Almost over --

2007, that is. I won't be sorry to see the end of this year. I've changed from being a family matriarch to a single woman. My attitude is, "Let's see what I can do with it." Darcy and Joe came for Christmas and that was wonderful. They arrived on the 23rd and I took them to the Black Boy for dinner. Joe thought it was a racist pub so I had to explain that the name refers back to chimney sweeps. Very quaint. It used to be an extremely rough pub, lots of fights and uproar. About a year ago it was taken over by new people who have turned it into an excellent venue for meeting friends and neighbours. On Christmas Eve we went into town with the Gee children to have lunch. Adam, as usual, needed his McDonald's fix but Charles and Chloe preferred something a little more upscale. We broke into two groups of three. Darcy took the snooty ones to Pizza Express and Adam and I remained adamantly in favour of McDonalds. We asked Joe which group he wished to join and he said, "I'll go with the CHAV's which meant McDonalds. For anyone who doesn't know, CHAV stands for Council Housed and Vicious. Or in other words, trailer trash. On Christmas Eve I had a few friends and family around for a drink and snacks. I always like Joe and Darcy to meet my English friends. Christmas day found us down at the farm. Joe and I were in charge of vegetable cookery so we took ourselves to Shay's kitchen to get out of Rachel's way at the Aga. There were 13 of us at dinner which mean't eating in Shay's lounge, the biggest room. We sat down at 2pm after champagne and 'whore's ovaries' (that was my mother's pronunciation of hors d'oeuvres.) The dinner was a triumph - a beautifully cooked turkey with stuffing, Charlie's roast potatoes, bread sauce, pigs in blankets and my vegetables. For pudding we had a choice of traditional Christmas pudding, chocolate cake or trifle. The Gee's sitting room was awash with presents and wrappings. Adam was more interested in his Christmas toys than dinner. Darcy and Joe and I came home and collapsed in the peace and quiet of Old High Street. We were up and off to Eastbourne on Boxing Day morning. Unfortunately, not as early as we might have been so the traffic was bad on the M25. It seemed as though everyone in the Home Counties was going to visit someone. Because Boxing Day is a holiday, there were no lorries on the road, just wall to wall family cars. We didn't get to Eastbourne until about 3 so it was too late to go down to the pier. This didn't matter to me as I was thrilled to see the little copper top, namely, Harry Williams. He is just too cute for words and doing very well with feeding (most of the time) and sleeping (some of the time). Alison and Sian are wonderful parents. Alison is shining with happiness and just as funny as she has always been. The next morning, I drove the boys to Heathrow to catch their flight back to LA. For anyone who has stuck with this blog entry until now, I'm finished. You can go back to real life, as will I.