26 December 2011 – Boxing Day

I’ve already previously explained what Boxing Day is and its origins (See 18 December 2011 entry) so I won’t go into that again.

Smiler and Kimberly left tea yesterday having done us proud and eased the load from ‘my lovely’. Chloe and Karl and the three grandchildren stayed on and spent the night at the B&B at the gate, came around 9.00 for breakfast. They then had to gather up all their belongings, including their presents. before setting off for home.

Chloe had prepared the Christmas dinner without Alice raising a finger and I must say was absolutely delicious. A roll of stuffed turkey with, as they say all the trimmings. The little sausages wrapped in bacon were particularly popular and the Waitrose Christmas pudding was delicious, as were the mince pies which came from Somerset. Why Somerset, heaven only knows! I was pretty abstemious and had a couple of glass of Karl’s excellent 1988 Premier cru Claret? We didn’t have our usual champagne before lunch (there really wasn’t time without delaying lunch) nor did we have champagne at six o’clock, Karl preferring a glass of whisky and the rest of the gang not really being drinkers. I felt reasonably okay but did not feel like a lot of alcohol. I don’t think my body can take it any more. Nevertheless it made no difference to the amount of enjoyment I had. I have often wondered if my readers are puzzled as to why they believe yesterday’s news today. The answer is quite simple I published a blog the morning after the day before so if you like it’s a retrospective, although, sometimes I must admit I write in the present tense. Even then I would have severe that the end of the day otherwise it would make a lot of sense. So back to Christmas Day

I must say the family were very generous with me and probably, for the first time for many years, were able to buy me something that I really wanted or needed.

First of all Kimberly and Miles bought me a wonderful electric sheepskin foot warmer (I can’t wait was a really cold weather that so I can give it a when my feet are like blocks of ice) and also some funny looking mittens which I never thought I could get onto my curled up hands but with a little patience Smiler was able to get them on They went over the fingers with an ingenious little cover which turned them into mittens. A brilliant Idea.

‘My lovely’ bought me two beautiful new club jerseys. One in camel any other short-sleeved blue. Also a shirt and some lime aftershave from Trumpers. which the girls like sloshing onto my shoulders in the morning.

I can’t remember exactly what ‘my lovey’ got but I had given her quite a decent bottle of Christian Dior scent – as had Chloe, so she is well stocked up for the time being – and a tiny antique box to which she’d taken a fancy. I know she was inundated with presents but I can’t remember exactly what they were except that she got a beautiful book, about Edward Thomas, the poet, ,- from Smiler and Kimberly, which she had specifically hinted that she would like.

Oh yes, Karl and Chloe also gave me half a dozen pairs of socks. Some cashmere bed socks and some thermal socks for the daytime. Plus, a very fine a wind proof lighter so no more going through half a box of matches to try to light my cigar! I got a few other things as well but I can’t remember offhand what they were, all I know is, that people were extremely generous.

So far as Boxing Day was concerned I think this was a first year, for almost 50 years, that we have missed the meet of the local hunt, at Brent Pelham ,which has gone on unabated, despite the change in in the foxhunting law(which, I will suspect will be repealed, possibly before the end of this Parliament, or certainly at the beginning of the next). It was always lovely to roam amongst the horses and hounds on a crispy Boxing Day morning before the ‘whipper in’ gives a few short blasts on his horn to gather the baying excited hounds, dying for the off, whether to catch a fox or just for the fun of the chase, I don’t think matter that much, However, I certainly missed all that.

Today, I had been taken through and put it in my study chair in the early morning before the gang arrived. I somehow managed to squeeze a ‘good morning’ out of them, before breakfast. Suddenly the Christmas magic had disappeared and the various members of the family dispersed, Karl, to the Kempton racecourse and the others, home to frenetic London o pursue their own agenda where it seems that they have to be here and there 5 min ago!

Once the little family cleared up the Christmas mess (most of which I’m pleased to say was in the B&B) and gathered their presents, they left mid-morning and we were once more on our own but with the nicest of memories from a very, very happy Christmas, which a year ago I had no confidence that I would make. Determination yes, but absolute confidence, well…! Even Dragon behaved itself almost as if it knew it was Christmas and I deserved a break from its tantrums.

My next target will be our wedding anniversary on March 16

I think it appropriate that I should finish today’s entry with something beautiful to reflect our joy and pleasure over the last three days and hope that other people’s lives can be fairly unrestricted, cheerful and happy as they could be under the circumstances. Bless them all and for hope for a better year to come. Click here for the pictures to download  – be patient, it taakes a couple of minutes -then click on the Slide Show tab, then go to the far left of the toolbar and press ‘From beginning’.