A relaxing holiday

We are enjoying our days of leisure, relaxing and also getting a few useful things done around the house. I think that James is pining a little because we are often off on a ski holiday at this time of year. We usually set off on Boxing day or the 27th, have a great week of sunshine and snow, watch the New Year fireworks on top of our mountain, and go for a fondue and pierre chaude on the 1st of January to celebrate the end of the holiday. We decided to skip this year because Australia was very, very expensive! But I think we will go back on a ski holiday next year because it has become a lovely family tradition. Davie is the only one of us who will be ski-ing this winter; he will go on his school ski holiday to Pila in Italy on New Year's day. I think that Jack the cat is quite enjoying having us around. This morning he took me down to his bowl where we found that it was already full of chunks. I headed back to bed only to hear Jack crying in the hall. I leaped up, thinking that the bad cat who sometimes comes in to steal Jack's chunks was there, but found Jack scratching at Ally's bedroom door. He is such a sociable cat. James and I have been discussing the possibility of getting a kitten who would keep Jack company during the day when we are all out at work or school, but this is fraught with difficulties. What if Jack doesn't get on with the kitten? The kitten would have to go of course, but that would be very upsetting. And how would we keep the kitten inside while still allowing Jack to go outside? And how would we stop Jack from eating the kitten's food? Jack is only allowed to eat renal food, which he likes, but he would eat something else if he could I'm sure - he is always trying to steal our crisps or any food that we accidentally leave out. We were discussing all this with our fellow cat lover, Margaret, who was round for dinner last night. It was great to see her; it must be a year since we last met up so we had lots to catch up on. She is getting on well in Scottsdale and is travelling a lot to New Zealand just now on a project. Jamie's friend Nicola has arrived to stay with us for a couple of days. He met her in Darwin during the summer, she is a dance teacher there. She then travelled down to Melbourne where they spent more time together, they clearly like each other a lot! She is a pleasant, vivacious young woman; last night he took her out for dinner and a film at the Grosvenor. We all had a cup of tea before James and I took Margaret home and went over to Giffnock to collect Ally from one of his many parties!