So this is Christmas

Regular readers of this blog will by now be aware of what I truly associate with Christmas. The shopping queues (already ranted about those), the stress, the heat, the short fuses etc. Well, it was all there today. First of all, my mother and I had a huge argument about something totally irrelevant, but which somehow, due to the aforementioned short fuses (from both sides) became almost major enough to de-rail the whole day quite early.

Then during the day there were the usual back and forth arguments about tired old political issues (the same debates that were being had 15 years ago). These haven't managed to tear this family apart the way so many others have gone, but it is a little tedious to sit there and listen to it (for those in the room, and the neighbours too I expect). At least the arrival of some other guests put this one on hold for a while.

Actually, this part of the afternoon/evening wasn't quite so bad. My uncle's latest girlfriend (no, I won't go there). Actually, she seems to be able to hold a more interesting conversation than many other people I've met, so perhaps the day wasn't all bad. Oh, the food ended up being pretty good, and the company, despite the shouting matches, wasn't at all bad. I'm just not sure that it's all worth all the other hassles that go with it.