Christmas

Yes a remarkably stunning Christmas display

This morning Boris was waiting to be lifted out of the safety of the locked garden shed so that he could run his clumsy run alongside the ducks in the outdoor field. Both he and the slutty Gloria throw me a rather resigned look when they see me coming, as if to say "come on then..take me", and both sit calming in my arms as they are carried to and fro the shed and field.
The weather has been dreadfully wet and wild so after all the outdoor jobs, I have started to set up the Christmas lights by the cottage front door.
I truly love Christmas! My affection is inherited from my mother,who, for all her faults, delighted in the preparation and execution of the tradition festive fare.
For weeks before "the day", she made layers of peppermint cream sweets, slickly chocolate truffles covered in vermicelli and coconut dusted dainties, all produced in early 1970's party dishes (covered in cling film)
Full cream and Sherry trifles were thickly layered on Christmas eve and fancy prawn cocktails were sculptured on the specially made up lunch table; every received greetings card was collated in her diary (with a tick reinforcing the fact that it had been read!) and tons of gifts , were wrapped in supermarket wrapping paper and placed on individual chairs in the living room for us to shred open.
Christmas made my mother happy!, of course there would be the petty stresses, but Christmas meant a full and busy house to her and my father, and for years the entire extended family would pop in and out for a whiskey, a martini and the usual present bunfight.
My elder sister refined my mother's desire for the ideal celebration's preparation and took over with some spectacular lunches and happy days over the years. With my mother's initial efforts and Ann's subsequent successes, we as a family have always had some lovely Dec25th's.

This year Ann and Tim, Janet and Ned and nephew Chris and Becca are all coming to us for Lunch, and I am now really looking forward to the day. Of course we will have little room, the chairs will have to be borrowed and not all the cutlery will match.......oh and I am sure that there will be a stray dog hair or two floating around the Yuletide dinner plates......but in the spirit of our happy childhood Christmas days, it is nice that Chris and I have the opportunity to add to the tradition.