Christmas
Time to start thinking about Christmas again. For some reason, we always seem to host the dinner. Couldn't be anything to do with our cosy bespoke kitchen and Siemens ovens, could it? (I think everyone else in the family worries that their kitchen isn't quite up to the task.)
This year, we're catering for an army. We'll be drafting in chairs from all over the house and enlisting a children's table so that we can comfortably seat the 20 of us: me, Jerry and our six kids, the aged parents, my brother, his wife and new baby, Jerry's sister and family, plus Mrs Graham from down the road who's on her own.
Our various four-legged friends will be at the ready to scoop up any tasty morsels that fall overboard. And, of course, in the country, there's always the chance of an unexpected guest. Just last week I had to shoo away a goat that had followed our youngest into the kitchen. Apparently the smell of shortbread baking in the Aga was too tempting for either to ignore.