So this is Christmas

Dec 25th. We attended mass at the local church from 10.00 to 11.30, where some lovely corals were sung and a nice homily was delivered by the pastor, who reminded us that 'a bad day was a good day in disguise' (Christopher Reeve). On we went to the Halfacres (our nephew and niece) for distribution of gifts and dinner. There were so many gifts, that it took us over an hour to distribute and appreciate them - both the recipient and the giver enjoyed this activity. Remember we have one grandniece (Olivia Rose 12) and three grandnephews (Harvey, Oscar and Joseph - triplets 10, so there was much excitement- the essence of Christmas is children and from them, an experience of pure love and pristine happiness. Then children grow up and become teenagers and adults and their sense of wonderment and joy is replaced with judgment and cynicism. Too bad, but that seems to be the way of life.
We also had our son Julian and his girlfriend Julie which made the party complete. After many a wee dram and many a tot, we had lunch, prepared by Julie Halfacre, our niece. Here we are at Chez Halfacre's where we had a traditional English Christmas dinner. After dinner we had a quiz on soccer, Coronation street (a British soap) and English politics - my contribution was nil ! Finally around 7.00pm we wound our way back to Squirrel's Nook after a wonderful Christmas. I write this sipping mulled wine and feeling that 'all's right with the world'
Dec 27th. Today we attended the famous 'after Christmas sales'. One has to be strong and fit to participate, let alone benefit from these sales, as there are hundreds of persons, all very seriously trying to find a bargain. The stereotype of a very polite Britisher was exploded; although to be fair, there were as many east Europeans, Indians, Arabs and islanders as there were British. Really not much to buy - London and Europe are very expensive as compared to the US and the variety is limited. We end up buying a few odds and ends and quite a lot of interesting combinations of biscuits (cookies) and chocolates (candy) - condiments are probably the best buy in the UK (excluding the beer and single malt, of course)
We travel home day after tomorrow and just yesterday some Nigerian tried to blow himself up in a plane bound for the US, so the airlines and national security have already stipulated more detailed checks of international passengers. More suffering with questionable results. In the hysteria over providing more security, we are failing to improve security and are just spending a lot of time and money on sophisticated devices. We must adopt an ABC approach and identify a small number of 'A' terrorists and would be terrorists, track them relentlessly and only do random checks on everyone else. Obviously I am hallucinating in thinking anything like this can be observed. Enough - next blog in the US of A