I’m sitting here wearing my new Minnie Mouse slippers (thanks to my daughter, son-in-law and grand-kids) and my new purple earrings (thanks to my son and daughter-in-law) – and, for the naughty-minded, yes I’m wearing clothes! – waiting for the Old Boy to come back from buying more Christmas lights (the after Christmas sales), so we can eat left-overs for lunch. Yes, it’s two days after Christmas and it’s all over bar the left-overs. I expect some of them to still be with us a week from now.

We’ve entered the “should clean up but can’t be bothered” stage of the Christmas season. The garbos (rubbish collectors) have already been and, may I say, God bless you all for working today. And, don’t worry, there’ll still be plenty next time you visit.

It’s been an interesting mix of moments and feelings this year. First there was Christmas Dinner (on the 23rd) at my favourite restaurant with my sisters and their husbands. Unfortunately I was still recovering from the squits and couldn’t manage dessert. And, one of the sisters couldn’t come ‘cos she’d just had an operation on her knee. It didn’t feel the same without all of us there. We toasted our dear departed mother, as it was the day of her birth, and the memories came flooding back.

We had a nice family dinner on Christmas Eve with the kids and grandkids. I think I did rather well with my gift giving this year. The son scored a stone Easter Island face which is a tissue box cover. The tissues come out of the nose. It’s fantastic. The son-in-law got a screaming flying monkey which was hilarious until the grandson took it over. Then it became something akin to fingernails on blackboards on steroids. Note to self: don’t do that again.

We had a lovely Christmas Day lunch with the Noble clan, at the Old Folks Home with the Old Boy’s parents. We’re so blessed to still have both of them with us, even tho’ Dad sometimes goes walk-a-bout in his head.

Last night, after a day of mainly sleeping, we had tea with close friends and then went cruising with them, looking for Christmas light displays. They were in a good mood, having just announced their engagement, so we drove and let them cuddle in the back seat. We entertained ourselves by trying to remember the theme songs of old TV shows: The Monkees, Rawhide; Davy Crockett and The Cisco Kid.

However, during the evening, another friend phoned to tell us her mother had just died and suddenly life came back into focus. We don’t know how long any of us have on this earth, so we should treasure our family and friends and let them know how much we love them; we should treasure each moment and enjoy the little things in life that make it special; we should thank God for every new morning and every safe sunset.

I hope you all had a special Christmas/Chanuka/Kwanzaa/Family gathering. I know that some of you didn’t and I send you my love. I hope you all get to enjoy moments of kindness, warmth and laughter. And now…bring on the New Year.