Christmas Reflections

I realised that it is about time that this blog addressed Christmas. As it is now the 27^th, the day after Boxing Day it is perhaps time to reflect. We had a contrasting Christmas, by Saturday the 23^rd the preparations were well in hand, most of the provisions had been bought and the house was fully decorated.

So it was the day to see the grandchildren. Now it was quickly evident that they were very excited at the coming of Christmas. There was much whooping and exuberant behaviour. There was also much extortion practiced on their grandfather. I am now a fully paid up member of Millie’s spy club and was rinsed for a tip by Martha as a reward for serving peanuts before dinner. We had a great dinner of homemade pizza, which was a great anecdote to the Christmas food that we would eat later in the week. Traditional electronic games followed, although Marion and Laura appear quite puzzled here, it did keep them very quiet for a long time!

By Christmas Day we were quite tired after a succession of late nights, so we were grateful that there were no young children to give us an early wakeup call. Instead it was a brisk walk to the seafront where Marion joined us. There was a lovely rainbow, however I do not think that the light was good enough to capture it. In the opposite direction the castle headland was distinctly outlined in the clear winter light.

Back home we opened some excellent presents, with much future reading and technology to master. Then Marion concentrated on cooking the traditional Christmas dinner. We can see her here carving the bird. It my opinion it was an absolutely superb dinner. The turkey was beautifully succulent with lovely stuffing and vegetables. Instead of the traditional pudding we had Marion’s (Paul Hollywood’s’) fantastic limoncello trifle. Every year I say the Christmas dinner cannot get any better, and every year Marion proves me wrong. After dinner it was time to relax with a traditional Christmas movie, well perhaps Baby Driver is not traditional, but it was entertaining.

After that Boxing Day also took a traditional form, off to the football in the afternoon. As a festive bonus Boro under a new manager recorded an easy wind. Then in the evening it was a feast of cold cuts and a festive game of Scrabble with our friends Iain and Barbara. Not quite a festive ending as I lost by two points.

So now we reflect on the year past and look forward to 2018.