after Christmas lunch we where all asleep on the lounges letting our food digest.

With a little correspondence with our loved ones Christmas away from home was a great day. A very deep thank you to those whose sent gifts from abroad. Merry Christmas to to all our friends and family back home we miss you all and hope you are enjoying your Christmas break.

Santas a good bloke Volunteering at Birmingham Open Christmas Volunteering at Bitmingham Open Christmas 02 Volunteering at Bitmingham Open Christmas 03 Oooooooohhhhhh Yeah.. Ouzo Sarah's new mottled silver bracelet Sarah w/ her new pjyamas Sarah w/ her new perfume New shoes for all Nibblies The duck before roasting 01 The duck before roasting The table setting Mel w/ the roast veg Leevi carving the Christmas duck Leevi's Duck w/ Orange Sauce and Sarah's Nut Roast The Christmas clan Dinner is served Five minutes after our roast dinner Mmmm... pudding laced with cognac topped with brandy cream.

Yes lick your lips and enjoy our Cadbury world pics.

We finally got to Cadbury world, as many of you know i do have a bit of a sweet tooth so i was feeling very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even more so when you are walking to the factory only to be smelling cocoa / chocolate wafting through the air and following the purple signs to the best factory in the wooooooorld.

Once inside we got our free chocolates and started the tour.Leevi and i were the only child free couple and we soon found out why. It may have had something to do with the little car tour around the happy cocoa bean people village. LOL it was hilarious to be in this tiny little purple car making our way around smiling cactus or waving cocoa bean people and we laughed the whole way.

So even though we enjoyed our day i think the next Cadbury tour won’t be for a while yet.

Oh i forgot we did learn about the Cadbury family which was face projected onto a white plaster head model - ( you know the one’s) and we also know now how chocolate is made all with the help of a crazy scientist and viberating seats.

Don’t forget to check out the pics.

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Yay. We moved into our new apartment in Solihull. Its a sweet pad, double bedroom, double glazed, large kitchen apartment smack bang in the middle of Solihull.

Sarah has filmed a brilliant welcome to our house documentary that you all can watch below.