Christmas

About to leave for Lori-Anne's wedding in Canada and skiing/snowboarding afterwards, I'm thinking about the last few festive days. It was a pretty good Christmas, despite Amanda being away in North America. I got a bit lonely without her but there was always a lot going on.

I went to see Duran Duran, at Earl's Court, with Sandy from Royal Holloway and Farah from Shakespeare's Globe. The perfect people to go with - all childs of the eighties.

My best man Patrick and his wife Kathryn arrived back from Egypt and we went to the beautiful Christmas Eve carol service my mother had organised. Then we went out with other best man Richard and his fiancee Nicola. I'm going to be hs best man in the coming year, the very weekend our footy teams play each other. Clearly there was no consulting of the fixture list.

Christmas Day, after breakfast we always go to my cousins' and open presents. Amanda was much missed there of course, and there's a stack of presents waiting for her. Then it was back to the parents house to prepare the roast meal with Patrick and Kathryn before my brother and the kids arrived.

Mother got her timings wrong, and CRISIS! the main meal was being served just at the same time as the Queen's speech to the nation!

Crisis averted by bringing the TV into the dining room, thus making us the ultimate pikeys with a TV Christmas dinner. Swtched off straight afterwards of course, but you have to watch it live. Apparently.

Presents, dessert and coffee, then home to London. Because Patrick and Kathryn are moving house they had to leave me sad and alone with the cat before 9pm. That was depressing, but my beloved Aunt in Australia phoned me for ages and rounded off the day nicely.

Boxing Day I always go to football. I met Richard for Watford vs Southampton, because Arsenal were playing away. I still got to watch a Southampton youngster Arsenal are planning to buy, then we got to the pub for the second half of Arsenal's match at Charlton. Then it was back to my cousins' for another huge meal and more gifts. I gave my father a goat...

The 27th is my cousin's birthday. I did some of my mountain of marking, then met them for yet another large meal. My brother and his wife have gone off to Peru for a wedding, leaving my mother holding the baby and toddler. So I took my turn playing with my very energetic niece. I am so unfit that today I can feel the strain in my legs from all the running about. How am I going to survive snowboarding?

Brought my cousins back to the London house last night. They're going to look after the cat and the fish while we're away in North America, and they're going to drive me to Heathrow at 4.30am, because I'm flying to Canada via Holland!

So I'm leaving in 12 hours, I haven't started packing or finished marking yet, and I'm just off to see Arsenal's match against Portsmouth at Highbury. A Christmas present to myself.

Hope all my friends had a wonderful Christmas. I feel very fortunate to have you all.