So what of Christmas

Our Christmas was fab, a far cry from that of last year when PG was working and I was sat here on my own for most of the day with a Marks & Spencer 'Christmas dinner for one'. Oh that every year we could escape the perils of our employers just for a day or two!

The journey South on Christmas eve was a breeze, the roads were clear, there were no hold-ups, no accidents and we had it cracked in a little over four hours. We took PG's new car and what a difference. I have never had a big car with all the bells and whistles and associated comforts and boy, do they make a difference. I didn't arrive feeling like a wrung out dishcloth for once.

Our arrival was met with much excitement from my nieces, who we haven't seen since the summer and then only very briefly and immediately any feeling that 'it didn't feel like Christmas' that I had harboured before evaporated. Games were played, dens were built, and the usual rules such as 'no chocolate before dinner' were utterly broken.....well, that's what auntie's are for isn't it?

Christmas day began as is the way of small children very early. Whilst the rest of the party slumbered on E & E my nieces crept into our bedroom at the crack of dawn full of high excitement and clutching their stockings to eject me from my bed to join in the manic opening process. This was kind of agreed the night before with one proviso, that once up they had to allow me two minutes to make a coffee and smoke a cigarette before we got underway! Hell, even on Christmas day some things are sacrosanct!

Much excitement later we deemed it a civilised hour (ok, it was only 7.30 but these are children and it's Christmas) to wake the rest of the household, trying to contain the enthusiasm of a 9 and 11 year old any longer was proving impossible when they were aware that behind the living room door 'Santa' had left the most enormous pile of parcels.

And the rest of the day passed in a blur of screeching, laughing, tearing of wrapping paper and wild exclamation at the contents of each parcel as it was revealed and then 'tested'.....just about every gift had to be wrenched unceremoniously from it's packaging for a little 'investigate' before rapidly being abandoned for the next unopened package. By lunch time the place was it's usual Christmas day midden of wrappings, half opened toys and various chocolate bits and pieces left half eaten....... just as Christmas day should be!

Copious amounts of festive fare were consumed, my sister is a qualified chef and her husband and my parents good amateurs, my family (aside from me who hates to cook but loves good food) 'do' serious, yummy, to die for food and this occasion was no different, the non stop round of culinary delights and treats on offer was as ever amazing, every tiny spare space in my little body I think was stuffed full.....and some!

Boxing day was another day of juvenile madness and fun, punctuated by the obligatory walk in the afternoon to walk off the previous days gluttony, no one really wanted to go as ever but the elders insisted as they do and we duly complied though who they are kidding that an hours potter might in some way make up for such gormandising I don't know! heh.

Tuesday arrived way too soon but that fact that it arrived covered in my much wished for snow made up in some small part for the fact that the long awaited time with my family was almost over and way too quickly. There was much joking that of all the day, after all my wishing that it would snow it chose to on the day we had to drive 300 miles home. We bid our sad farewells and off we set on what turned out to be a long and arduous, snow filled drive punctuated only by the pleasure of visiting Kitty en-route as blogged yesterday.

The up side of arriving home of course was to be reunited with Ditto and Tilly who we had so missed. Ditto was duly collected from the cattery and immediately registered her annoyance by peeing in the car, gah! Tilly on the other hand, who had seemingly had a marvelous Christmas with our friends, couldn't have cared less whether we collected her or not and was returned home with something approaching twenty new toys and a multitude of cat treats in her little travel bag!

And so that is about it, gemmak's Christmas 2005, it's back to work for me tomorrow, assuming I can get there of course, right now my wished for 'white stuff' is causing somewhat of a problem but more on that later.