Saturday.

Snapshot of Great Gran on boxing day with her present from Jonathan, which was a basketful of individual groceries (small puddings, tinned stuff, etc), ideal for an elderly person living alone, but which she has difficulty finding.

On Christmas Day, Liz, Danny, Georgia, Matthew and Beth came over to spend the day with us. We (that is Ann, Gran, and I) went to the 10.30 am family service. Ann was serving. We got home a little after 11.30 am, and Liz, and co. arrived just after midday. Danny said they had driven through the City, past Tower Bridge, up the Mile End Road, and onto the A12. The journey took them just over two hours, which was pretty good. We gave them beef from Cornwall (rolled rib). It was a lovely piece of beef, beautifully done and very tender. Followed by one of Neville Pool's Christmas puddings. It was a year old, and perfect. The crackers were rather special and caused much amusement. There were eight of them, each with a whistle in it giving a different note, with a number on the whistle and a similar number to be pasted to the blower. I was voted conductor, and (after a little practice) quite recognisable tunes could be played on the whistles. (I made up a Christmas crackery joke about the game:- what do you call a bankrupt conductor ? Answer :- A bust conductor----- Pause for groans.
After lunch we all exchanged Christmas presents, and all of us were very pleased with our gifts. We had a pot of tea with a piece of Christmas cake, illustrated earlier, and all we had room for, just after five. and the London contingent set of for home a little after six. It had been a lovely day.