So tomorrow many of us will be sitting down to Christmas lunch.
At the Dingdell household we will be having:Smoked salmon and avocado terrine with sweet chilli sauce (just finished and in the fridge)
Followed by roast rib of beef with all the trimmings including home made yorkshires (fml)
Christmas pudding presented with an eerie glow of blue flame as we set light to it, accompanied by oohs and aaahs and then the annual discussion about how no one actually likes christmas pudding.
Cheeseboard - always overloaded and rarely touched.
During the day we will be trying to avoiding the following: 1. Discussing my fathers divorce - despite it happening over 25 years ago it is discussed every year.
2. Discussing my Dad's marriage proposal to his girlfriend who is the same age as me (you go Dad

)
3. Discussions about my job.
4. Talking about dead relatives - christmas for me becomes a time of mourning and it isn't christmas unless I have been in tears at least twice as everyone chats about the dead people.
5. Poker and gambling as my Dad is a hater of cards.
6. Burning anything apart from the pudding.
7. Just about everything else as it so easily becomes contentious.
During the day we will be doing the following:1. laughing merrily at everyones cracker jokes
2. Wearing paperhats throughout lunch
3. Listening to the Queens speech at 1
4. ooohing and aaahing as we open the socks etc etc
5. gathering as many happy memories of the day as we can in our minds in case we don't make it back this way next year
6. Toasting absent friends
7. Worrying about whether the sky plus will manage to tape Doctor Who
8. Sleeping well that night after a day of excess.
Whatever you do tomorrow I hope you have as happy and familiar christmas as I will - it's what we make it - and at the Dingdell christmas lunch we make it bearable!
Merry Christmas everyone - see you at the other side. xx