Alex, Graham and Immy announced in the summer their intention to spend Christmas in France; as Jean and Doug, Graham’s parents, would be on their own, I invited them too and to everyone’s surprise, they accepted the offer.
It wouldn’t have been practical to have everyone stay in my apartment, so I had a word with Maryvonne, who has an apartment in the same building, that she lets to curistes; the thermal establishments all close around Christmas, so she was happy to rent it to me and it gave Jean and Doug a bolt hole when things got too noisy, such as when Emily put on her zombie outfit 🤣
I thought I’d prepared everything, including silly Christmas slipper socks to keep everyone’s feet warm on my tiled floors, but the day before they arrived, realised I hadn’t got a tree! I went to the supermarkets and the DIY shops, but none of them had any trees; apparently some moth or caterpillar has decimated the pines in the area, so Christmas trees were like hens’ teeth. I’d think about it when they all arrived.
The following day, once everyone was here, Kieran and Graham’s first task was to put my small dining table on the balcony and replace it with the big balcony table, so we could all eat comfortably; it was also very useful for games, craft activities, jigsaws etc, and was never empty.
Then off to the garden centre; they too had no real trees, just a few artificial ones at vastly inflated prices. However Alex spotted the last few tiny artificial trees. They were cute, only about 25cm tall, so we got three – one for each grandchild. They worked really well, the kids were delighted to have a tree each to decorate and they took up far less space than a full size tree.
The first week’s weather was grey, wet and miserable; our planned trips to San Sebastian and the Pyrenees had to be postponed, a pity for Jean and Doug, who were only here until Boxing Day. But we found plenty to do; Immy offered to wrap my presents, which she did beautifully, we made Christmas crackers (Alex brought the pullers and I’d got a tiny present for each person) and we made Santa serviettes for the Christmas day table, as well as having a couple of meals out and a trip up the coast to Biscarrosse one cold, but dry, day.
Christmas day was delightfully busy; Immy opened a couple of presents in the morning, but waited very patiently for Kieran to arrive with Arthur and Emily, so they could do most of the unwrapping together. Graham was in charge of the cooking, producing a delicious meal of roast lamb with all the trimmings. I made a French “bûche de Noël” (chocolate log) and, at Kieran’s request, a Christmas pudding; for some reason, he wanted traditional, English fare this year.
Emily had spent the whole of December making Christmas crowns for everyone; colourful and sparkly, they were gorgeous, but wearing them to go for a walk Christmas day afternoon did draw some funny looks from the French!
Almost as soon as Jean and Doug left, the sun came out! We had an interesting journey to San Sebastian, with closed motorways and bouts of car sickness (my car still smells, in spite of repeated scrubbing and plenty of bicarb, but I’m sure it’ll get better eventually). Once we finally arrived, the tapas bars were all heaving, but we found a lovely Italian restaurant that had a table for seven. Then a walk to explore the mountain behind the town, followed by ice creams and a play park for the kids; Alex and I even got an hour to wander round the shops!
There was an ice rink and bungee trampoline in Dax, so the kids spent several afternoons there and on a particularly cold, grey day, we went to the bowling alley.
Towards the end of the holidays we’d decided to go to the mountains, but Alex was full of cold and I just didn’t fancy standing around, shivering, in the freezing cold, watching the kids sledge, so we nobly offered to stay at home so that they could just take one car. Kieran, Graham and the kids all had a fantastic day, taking the cable car up the mountain from Cauterets and sledging all afternoon.
Alex and I spent the morning in my garage; I had a cupboard full of some of Nick’s hand woodworking tools and since Alex has started to do some woodwork, it seemed like the right time to hand them over. She’s delighted with her haul. We then had a walk to the shops and lunch out, so everyone was happy.
Arthur’s birthday was a couple of days after they left, so on their final day we had a pre-birthday party for him, complete with cake and candles.
Alex, Graham and Immy left at 6 o’clock on Friday morning; after the busyness and noise of between seven and nine people for two weeks, it seemed very quiet and empty, but we’ll be together again in the summer.