Christmas joy

This is Carl's niece, Ana, over from France with her parents and brother to spend Christmas with Carl's folks. She was a bit shy for most of the day, but perked up in great style when it came time to hand out presents. Proving the point that you never can predict what will best take a child's fancy, she was most excited by Carl's gift (just one of many) of a hair brush, which really made her face light up.

We had a lovely day. I joined in around 2:15, things got going when the final guest arrived a half hour later, and we sat down for our Christmas meals 'with all the trimmings' around 3:30. Carl's mum treated us to a great spread, we had fun with crackers and the silly jokes inside them, and then we retired to the living room for coffee and liqueurs, and then the presents started to be handed round, which was when the real fun started.

Carl's nephew Matthieu adopted me for the afternoon and he and I spent ages playing with the remote-controlled stunt car I'd given him, and everything else from his rather large pile of presents. When things calmed down a bit we settled down to sandwiches and tea, Ana admitted defeat and went to bed, and Carl and I left around 9:20 to go back to his place.

Exhausted after all the festivities and tired out after playing with the children, we chilled out by watching The Kids are All Right. We'd tried this before but had given up after fifteen pr twenty minutes. We lasted the full course this time and quite enjoyed it. It's no masterpiece by any means, but it's a pleasant-enough time-passer.