Perfectly peaceful Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone. The carol services, shopping, Christmas trees and decorations, present wrapping and unwrapping, brightly lit homes and gardens and frantic rush to fill the fridge before the shops close for just one day are over. Dinners have been consumed, wrapping paper and containers consigned to the recycling and leftovers are the order of the day for the next few days. It's time to relax a little, go back to simple eating, enjoy the chocolates before the New Year's resolutions kick in and reboot for 2015.

The next week will be taken up, in households all over the world, with lists of New Year's resolutions. Some will last forever and some will be fleeting, but it's good to know that every day is the beginning of a new year and we can all start again at any time!

Today's family gathering was smaller than usual as the family extends through marriage and births into an ever wider circle, where everyone needs to be accommodated. A new group of children has appeared to take over from my nieces and nephews and it is their turn to be the younger generation. There was a three-year gap between each of the grandchildren, which enabled each child to receive their share of the attention and limelight before the next one arrived, and it seems as though they are now continuing the tradition of the three-year gap!

As always, Christmas lunch consisted of leftovers so no one had to do anything particularly strenuous, and the day passed in idle conversation, as all good days should.