On the first day of Christmas...

Well I can state that there are NO partridges in this tree! There are however 54 packages all tied up with ribbon, red for our daughter and green for son. Why 54 and not 48? Well it fits our family! This Christmas, as is usual, Chris is working again. So whilst most people will be tucking in to a dinner with all the trimmings, the children and I are planning to be in our PJ's all day eating 'naughty nibbly' food whilst Chris will be at work ready to go to any unfortunate person/family who should need an ambulance. We've had one Christmas together properly in the last 7 years - where he isn't working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter about it - I'm used to it now.

When the children came to us in 2003 we explained that Daddy was often working Christmas and together as a family we decided to 'move' Christmas. The children chose to not open presents until we were all together and thats what we have done since. This year we will have our Christmas Day on 28th December - hence the 27 gifts each! This may have swung the children into chosing to wait for our Christmas!!