Happy Christmas!!!!!!

I made it home to Durham on the evening of the 23rd and, despite what was being reported on the news, the trains were all fine. 

Yesterday I went training at the EIS gym @ Durham Uni and then had a load of family round to exchange gifts etc.  We cracked out Wii Party and that went down well.  On the Wii you can create your own little character's, making them look like yourself or other members of the family/friends.  I don't know if it's because my brother's are really good at designing them or everyone does it, but our "Mii's" are unbelievably good representations.  My cousin Nicolas was a killer on Ram Run and Pineapple Punch, but my brother Paddy showed good form on the Derby Dash. We then went to Midnight Mass at 5pm - my little sister Emily (aged 9) asked how long will Mass be?, so my brothers told her we wouldn't be out until midnight and that's why it's called "Midnight Mass".   Mass was at our local parish, St Joseph's.  After Mass I went into Durham to meet some mates (Palli and Jon) and saw my cousin Katherine and others about town.

Christmas morning is always exciting in my house.  I'm the eldest of five, with Emily being the youngest; she had us up at 7am (the earliest she was allowed to wake everyone up at).  I get up, throw some clothes on to find Em pumped to the max, wide eyed and securing her space at the top of the stairs.  My sister Charlotte (20) is egging her on, with Ben (19) and Paddy (16) fighting over who can get into the toilet.  My dad goes through the annual performance of checking if Santa has been and shouts up with "he's been, he's been".  Like the Bulls of Pamplona, five Reilly-O'Donnell kids peg it downstairs and into the living room.  Santa has been very kind this year, with myself and my sister Charlotte getting new laptops, Ben getting lots of different things, Paddy receiving a Kindle and Emily adding to her transylvanian families collection.  We had lunch together and will be going to my Auntie Kathleen's this evening (my mum's sister); my Uncle Mitch always does a killer family quiz, so I best finish this soon so I can do a bit of revision of my trivia.  For the past few years I have trained on Christmas Day, sometimes twice - in case someone else trains once a la Daley Thompson.  This year I didn't train; two reasons - 1) Jurgen gave us the day off and 2) my back is still agitated and I want to be able to get a strong run of training into the Sierra Nevada camp in January - training today wouldn't have helped.

On the weather - I don't think it has snowed here today but there is a thick covering of snow everywhere, Old Cassop (or "the OC") looks as good as usual.

I hope you have all had a good day and I will probably be back on here tomorrow (I'm going to see my little cousin Sarah performing in the Pantomime).