Merry whatsit

Eighteen people have visited my blog today, so clearly my audience demands that I post something.

They weren't even here as the result of some random Google search, unlike the poor misguided person who, according to my stats, recently looked for "French lesbian tube" and somehow - really, I have no idea how - ended up here. Maybe they saw the error of their ways and decided to stay and read about my thrilling life instead. Let's hope.

As predicted, it's been a much quieter, more relaxed Christmas Day than our usual whirlwind of courtesy calls and extended-family dinner and mince pies, but the basics of crazy-excited children and something containing fruit juice and alcohol with breakfast remained unmovable. (In Ireland, at my in-laws', it's always buck's fizz, or what Americans call mimosas - champagne and orange juice. We rang the changes just a little with bellinis - peach juice and prosecco. Because we're rebels.)  I made buttermilk pancakes and bacon; Dash ate one bite of pancake with a lot of maple syrup, and Mabel ate an orange segment.

However, this evening we all ate dinner together at the dining table, which was a feat in itself. We had to partake in a game of I-Spy to keep the kids in situ, but, probably, conversing about the situation in Korea and Mitt Romney's election prospects are beyond a three-year-old and a five-year-old. And I-Spy was more fun. (My words were "brussels sprouts" and "wine", because I didn't extend myself too far in finding things to spy. Mabel made us guess the blue shoes on her baby in the other room, which was a little tricky. B had us trying to pinpoint the red stripe on his sweater, which merited a slap, but my end of the table was too far away.)

I roasted a chicken, and potatoes, and did sprouts with bacon. It could probably have profited from gravy, but hey, whatareyougonnado? Dash has recently taken a vegetarian stance on behalf of the poor dead animals, which I laud from an ethical point of view, but really when you're a peanutbuttersandwichatarian, anything else is purely hypothethcal. I keep telling him I'll be delighted when he's a vegetarian, but he'll have to actually eat some vegetables. Mabel ate a lot of chicken and nothing else. Then we had the last of the meringues with cream, and cut into the long-awaited Christmas cake.

Photos tomorrow, when I've had less wine. I'm told I still have to help finish the bottle.

Happy whatever-you-want-to-celebrate to you and yours.