Christmas Day.

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The plan was to have another lie-in but I had to get up early. As soon as I woke up I remembered that on my 'secret' santa present to Clare I had written 'love Jon xxxx' so I had to guiltily sneak into the boys' room and tear the label off before anyone noticed!

It was snowing when we all got up. Moscow skyscrapers aren't a traditional Christmas scene but for us today was about doing something different, not trying to recreate what we were missing at home.

We had breakfast in our room at 10, Buck's Fizz and sandwiches of ciabatta bread with spanish sausage and russkii mayonez. Then we opened our present. I think Clare liked her DVD from me. Chris W bought me a hip-flask with the Russian eagle on it - which explains why every time I looked at one in Izmailovskii market yesterday he ran away from me, knowing I hate being lost and would catch him up! After that we texted friends at home, and thanked Ellie for giving us a hand made card and 1500 roubles for us to spend on our Christmas meal. We all missed her.

After a few carols we were ready to leave the hotel and went ice skating in Gorkii Park. Every winter the park is flooded and freezes over, so people can skate along the paths. It's like a fun fair on ice. There is Russian pop music wherever you go, and there are kiosks where you can buy coffee and popcorn, and rest your legs for a minute. You can do different types of ice skating in different parts of the park. We shuffled and rolled around for an hour. I only fell over once, victim of another Chris J rugby tackle that did more harm to him than myself!

When it was time to go I gave my skates back and the lady asked for something else that I didn't understand. I thought she must have meant the receipt for the deposit, so I pretented to look thoughtfully in my coat pocket and said I would come back with it. Imagine how embarrassing it was returning five minutes later, after Chris told me she wanted the crate that the skates came in!

At 4 we went for Christmas dinner at Tibet Kitchen, about 10 minutes' stroll from Red Square. For such a beautiful restaurant it was surprising that we were the only people there. We sat at the round table in the centre, which has a huge plate in the middle that spins round so everyone can share food easily. In all our evenings since September this group has never run out of things to talk about and this was the most sociable meal yet. The food was delicious, and the portions were so big that we stayed for almost four hours. Slightly tipsy again, we called the chef out from the kitchen to congratulate him. He came out to say hello, on the condition that we only had good things to say about his cooking!

We went for a walk around town in the evening. We made our way to G.U.M, the exclusive shopping mall next to Red Square, then to the courtyard outside the Cathedral of St. Vasili. Red Square was even more stunning in the snow than it was two months ago. From there we walked along the River Moskva for about an hour, before finding the nearest metro station to go home.

An amazing day.

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