Christmas Eve was spent round at Mick (my brother) and Sylvia’s house just around the corner – a two minute walk so no worries about having a glass (or two) of Christmas spirit. A nice dinner of duck and good company.

Christmas day started off slowly waking up at 8:30 – gone are the days of early mornings with the kids bouncing all over us wanting to see if the big man had come; Up and a relaxed cup of tea and toast with Marmite for breakfast.

Made my calls to my brothers then Alison and Steve arrived; As is traditional, Alison helps with the Christmas Dinner; Mick and Sylvia dropped in for an hour and, just after they left, Georgina, James and the two boys arrived – pandemonium then broke out as presents were unwrapped and a mountain of discarded wrapping paper piled up in the corner.

Mary asked for and received a copy of The Hairy Bikers cookery book from Alison; she was over the moon when she saw it was signed by Si and Dave – really made it special.

Christmas Dinner was absolutely superb and, as usual, there is plenty enough left over to give us several meals during the week.

All too soon the day ended; today is a relaxing day; Mick and Sylvia will be round soon for lunch and then find something to watch to take us through the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Mary has just cut the Christmas Cake she made – to die for; rich fruit cake made back in September after the fruit was soaked in Sherry for several days; the result is a cake so moist and mouth-watering.

Ah well; I might take tomorrow off but back to work on Tuesday.