Christmas day was fab and, even though the eating was spread over six hours, I still ended up with a Christmas Dinner Baby. Actually, it felt more like twins. Luckily it's subsiding now, else I'll be in trouble when it comes to getting back into my work clothes!

Rob's taken holiday and is currently working on his dissertation. This leaves me free to slob around and play on the internet without distraction. Hurrah! I'm currently sitting in bed surrounded by cats: THIS is what holidays are for! (not to mention wireless internet connections).

The problem with not writing about work is that for weeks on end nothing else seems to happen in my life. Now, though, I am free of such drudgery and have finally got my brain to co-ordinate with my fingers to bring this (increasingly dusty) organ up to date.

We are spending Christmas day with friends, having a safari supper that starts in the pub and finishes with poker and silly games until late o'clock. We're doing the main course, so Rob has spent today preparing veg, weighing the goose and making minute-by-minute to-do lists. I made some chocolate cookies, which strictly speaking is nothing to do with tomorrow's food but seemed a good idea at the time. My contribution to Christmas has been a) making the sausages for pigs in blankets; and b) making mince pies. By the dozen. At the start of December I couldn't make pastry. It's taken several batches (all eaten by the long-suffering Rob, even the early attempts, bless him) but I think I've finally cracked it.

My normal, pre-Rob Christmas routine involved buying all presents on Christmas Eve. If it wasn't on offer in the local shopping centre, it wasn't good enough to be a gift for my nearest and dearest. This year, in growed-up adultness (seeing as I'm married and all that) I only had two presents to buy this Christmas Eve. I even started buying presents before the 20th December: something unheard of here on Planet Mad. Today's shopping excursion lead us into Sainsbury's, not because we needed to buy any foodstuffs but because we too wanted to join the ranks of panic-buyers: WE NEED EGGS. MILK. FROZEN CURRIES. A DUSTPAN AND BRUSH. SEVEN TYPES OF OLIVE OIL. QUICK. QUICK!! THE SHOPS ARE SHUTTING FOR A WHOLE DAY!!! WE MIGHT JUST STARVE TO DEATH IF WE DON'T STOCK UP ON THINGS WE DON'T NEED!!!!!

We left Sainsbury's with eggs, bread and a bunch of flowers. Sometimes peer pressure is too strong to resist.