Yesterday was my favourite day of the year, one that I always look forward to.  It does not always fall on the same date, but is normally a few days after December 25th.  The timing depends on when the Northern sister can get time off work.  It is the day we go up to Essex to visit family over the Christmas holidays.It is the one day of the year that Mum is guaranteed to have all three of us kids together, along with our kids.  Most years will see some sort of event like a wedding or funeral when we will be together, but this is the one fixed point.  It was a  bit quieter this year as our two boys have now left home and were both working, but all the main components were there:  Rob wearing his now traditional ‘I’m not here to fix your computer’ t-shirt while he fixes Mum’s computer, enormous hot & cold buffet for more than a dozen people,  rotten traffic on the M25, and dropping in on Joan and Ivy on the way home.

As is often the case, I have returned home with even more books to add to the queue – just when I was on top of my reading list.  No complaints though: I can now look forward to the new Malcolm Gladwell book and the Atheist’s Guide to Christmas, which Rob got signed by Ariane Sherine while he was in London.

I can also look forward to playing with a remote release for my camera, thanks to the Essex-based sister.  A work colleague swears by these for totally avoiding camera-shake when doing night-time photography with long exposures but there is no way I am taking the camera out in all this rain so I will have to wait for that pleasure.  What it does mean is one more suspicious-looking gadget in the luggage when the camera bag goes through an x-ray machine.

Chhristmas is now officially over.  In our house we don’t consider that it has really happened until we have been back to Essex for the day.