Having my say

Merry Christmas to all! For the first time ever in my life I'm spending most of Christmas alone. My spouse works for a homeless charity, CRISIS, over the holiday, ferrying their 'guests' and volunteers around London for most of each day. Our daughters are all safe and well and celebrating in Leeds and Broadstairs. My choice of festive bases was going to be Leeds - nice breakfast, pub at lunchtime, daughter cooking dinner, lots of laughs and Quality Street - but life got in the way.

Surprisingly, it's not as deadly as I'd feared. The day has started leisurely, it's bright and almost sunny outside and I've opened a couple of lovely presents. Other than getting dressed, I've no plans or schedules for the day. I can have control of the telly buttons all day and scoff chololate or I can go for a healthy walk proudly showing off my new scarf and gloves. Later on I'll be phoning the rellies to see how their days are going.

A week today, when the daughters descend on us, I'm sure I'll be looking back to the peace and tranquility of today as a contrast to our usual Christmasses, realising that although it wasn't the Christmas I chose, it was pretty good nonetheless.