It's nearly half past midnight on Boxing Day. Father and mother in law have gone home. My parents have gone to bed. Wife has fallen asleep in her armchair. She looks beautiful like that. Dammit... I love that woman.
And so it's all over for another year. That's it. For me, it started at just after 4 am this morning when Meg woke up and came bursting into our bedroom with a level of excitement that only a 6 year old can have at that time on Christmas morning.
We had a lovely day. Everything went brilliantly well. Somehow. Don't ask me how.
I'm the last one left awake now. It's quiet here and I'm looking at the tree in our lounge. I've not yet turned the lights off. I'm having one last brandy before I shake my wife and tell her to come to bed.
Why do we do it...? Why do we go so daft about Christmas every year...? Why do we spend a fortune, exhaust ourselves, get so totally stressed out and put in a level of effort and commitment that would make a manned expedition to Mars seem like a jolly in comparison...?
It's simple. We do it because it's there. A bit like why people feel a need to climb Mount Everest.
Today, I've been with my mum and dad. My mother and father in law. My wife and my daughter. These are the people who are closest in my life, and who I love more than life itself. We've eaten, we've drunk (a lot), we've shared gifts. We've talked, hugged, laughed, shared and just.....you know.... been together.
And that's priceless. You can't put a value on that. You can't cost it, or quantify it or rate it with marks out of ten , or a hundred or a million. It goes beyond that.
And so I'm the last one still awake today. The house is silent. The cats have been put out and all is still.
I'm happy in my life, I'm fulfilled and I couldn't wish for more.
Thank you, Christmas. Thank you for being what you are and for bringing my family together, just for this one day. Thank you for the blessing of my wife and my daughter and my parents. Thank you for that beautiful bracelet my wife gave me, and the look on my little girl's face this morning, like, really... this morning. I didn't even WANT to look at the time on the clock when she woke us up.
Thank you for Christmas lunch, that went on for three hours. For my dad's really terrible jokes and my father in law's ludicrous taste in Christmas sweaters. Thank you for my mother and my mother in law who somehow reach a pax vobiscum so that between us we survived three women in one kitchen (gravy..? Reagan and Gorbachev didn't eyeball each other like my mine and Amanda's mothers when we got to that point) to get it all on the table, on time and as close to perfection as makes no difference.
Your day is now over now, Christmas. It's done. Tomorrow we clean up, go out for a pub lunch and relax. We have friends coming round for drinks tomorrow night. More food to prepare but it's amazing what you can do with leftovers. My mother taught me well.
Our friends, Wendy and Linda are getting married in three weeks. We are going to the panto on Saturday and Amanda has to referee a women's rugby match on Sunday. Christmas is over. Life goes on.
But right now, I'm going to turn the lights on the tree off, drag wifey off to bed and get some sleep.
I hope you all had a lovely time and your Christmas was everything you wanted it to be. I hope you all had time with your loved ones and they brought you the greatest gift of all. Their love.
It's over for another year. Again, thank you Christmas.
Roll on this time next year. I can't wait.