Joy of joys; it looks like Christmas might just be a bit crapper than I originally thought. My brother noticed the lack of presents and thought it wouldn’t do us any harm to go out and do a bit of last minute secret shopping on Christmas Eve, and why not? On any other day in any other place this would have cheered it up no end, but for some reason my uncle decided to cook Christmas dinner for tonight so we could see it through until midnight; some Frenchy tradition. This never works and tonight was no exception, everyone was too tired and fed up by the end of it they all went to bed; me included. This leaves tomorrow, the day itself, looking pretty bleak. It’s going to take a miracle to turn this one around; it’s not quite impossible yet though…

So there lie the presents, contents known to all already sadly, apart from the green one underneath the pile labelled towards my brother; that’s the mystery one and I’m really hoping the present inside will be so good we’ll forget our other festive woes.

I suppose, for the record, I should say that the meal wasn’t very good; not down to anyone’s fault really, just a bad turkey and bad ingredients, generally bad luck I suppose. I remember a couple of years ago we cooked a massive joint of lamb instead of a turkey and although my uncle was reluctant to go against the tradition; it was far better than any turkey we’ve ever had. With a bit of luck in a couple of years’ time when I’m back in France for Christmas I’ll be reading this back over to myself and I might just remember about that...

Enough depressing talk about Christmas day, surely it won’t be as bad as I’m saying it will be, I think I’m just being pessimistic; even if it is, I’ll do my best to make the most of it whatever the weather…