Yuletide Greetings
27 December
The next few days passed quickly.
Ross felt that my reiki session on Thursday
helped to calm me down quite a lot. I am trying to spend more time with the light box
and I'm trying to spend more time relaxing in bed first thing in the morning rather
than bouncing out and into the world.
We got in the final items of food and sorted out the final presents. Pretty much
it was all in hand.
Sunday took me to Quakers which was quiet, dignified and a community of Friends.
After lunch with Ross, it was over to the Wirral to collect
my parents.
Nutkin and Jemima
went into overdrive. Jemima became very cute and wanting praise and adoration; Nutkin
tried to go out and/or hide himself. Actually, Nutkin is much better these days when
quests arrive. He used to scream and shout in terror to be let out. These days he makes
a sort of whining protest and then asks to hide in our bedroom upstairs.
We dined on braising steak cooked in Guiness and steamed toffee pudding before repairing
to the lounge to watch Ladies in Lavender.
I felt the same about it as I did two years ago. It's worth watching for the performances
of Maggie Smith and Judy Dench; the plot does not bear too much scrutiny. Not long after
it was bed time.
Christmas Day itself passed in stately procession. A late breakfast followed by
Christmas presents around the tree. Some nice surprises; some things I'd asked for;
some efforts which were completely off the mark - at some point I really must tell
my parents that I don't really like chocolate. We drank wine; we toasted each other;
we took photographs for the memories. Then Ross and I retired to the kitchen to
complete the lunch - roast beef, roast parsnips, carrots and green beans and mashed
potato and sweet potato followed by a traditional Christmas pudding.
We cleared up whilst the aging Ps watched the Queen's Speech and then we read and talked
for a while. We watched Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban on DVD. Ross and I enjoyed it; we think that the aging
Ps enjoyed it less as the mood became more serious. Evening meal was freshly baked gammon
with a mustard and honey coating and salad followed by Christmas cake. There was a
pleasant abundance of good alcohol throughout the day. The only TV that Ross and I wanted
to watch was the Dr Who Christmas special. We enjoyed it but the aging Ps probably
didn't. However, it rang down the curtain on a very successful Christmas Day.
Boxing Day was quieter. A brief walk along the waterfront at Crosby (I'd not been out
of the house on the previous day). A lunch of cold cuts. A journey to Irby to see the
parents home. We offloaded a lot of the produce we'd bought specifically for them
(crisps, sherry, lager, lemonade, lime juice, etc) and some of the overstocks (slices
of the beef, half the Christmas cake, half of the gammon, etc) so that they went back
with more than they arrived with. 
There was only one moment of difficulty over the two days. Ross and I had been explaining
to albert and Grace that, where possible, we tried to buy Fair Trade products - like
teas and coffee. I do not know whether Grace misheard, or was making a seperate point
but she then went off on one about the fur trade and how some people didn't agree with
the trade in animal skins. She capped this by telling us that she had a fur coat at the
back of her wardrobe and that it was pure beaver. We didn't know where to look.
I'd been a little peeved that the aging Ps only wanted to stay for two nights but,
as my Quaker friend Cherry (who is in her late 80s) pointed out, not only is sleeping
in your own bed a major factor but being able to use your own bathroom counts for a lot
as well. And, actually, once they were gone, I was glad to get our house back as well.
We took the evening gently. I had a bath. We ate very little. Ross and I both read.
Once again, we'd traversed the festive minefield with aplomb.