Merry Anderson Christmas!

We have had a traditional family Christmas day, which I love. I will write it down for posterity because it is very typical of the Christmases we have had for the twenty-six years of our marriage so far, with the occasional variations due to unforseen events, like when Mum was sometimes in hospital over Christmas. It started off with all five of us in our bed opening our Christmas stockings. The boys are still very happy to have stockings I'm glad to say, and in fact there was even one for James and I at the foot of our bed when we woke up filled with goodies! Everyone was all happy and excited, it was one of those perfect times. I won't go into details of the lovely presents that we gave each other because it would sound like a catalogue of greed - but actually the best thing about our presents was the amount of thought that had clearly gone into each one. The boys must secretly like each other (and us) if they spend so much time choosing each other such personal and thoughtful presents! At about 10.30 a.m. we put the turkey into the oven - we had carefully worked out the timing as usual using my Delia Smith Christmas book - then we took Grandma round to Forrest and Marjory's where we toasted each other Merry Christmas and chatted merrily. Home to play with our pressies before we finished preparing the trimmings and vegetables. James noticed that there wasn't much of a smell of turkey cooking but we put it down to our new cooker being well sealed. If only we hadn't been so blasé! Jamie and Ally went across to bring Grandma over at quarter to three and we poured ourselves glasses of champagne (or sparkling raspberry!) and listened to the Queen's Speech then drank at toast to her health and of course to Prince Philip who is still in hospital. We served our starter and soup with great efficiency and then tested the turkey, but to our consternation it was nowhere near cooked! We had obeyed Delia to the letter but we must have got the weight of the stuffed turkey wrong so we had to wait another NINETY minutes until it was ready. Grandma was very understanding - she is used to our culinary mishaps! She told us about a long ago Christmas where she and Jimmy had cooked their turkey using a spit inside the oven so that it would cook nice and evenly, but instead it caught on the inside the oven and shredded itself into turkey mince. We had musical crackers this year which each contained a whistle which played a different note so we used the instructions provided to group whistle Christmas tunes. Alasdair did his best as the conductor but we were all truly dreadful at it and the only tune that was at all recognisable was Jingle Bells.

At last the turkey was cooked - it turned out very tasty - and we all ate far too much until we staggered into the lounge to listen to music and doze a bit. Jennifer phoned from Russell's Mum and Dad's house to wish us Happy Christmas, his Gran was there too - she is ninety-eight now! Davie took Grandma home and the rest of us watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special which was highly enjoyable. And that's about it! We have more or less cleared up, we are full but happy. Last year I couldn't bear the idea of having Christmas at home without Mum so for the first time ever we went to a hotel for dinner, but Christmas at home is so much better, and now that we have the extension and the new table it was different enough that I didn't feel too sad. In fact it has been a lovely day. Merry Christmas!