Christmas Day:

The whole house seemed to make a very early start to today. When I appeared at ten to six Steve was already hard at work and very soon every-one else had appeared.

In spite of the prospect of a hard day's cooking ahead Rachel insisted that we we all choose from a very extensive breakfast. I settled on just my usual toast but others around me were tucking into scrambled egg and smoked salmon, toast with Philadelphia and salmon, poached eggs garnished with crumbled crispy bacon etc.

Next was the opening of the presents which accompanied by the opening of the champagne. Daniel did enjoy ripping the paper off his presents - and any anyone elses' that was offered.

I don't need to describe the routine Christmas dinner (accompanied by another bottle of champagne), do I? People had little naps as the spirit took them and I was introduced to a couple of card games that were new to me. (I won one of them!)

Goodness knows how many photos were taken in total during the day. I particularly liked this one of my granddaughter Kat nursing her new niece. You'll see on the photo, our wineglasses, for identification purposes, sported bows of different colours ribbons.