My Christmas Day cooking went well. Don't think I have ever cooked a roast for that many people before, but all was accomplished with few mistakes and no disasters. Everyone was very impressed with the food (turkey, lamb steaks, roast potato, roast parsnip carrot, sprouts (fried with bacon bits), red cabbage (steamed with apple), stuffing, pigs-in-blankets). The ladies said that it was the best Christmas day dinner they had ever had, but I think they could have been biased on account of its being the first Christmas day dinner that they hadn't had to cook.

When the two youngest girls said "we're bored; what can we do?" CGF suggested they go to the kitchen to see if I needed a hand. They thought that was a brilliant idea and so I had two willing and eager assistants to prepare the sprouts, stuffing and pigs-in-blankets.

Youngest child had the very important task of "chief turkey taster" when I carved the bird. She had two tastings - one with cranberry sauce and one without. It tasted "great" without and "brilliant" with. Later she made me a poster to say thank you (apparently I am "over tall", "brilliant cook" and "best and funny").

My domestic godliness didn't stop with the cooking. I did the washing up too. CGF's SiL wanted to clone me to take home with her!

Christmas morning we went for a walk to the local kiddy play area (swings, climbing frame, zip wire). As we set off youngest child asked her mum which way we were going. "Follow Ruby" was the reply. Well - you know me. I don't need to be given a second opportunity to be a born-again Ovaltiney. Off we went, balancing along kerbs; hop-skip-and-jumping across flagstones; spinning round lampposts; slaloming between bollards; squeezing through tight gaps; and Ministry of Silly Walks steps. Two youngest followed and copied me all the way to the park. And I had a go on the zip wire.

Speaking of born-again Ovaltineys, CGF bought a marble-run for her nephew. "That looks fun - do you think we can get him to set it up on Christmas afternoon?" was my reaction. Entirely by coincidence (afaik), The Aged got me the same thing. So I am going to have some fun with that.

We went to the Chinese Supermarket on Friday. I bought a packet of china tea and some tea cups to drink it from, and a pot to make it in (I have a teapot, but as I use it for Indian tea, it would taint the taste of Chinese tea). The teapot lasted about six hours, until I pulled something out of the car forgetting that there was something fragile on top, and the package hit the ground with that distinctive crockery-smashing clunk. Oh well, no use crying over split teapots.

Saturday CGF and I had a day in London. We met a friend of CGF for coffee; they hadn't seen each other for ten years. I'm not suggesting they talked a lot, but friend's son read a complete book while they were gossiping. After that we walked around Covent Garden and Leicester Square and ate our sandwiches (sausage and marmalade). How many people can say that they have eaten sausage and marmalade sandwiches in Leicester Square? Or at all? We went to China Town and bought some cakes (all of which have now been eaten). I did consider buying a new teapot, but decided that if I couldn't safely look after a pot in my own car I certainly couldn't be trusted to carry one around London.

Then we tried to go to the Natural History Museum, but the queue was too long so we went to the V&A instead. Lots of interesting things there. We saw sculptures, paintings, tapestries, etc. Later in the afternoon we went back to the Natural History Museum. The queue was shorter and we had about an hour there before closing time.

Then a walk up to look at the (outside of) the Royal Albert Hall, and back through Hyde Park to catch the tube from Hyde Park Corner. That station was closed, so we walked down to Green Park (this was beginning to turn into a typical Ruby "longer than it looks" walk). Back to Leicester Square for dinner (Wagamamas) and home.

The Ageds visited Sunday, staying to this morning. The original plan had been for them to go to my step-sister in Sussex first, and come here on their way home. However, the first part of the plan was scuppered owing to loss of electricity at my step-sister's. Although this may sound like a recipe for a ruined Christmas, I should point out that the school where step-BiL is deputy-head still had power, so they were able to enjoy reasonable levels of comfort there during the day and just go home at night.

We took them to The New Forest's best-kept secret yesterday. Weather forecast was "heavy rain and strong winds in the morning; drier and calmer in the afternoon" and it was pretty accurate. We got there about 1130, went for a coffee and saw the sky brighten as we drank it. Amongst other birds we saw pochard and/or widgeon, cormorants, a pair of woodpeckers, and what was either a tree creeper or a nut hatch.