Monday December 25th 2023

05:00 Christmas Day, but it doesn't really feel like it yet. I know I've got to get up early to finalise our packing and take Lois a cup of tea in bed at 6:30am, and then we have to get out on the road by around 8 am. Yikes!

Apologies for my rather floppy Santa hat this morning

- it's normally more perky than this, but then it IS very early - my goodness it is !!!!!

08:00 Before we got old, Lois and I would drive 120 mile journeys without turning a hair, but now we're 77, and we've had a couple of years of immobility because of lockdown, it's become a VERY BIG DEAL. Oh dear, yes!

We're both troopers, however, so somehow we manage to drive, without stopping, the 120-miles or so to the house of our daughter Alison, her husband Ed, and their 3 teenage children Josie (17), Rosalind (15) and Isaac (13), in Headley, Hampshire. We arrive about 11 am.

It's going to be quite an occasion this year. Our other daughter Sarah and her family will also be driving to Headley today from their home in Alcester, Warwickshire. It's the first Christmas since 2012 that both our daughters' families have been living in the UK. Alison's family was in Denmark 2012-2018, and Sarah's family was in Australia 2015-2023.

13:00 Christmas Day lunch - Ed's the chef, as expected, and he always does a good job, so no worries there!

plate-piling-up time

my Christmas lunch selfie, with our daughter Sarah, 

and our 10-year-old twin granddaughters Lily and Jessica 

(clockwise round the table): Josie, Rosalind, Isaac, our daughter Alison,

son-in-law Francis, Lois, Sarah and the twins...

... plus son-in-law Ed (right)

Ali and Ed's 3 grandchildren: Josie, Rosalind and Isaac

14:00 Another amusing Venn diagram comes in by email from Steve, our American brother-in-law, from the series he monitors for us on the internt:

Some amusing images there - and nice to see a reminder of the next holiday - New Year's Eve, which is only a week away and we're out of beer, I've just remembered.

What sort of beer should we buy this year? It's a decision fraught with anxiety isn't it - let's be honest! 

Poor Nate !!!!!!

15:00 Time for a quick pause for the King's Speech:

16:00 When Charles finishes, we make a start on a chaotic present-opening session:

the twins' dye kit

badminton rackets for Ali and Ed's three

Isaac's woolly hat, a present from Lois and me

Josie's winter jacket from us

Rosalind's hair-styling kit, a present from u

the twins with their "hoard"

the twins with their doll's head hair-styling kits from us

Last but not least, Lois opens my present to her, a shiny new Mrs Claus hat. This marks something of a promotion for services rendered, and she can now discard her Elf Hat, with its male chauvinist undertones, which is nice!

Lois opens her surprise extra gift from me - a shiny new 

Mrs Claus hat: a proud moment and something of a promotion:

she can now discard her old Elf Hat, with its outmoded undertones of subservience

flashback to last week: Lois's elf hat (right), now 

surplus to requirements, which is nice!

20:00 Lois and I find ourselves watching all sorts of TV programmes of the sort we don't normally see: celebrity game-shows and all that sort of malarkey, followed by the last ever episode of Ghosts.

22:00 Too much chat, too much food, too much alcohol. Oh dear, it must be time for bed. It's been a long day. Zzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!