Christmas comes but twice a year

The lovely thing about spending Christmas Day with children and grandchildren, then New Year with Aunt Sarah, is that I get to celebrate Christmas twice.  Giving and receiving presents on New Year's Eve is now a firmly established family tradition, but first one has to buy them – and  the rule is that we don't go mad; just something inexpensive, given with love. 

Aunt Sarah was keen to try the Metro Centre in Gateshead, which has the distinction of being the largest indoor shopping centre in Britain.  Have you noticed, by the way, how these places invariably resemble modern-day cathedrals, with their high vaulted roofs?  I have a friend of high church persuasion who says he's frequently overcome with a desire to bow to the east when visiting one!

Sarah had a plan.  First we would explore EWM (Edinburgh Woollen Mill), size up their prices on knitwear, then compare the offerings in other shops.  If needs be, we could return later to EWM as it was quite near the centre's entrance. The plan lasted about 3 minutes!  Sarah emerged from the fitting rooms with a new skirt and cardigan and I fell in love with a couple of modestly priced jumpers, which Sarah bought to give me later in the day. Next we searched John Lewis's and Lakeland for a souffle dish, but without success.  No matter, though, as yesterday's shopping exploits had already yielded a couple of small oven dishes to give Sarah.

So here are aunt and niece proudly displaying their presents, before we all sat down to a mouthwatering fondue meal.  That just left time to watch a DVD of Love Actually before the champagne cork popped to mark the New Year.

* As connoisseurs of ecclesiastical calendars and Yuletide songs will know,  Christmas actually runs from December 25th to January 5th, so in truth it's all one big celebration.