I hope you had a great Christmas - we did here! I was a bit worried that they might not have Christmas the same way that we do in America but luckily, it is very similar. Penny and Greg got up on Christmas morning to find that Santa Claus had been and had left lots of presents for them. He also left some for me which was really great.

Then, later on Christmas Day they had a big dinner but since none of their family were at home they invited an old friend, a very nice old lady named Barbara, who would otherwise have been on her own for Christmas. She was very nice and it was fun to hear her talk about Christmas in the old, old days. Instead of a turkey, Penny had cooked something called Beef Wellington which was very, very good.

They have this thing called Boxing Day in England. It is the day after Christmas and basically it seems that they just have more parties, and more presents. In a way it seems like Christmas lasts for two days instead of one. So, on Boxing Day we went over to Penny and Greg's next door neighbours, Peter and Sally where we ate more delicious food - a great big ham this time. And, of course, more presents and, best of all, more desserts!

Yesterday, Penny and Greg took me to another traditional Christmas activity - the annual Byfield Duck Race. It seems there is a little stream that runs along the side of the recreation ground here. Each year, in aid of charity, they take about 500 plastic ducks and put numbers on each one. Everyone "buys" a duck and then they throw them in the stream. If your duck comes first you win a real duck for dinner and, if you come in the first five in the heat you get to go into the final. The person who wins the final wins £100 (that's about $160). So, Penny and Greg bought duck number 48 and they said if it won I could have half the money. Well, as you can guess, it didn't win but it was fun to watch the race anyway.

Here are some pictures Greg took of me watching the race. The first is one of the heats in which our duck (Duck Number 48) is just about at the very back of the race and the second is me standing by the finishing line making sure that the judge catches the winning duck.

Well, that's about it for today. Greg has said he has a real surprise for me next week so I'll let you know what happens.

Your pal,

Stanley