Christmas Eve in the Outback...

...Steakhouse that is. Christmas Eve was quite an uneventful day. We lounged around for a bit and then went to the grocery store to pick up some last minute things, since the stores would be closed the next two days. We took Cheyenne on a walk and then started to settle in for an evening at home. Matt was bored and decided to go on a run...but when he came home he got into his mind that we needed to go out to eat. He had run by Outback Steakhouse and said that it smelled so good he wanted to go out instead of make dinner at home. So, we both got ready and headed over there. The funny thing was that we did not end up getting steak or anything you'd really expect at a steakhouse - we ended up with crispy chicken tender salad! Boy was it good, though.

Anyway, I know that wasn't too exciting but hey, it is what it is. The pictures above are when we returned home. We have our paper crowns on, which is a standard item in a British 'Christmas Cracker'. Doesn't take much to thrill us apparently!

Christmas Crackers from Wikipedia:

Christmas crackers or bon-bons are an integral part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, other Commonwealth countries and Ireland. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).

In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled after Christmas dinner or at parties.