The family at Christmas 1990
The family at Christmas 1990

After the girls got us morning drinks at 8am, there then started a mammoth present opening session as a huge storm with winds and torrential rain raged outside. Power cuts elsewhere did not affect us as we had our Christmas Lunch of Roast Turkey and all the trimmings and Christmas Pudding and cream for me to follow.

A rather uninspiring Queen's Speech at 3.00pm after which I tackled the huge backlog of local newspapers for Press Cuttings for the Little Paxton scrap-book and we went to bed early again.

Debbie and Della got us morning drinks around 8.00am so that we would get up and let them start opening the Christmas Presents. Daniel also staggered down and the whole morning was spent as they opened literally dozens of presents each. We must have the most pampered and spoilt children in the world as most others just get a few things each! The girls were very pleased, but Daniel seemed a little disappointed as we had not bought him a new colour TV. Di and I opened ours and then there was the massive clearing-up exercise to follow. All of the time outside, there was a very bad storm with pouring rain, high winds etc. The power lines were down in the area, but luckily ours were intact and Diana could get on with cooking the Christmas Lunch of Roast Turkey and all the trimmings.

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We sat down around 1.00pm and enjoyed our meal with Christmas Pudding and cream for me to follow. Diana and I went into the lounge and watched another TV film and then she did the washing up before the Queen's Speech at 3.00pm. This was a pretty uninspiring oratory effort about the dedication of those serving in the Gulf. Prince Charles should come to the throne as he would be better able to capture the mood of the nation. This afternoon, and for much of the evening, we watched the TV and I tackled about a quarter of the huge backlog of local newspapers for Press Cuttings for the Little Paxton scrap-book which job I have been storing up these last nine months. I lit the log fire for comfort but the family were complaining that it was too hot for them and so I let it go out.  Quite early to bed this evening together for once, but this was not to last as Diana became tired with my restlessness and went off to her spare room again.