Ive obviously had a very staid life in comparison. 
I know my sister who has severe, chronic depression absolutely hates Christmas. She even cancelled my mum last minute last Christmas because she couldn’t face it. My mum came to me.
I did find for a few years Christmas had lost it’s sparkle for me, pun intended. My grandson is 6 now and for the last 3 years Christmas has been exciting again. I am very lucky to still have my dad who is 88 next month and comes to our house. I invite all our neighbours round a few nights before, there are only 9 houses. Next year all being well, we should be in France for Christmas.
(Although i have 5 brothers and sisters.) My other sister is a nun so I have not spent Christmas with her since my teens. It is obviously a busy time for her.
I can’t imagine spending Christmas on my own with no decent food and being arrested with a small child is awful.
I’ve got a seasonal job this year so I’m going to have to be super organised.
@Teresaship staid life not really. These things look dramatic on paper, after the event. Like 'expatriate" life in France, life in Africa is different but after a few years it’s just ‘as usual, how it is’ or ‘normal’. And generally very agreeable as long as you accept things as you find them, smile, shake hands and don’t lose your rag. Knowing a bit of the language goes a long way, especially if you can get beyond “Hello” and “Goodbye” 
Thank your lucky stars your house isn’t in Aberdeen, Mat. I’ve been trying to sell my “penthouse” here for two years but the property market is a disaster after the near-collapse of the North Sea oil industry. The fall in the pound doesn’t help either. My new life in France is proving depressingly elusive. Good luck with your sale. Plans for tonight? The pub.
Just off to visit a windmill that’s recently been restored in our village, will supply photos presently…
My brother lives in Aberdeen. I believe it pretty bad these days for work.
Here it is, pretty cool!
Well James you can always take up knitting for a hobby. As for me, I am expecting my first grandchild - a girl any minute now, so for months I have been knitting like one of the crones at the steps of the guillotine during the revolution ! I can recommend it for preventing the odd crisp, chocolate or any other forbidden delicacy for entering one’s mouth. After a few months of this wonderful hobby I am slimmer, and I have made lots of knitted things for the baby. My daughter in law now want me to teach her to knit when I am next in the UK.
I bow, Sir, to a much more ghastly Christmas experience than my own. 
Your magnanimity is deeply appreciated, Sir.
And as I’ve learned ruefully, Paul, in these “Test Your Strength” competitions we engage in, I always lose on points.
Your elderly-father-scrambled-egg anecdote was just pipped by my tiny-child-soaked-to-the-skin-and-shivering-in-a-scruffy-sub-Saharan-lock-up tale, let’s agree. And you went first so I had a tactical advantage, which I exploited cruelly.
But when it comes to empathic graciouness and Downton Abbey English smooth good manneredness and gentlemanly you-go-firstness and boy-stood-on-the-burning-deck self-effacing modesty I am entirely outclassed, and sit awestruck at your feet.
A la prochaine ! 
I’m working
Lol…it is really difficult to explain vividly to those who have no fear of heights isn’t it…??? x 
I think it’s my only fear…
I watched a war film not so long back…rescue by helicopter…they ended up sitting on the edge of the helicopter whilst the cameraman was filming the landscape they were leaving…I instantly felt like I was gonna fall out of the on screen helicopter…:x 
Well, I did what I had to do and I’ve stopped shaking now😉
My farmer neighbour was also on the roof of a house he rents out. He had a chimney stack to take down and cap. There he was skipping around like it’s the most natural thing in the world, and he’s over 70. Much respect 
High fives to your 70 year old neighbour and high fives to you Chris…x
My mom was always the mountain goat in our family…my dad served his two years national service in Cyprus…he had only just met my mom but she waited two years for him…
Our family holidays were always camping and hiking…there were several times our routes took us “high up”…I vividly recall one time where the only way forward was to walk a really narrow path around the edge of a “mountain”…My mom mountain goated the pathway and stood there holding her hands out to us…I held onto my dad’s leg for dear life whilst he clung onto the rock face and we inched our way along…x
It is really popular now among younger people! I can do a basic stitch but really wish I had someone around to show me how as I would love to learn .
Catharine… I started knitting at Junior School… 
(never knitted since) somehow I almost finished one sock… we found it, still on the three small knitting needles…waiting for the last few rows… when we moved to France some 40 years later …
I found out that i will be a grandma in May…so this weekend-im trying to realize the truth of it! My son is 18 and expecting his first child in Cali…
Huge congrats Meghann…! My son at 23 is nowhere near being a reliable father…my two daughters are no longer with the fathers of their children…(all under 10)…My sister in Canada has four sons…only one who is a dad but it took a dna test to establish paternity as she was cheating on him for two years…the Canadian government now take half his wages to give to the mother who now lives with another man… until his daughter is 18…My sister in Canada had to fight to see her only granddaughter once a month…I wish your son and his girlfriend only love and happiness and the same for you as a “grandma”…
xxx
Thank you…
Bonjour Catherine. You can get all the instructions to learn how to knit, crochet etc., on Youtube.
I often have to refer to it if I forget how to do certain stitches.
Good luck
Rosie XX
Brilliant, thank you! Xx