December
Christmas started on Thursday 4, when Helen made a pre-Christmas visit,
and she and Teresa went to a performance of The
Messiah in Tewkesbury Abbey by the Schola Cantorum (Choir School), now
accommodated in the
The following day a new fridge was delivered to replace the original
fitted one, whose inside, despite a recent repair, had started to resemble the
Beardmore Glacier tumbling down to the Ross Ice Shelf. When we managed to thaw it out, several
years-old pots were retrieved from its frozen depths. Mirabile
dictu, we were delighted to find that the replacement was an almost exact
likeness of the old one, so we were able to fit it snugly into the waiting
aperture without calling out professional help.
We collected Jay from college on Saturday
6. Helen came with us and together we
stuffed the car full of Jay’s possessions.
Roger then drove the loaded car home, while the girls stayed in
Teresa and Helen by the LMH Christmas
tree
On Sunday 7, we bought our own Christmas
tree, again from a local farm, fresh and well-shaped. Teresa manfully anchored it in a large yard
bucket, its trunk being too large for our metal stand, and, when straightened
up and decorated, it looked rather splendid.
Teresa again went to Tewkesbury Abbey, this time with Jay, for a carol
concert on Tuesday 9.
On Wednesday 10, the latest instalment of our battle with the gas
boiler. Most of our visiting engineers
now seem to agree that it’s not a leak at all, but a deep-seated problem in the
boiler itself. Probably the same fault
as with the system next door, apparently now fixed, but we began to foresee
problems getting British Gas to do anything about it.
On Friday 12, Teresa and Jay went to a charity carol concert at a large
private house in Winchcombe.
On Monday 15, they went up to
Helen and Jay outside Harrods. Enlargements and more pictures in our Christmas Gallery
On Tuesday 16, we took Jay down to the
Beefeater Cross Hands Inn in
Jay in the restaurant
Two more musical events for Teresa and Jay – carols at the ancient
parish church at Hailes on Thursday 18 and another performance of The Messiah, by the professional English
Symphony Orchestra on Saturday 20. The
latter was a shorter version of the work,
and staged again in
On Monday nearby neighbours held their traditional Christmas party,
with a few new faces appearing, and the following day Helen came back, just in
time for the carol concert at Toddington church.
Christmas was, as ever, a masterpiece of mise en scène by Teresa, who coordinated
the programme, the meals and the presents for another wonderful family
Christmas. We started with a family
concert, with Teresa demonstrating her new-found skills on the piano, along
with Helen and Juliet, and then Roger and Juliet played a few jigs (guitar and
violin respectively). The finale was
Teresa and Roger’s carol set – piano and guitar – romping along at about Grade
One level.
Our Christmas Eve meal was Beef Wellington for Roger and Teresa, with
duck for the girls. On Christmas Day, we
all had turkey, and all the trimmings.
Replete, we spent the afternoon opening and admiring our Christmas
presents, both those assembled by Teresa over the last few months and those
thoughtfully chosen by the girls.
For entertainment, a surprise hit was a box of mixed parlour games
picked up in a charity shop in the summer, while Roger and Helen particularly enjoyed
a book of literary quizzes, a present for Roger from Helen.
Teresa and the girls returned to
Helen had to return to London on New Year’s Eve, leaving Roger, Teresa
and Jay to see in the New Year quietly with a small drink and a rendition of The Day Dawn – a traditional Shetland
New Year’s air for unaccompanied fiddle.
(More pictures and enlargements)