Cool Yule

Today is my first full day in London in over a week. It’s great to be back – but a Christmas break at my parents did me good too. After a manic month in London it was nice to take a step back from life – and, to some degree, in time. You see, where I come from, we do Christmas Old School, from real Christmas trees and holly to stockings and retro food.
It was a typical family Christmas. Christmas Eve was a hive of activity with a last minute trip into town and a frantic flurry of decorating and cleaning before the festivities kicked off with an “alcofrolic” and a game of Scrabble. Christmas Day started with croissants (a family tradition) and Bucks Fizz before I took up position by the Christmas tree to distribute the mountain of presents – a role that, as the youngest member of the family has been mine for time immemorial and one that I hold proudly, despite the hazardous pine needles.
As usual, we shunned turkey (my dad hates the stuff) and opted for good old fashioned Prawn Cocktail followed by Mushroom Swiss Steak. It was Retro Heaven, and went perfectly with my Eighties-inspired batwing top. After the Queen’s Speech (my mum needs to watch it to keep up with the Jones’) we returned to the board game cupboard and selected Monopoly - and I mean proper Old School Monopoly which my parents suspect was purchased before they were even married.
On Boxing Day we went for the obligatory mince pie-busting walk – and gave my mum a chance to use her Christmas Nordic walking poles (even though we bought them for her in September). Back indoors I settled down to my newest hobby, knitting and luckily my sister arrived before I made any more mistakes. She came without her man, who was suffering from an ear infection and feeling less than festive, leaving us as a family of four for the first time in several years. Needless to say, more present opening, games and eating ensued.
Yesterday I rounded up my Christmas with thank you notes to my relatives for the lovely gifts I had received. Letter writing is a lost art, but I like to think that it means more than a quick email or a text message – and, let’s face it, at this time of year it is a joy to receive anything in the post that doesn’t have a minimum payment on it. So, at the train station, I posted my letters before settling in my seat on a refreshingly quiet train.
Tomorrow I will be heading off once more for NYE with friends in Derbyshire. Along with their Christmas presents and a few leftovers from my mum’s bulging kitchen cupboards, I shall be keeping up the retro theme with Twister – and possibly dominoes too.
So, what is my message to you all, you may ask? Keep Yule Cool – go Old School!