So That's Christmas Over

Well not quite. We've still got all these unopened presents and tomorrow we're off to St Andrews to play Father Christmas and deliver them to our super daughter Sarah, her partner Duncan and our lovely little Granddaughter Rose.

It's difficult to celebrate the big day as one big family now that our kids have their own partners and live at opposite ends of the country. And that's sad in one way but on the positive side we've been able to celebrate twice as we spent Boxing Day and Tuesday visiting Paul and Josephine in London when Josephine's mum Jenny cooked us a fantastic Boxing Day dinner. Although we only had a few days in E14 we crammed a lot into our time and managed to walk from the East End to the South Bank along the Thames Path on Tuesday morning and we enjoyed a meal at Gordon Ramsay's Limehouse pub in the evening.

We had some super Christmas presents. We've got a gift token that will let us see ten films in 2012 before we start paying again and we've a nice selection of wines and some great books too. Perhaps the most fascinating gift is Josephine's. She has treated Paul and me to a weekend of golf tuition in Sussex. It includes an overnight stay and it will be great to spend some time with my son as, living so far apart, I miss him very much. I'm sure that the world of golf will have seen nothing like it before as, other than a few school summer holidays working on the Arnold Palmer crazy golf in Southport I have never picked up a golf club in my life. I'm pretty sure that Paul is equally inexperienced although I doubt that he will be quite as inept as his dad. Fortunately I think that we are only going to be let loose on the golf course for a couple of hours so we won't be able to do too much damage to the immaculate greens and fairways. Who knows, if I find a hidden talent I may be able to book a round next time I'm in Fife.

Marion and I went to Peacehaven on Roe Lane for Christmas dinner. We ate in the dining room with Flo and about forty other old people. We thought that other non-residents might be there but we were the only ones. The staff put in a huge effort and dressed as elves and snowmen and we enjoyed a pleasant meal. It's the first time since our daughter arrived 31 years ago that Marion has not cooked a Christmas dinner and it was certainly a very different Christmas day.

We're not going to stay in the caravan in Scotland this time as we've only got three days in St Andrews and it's not worth setting up the heating and reconnecting the water, gas and electricity for such a short time but we do hope to get back there again before the site closes for February.