Christmas 2017

We woke up to shocking scenes. Some bearded gentleman in an anti hero costume called Santa Claus had broken into our house via the chimney, burned his bahookie on the embers, stolen a mince pie and milk, let his reindeer run amok in the garden eating carrots and had then left presents to bribe us all so we wouldn't shop him to the police. He left a fair few parcels for everyone, including our VIP guests and the furry contingent. Decent presents too as it happens. So we fully accepted the bribe.

I love Christmas Eve. It borders on serene if you are lucky; it's got all the anticipation and is full of inexplicable, by-the-fireside, hope filled warm and fuzzy feeling moments. By contrast Christmas morning goes so fast and feels like an out of control Disney car race. It's all a bit of a blur, with occasional sleep deprived parental mania sneaking in alongside the excitement of the young, sustained by a slow burn "chocolate for breakfast" induced vegetative state. But we surely must love it for we do it every year.

So before we knew it we were off to the throbbing metropolis of Newtonhill to Dave's mum's in the early afternoon, where everyone survived the Secret Santa and I fuelled up on bubbly. And then to more presents a go-to and an extremely super fine Christmas dinner at mum and dad's house in Aberdeen, where the hound dogs came to join us too. Akira was on great form, enjoyed winning Pass the Parcel and took a special shine to my sister "the lady!"

Time to head home laden with gifts, feeling very thankful and very tired.