Dear LPG,

It is boxing day, early in the morning and yesterday I had the most wonderful Christmas.  The difference is that by the time you read this post a whole year will have gone by and this day will have come round again. 

I am the one in the middle these days which means that I am still young enough to do all the preparation although I can see the day coming when I will have to hand that privilege over to one of my children, but for the moment it is an unwritten rule that mine is the house that everyone in the family ends up at, and yesterday was a day of complete visual, audible and tangible chaos. 

For me, it started with church and it was midnight mass because, as a Christian, I really like to start the day remembering the real reason that we should be celebrating and, if you believe, it is the perfect time to remember why.  Then, after a few hours’ sleep, it is time to make sure that all the presents have been wrapped and that no one has been left out.  My family all arrive in the early afternoon and the chaos that is Christmas begins.  It all starts with dinner which involves the dinner table but soon degenerates into a buffet for the ones that arrive a bit later.   All the noise that my ears would not usually appreciate follows as the children of all ages come together perhaps for the only time in the whole year.  My job often becomes that of peacemaker as I try my best to maintain peace as the little differences of family opinion start to flare up. 

In the end they all say goodbye and set off for their homes, leaving mine looking devastated with used cups and plates hidden in places where you never realised they could be stored, bits of torn wrapping paper that never got picked up and that warm fuzzy feeling that having everyone together leaves behind. 

I did a bit of tidying up before bed last night but now I can remember how I left it and what I am going to spend the rest of the day doing in order to make my home look like my home again, and the prospect of all that work makes me feel like staying in bed if I am honest.

I suppose that I am describing a typical Christmas for many people of my age, although for some, they will have been a visitor rather than a host, and others will have family living abroad or not living anymore.  Some will have forged new families made up of neighbours and friends that have become their nearest and dearest in recent years, and others will spend their time home alone with their memories of Christmases which they will never experience again. 

Before I go downstairs to the chaos that is waiting for me to make normal again, I just want to remind readers to remember their best Christmases and then it will be easier to cherish days like yesterday, in spite of the extent of your Boxing Day morning after the day before.

AK, Sydenham