Lucky

As I blog here in the front room, on Boxing Day, with Floof asleep on my lap, I feel very lucky.
It has been an excellent Christmas. Chanel stayed with us for a few days until Christmas Eve and has been great company, and on the 21st Cat arrived from London a day early and surprised us just after we had watched James' favourite Christmas film, "Elf"! On the 22nd we went to see "It's a Wonderful Life" at the GFT. There were eight of us; it was lovely that Christine and Gerry were able to join us as well as Cat and Chanel. We had dinner at Red Onion beforehand and we continued our convivial evening with a cup of tea and some mince pies back at our house. Then on the 23rd we had our annual pre-Christmas lunch with Heather and Ewan; we had a gorgeous lunch at Guys. Then we made our way to Metropolitan in the Old Fruitmarket where we met up for drinks with a lively crowd of our combined progeny and their partners. Only our Kiwi young ones were missing. We had a truly lovely afternoon chatting and ended up back at Heather and Ewan's for a cup of tea.
On Christmas Eve morning I went over to Jackie's to celebrate Noah's 9th Birthday, and then we spent a pleasant afternoon preparing for Christmas. We FaceTimed Jamie and Aisling in the evening; they were about to enjoy a Christmas breakfast with friends because of course it was already Christmas morning in New Zealand.
However there was a shock in store. I was woken by my phone ringing at 4.30 a.m. on Christmas morning - it was Jamie FaceTiming me from Dunedin Hospital. He and Aisling had been involved in a car crash on their way to a friend's house for Christmas dinner. Another car had jumped a red light and crashed right into the side of the car in which they were passengers, which then span into a traffic light pole. They were both knocked unconscious and Jamie can't remember anything of the accident until he woke up in the ambulance. Jamie has cuts to his face and concussion, and was allowed home a few hours later. Aisling also has concussion, she needed a number of stitches inside her mouth and has broken a bone in her face, and she was kept in hospital overnight. The others in the car were shocked but ok, and the people in the car that ran into them were fine. Jamie was very reassuring but James and I were very shocked and so were Ally and Davie. Considering the nature of the accident, it could all have been much worse - and in addition to all the good times we have had, that's also why I feel so lucky today.
Jamie and Aisling have kept in touch since they got home and it was good to speak to both of them by FaceTime later on Christmas Day (their Boxing Day). And Grandma was well enough to come across the road for Christmas dinner, and seemed to have a genuinely lovely time with us. In the evening Alasdair organised a game of Monopoly which was tremendous fun, and when James and I went to bed, Ally and Davie were poring over the World Atlas and telling each other all about their travels. A good Christmas indeed.