Most people who know me, know that I am no great fan of Christmas, but I have to admit that this year was quite emotional. Our youngest, Charlie, already knew he was getting a Slimline Playstation 2 from his real dad which he was looking forward to. What he didn’t know was that Jayne and I had bought him a new PC to replace the old antique cast-off of mine which I gave him a couple of years ago. That was the last present to be opened because it was at the bottom of the pile – in fact the tree was standing on it!

He was already thrilled when I bought a new mobile phone for Jayne and she let him have her old one, and also with a radio-controlled truck which Jayne had picked up for him. It wasn’t very expensive, but it was big, and he loves radio-controlled stuff. Anyway, after Charlie opened the computer, he had sat down and Jayne noticed that he had started crying. She asked what was wrong and he said it was because he was so happy, and then she started crying too and I was starting to fill up myself.

That was the family moment: after that all the kids went off to play with their various new toys and we didn’t see too much of them.

Jayne, as usual, got totally carried away buying presents for me. Basically I am quite content and there is nothing I really need and just a few things I want. I did do her a list of some things I wouldn’t mind like books, CDs or DVDs I don’t have, so she would have some ideas to choose from. Of course she just went out and got everything on the list, and then some more, which was not really the idea. I am wondering whether I should be concerned that she bought me some new trainers which are slip-ons because she said that she noticed how much trouble I have bending down to tie my old ones… not sure if this means I am getting too fat or just past it.