Christmas with the Armes Family

The UK did have a white Christmas...first time in at least forty years! These two photos are taken just outside my house (above) and on Collier Row Road (the main road I walk along to get groceries).
Greetings...I am back in Romford again after spending Christmas Eve until today with David's family in Letchworth (north of London in Hertfordshire). I took the train up to Letchworth on Friday afternoon where I was met by David and his sister, Jo.

We have had a lovely weekend together. Joan (David's mom) spent a large part of the weekend in the kitchen for the big family meals each of the three days we were all there. Both David and Jo's husband, John are vegetarians, so there were vegetarian entrees at each meal in addition to the fish, turkey, and ham the rest of us had. The rest of us tried to pitch in and help where we could.

I had my first real experience with the crackers that that British like to hand out at Christmas. They're like a wish bone, in that two people pull the cracker and the person who gets the middle (filled) part of the cracker is supposed to win it. It contains a joke and a (gag) toy of some kind--a protractor with shape cutouts you can trace, or a tangram, or a miniature set of playing cards. Another popular tradition seems to be the little firecrackers that pop when you pull the string and send a stream of tissue paper strings across the table at the person at whom they are aimed. Each person's placemat was adorned with both of these items at both the Christmas Day dinner (just family present) and the Boxing Day buffet (to which two of Jeff and Joan's friends were invited).

Stevie, Jeff (Grandad), and (Uncle) David at the beautifully decorated table for Christmas Day dinner.

We had several games of Charades (which I initially heard as Sheraz) as well as completing a 500-piece jigsaw of Europe on Christmas Day, and then the 1000-piece one pictured below last night and this morning.
The three most persistent puzzlers--Jo, daughter Stevie, and yours truly. David and John and Joan also gave us some help at various points along the way.