Christmas was great. Christmas Day had much of the tradition of home so the kids didn’t miss out: presents, Santa sacks, turkey roast dinner [photo], Brussel sprouts, Christmas pudding [photo], mince pies, Father Christmas, carols, even a Christmas tree (of sorts!!?). But also we had warmth, sunlight and a swimming pool [photo]. First ever Christmas Day swim (don’t try that at home folks!). Boxing Day too was fun filled, a day at the local water park. A promise to the kids we’d wanted to get out of but were glad they forced us to keep. Half a dozen different water flumes ridden using either an inflatable-ring, rubber mat or ‘bare back’. Some long, twisty and prolonged, another short, steep and quick, and one through a tunnel; the Macaroni ride, our favourite, 2-up on a double inflatable inner tube going backwards. All set in a shady, green setting with pools for all tastes and age groups. Excellent! Christmas, the room lacked the festive decor. Jill managed a small bent-metal Christmas tree with candleholders [photo]. That was the extent of our Christmas deccies. Looked for a more impressive display but Bali generally doesn’t celebrate Christmas, just another day. Nothing much in the shops we could find. We managed pillowcase Santa sacks for the kids, found under the tree of course. The presents went down a treat [photo]. We had to keep presents to a minimum, not too many and nothing too big. Ben had a Spiderman shirt and Spiderman trousers, plus cool shades and the Finding Nemo video CD film. For Leala, we’d bought a portable CD player in Kuala Lumpur to play her Thailand pirate-copy Attomic Kitten CD. But, it also plays video CD (VCD) films. These are big in Asia. So Christmas morning we watched Finding Nemo on VCD. For a meal, some of the larger hotels offered Christmas lunch and/or dinner. Our hotel didn’t, but the 5-star resort next door did. Opted for Christmas lunch [photo]with carols and a visiting Santa [photo] (GBP10 per adult, Leala half-price, Ben free). Buffet-style so had our fill from the menu choices. Perfect! What made it even more enjoyable was that we shared it with a lovely like-minded family holidaying from Japan (Dave, Meakoh, Emily and James [photo]).