We celebrated Christmas today (the family is of Czech and German descent, and celebrate on Christmas Eve) and it's been a busy day.

I stayed with Marie in Columbus last night. We stayed up late and had a lot of fun, me, Marie, Tom, their three sons (the 'littlest one' is 19, 6ft 5 and the image of the young Jeff Bridges) and a few of their friends. We played silly games and laughed our heads off.

This morning we made as early a start as we could (those boys would’ve slept until noon without parental intervention) and drove down to the family farmhouse where George’s mum and stepdad still live. It was built in 1840 and is just beautiful. The whole family gathered there, 18 of us, the oldest being Bernard, the stepdad, who’s 93, and the youngest being Elias, aged just 4 months.

Lots and lots and LOTS of food – dips, chips and lots of snacky bites to start with, then ham, mashed potatoes, chicken noodles, green beans, followed by various pies and cakes. My contributions were crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, vegetable curry (for the vegetarians or more adventurous diners) and a trifle for dessert. Everyone ate too much.

After lunch we played a silly game. Everyone was given a gift (wrapped in newspaper) and we all sat in a circle. Tom read “The Night Before Christmas’ and every time the word ‘the’ was read, we all had to pass our gift to the person sitting to our left. At the end of the poem, we could unwrap our gifts. They were silly gifts, Bernard got a set of reindeer antlers to wear on his head, they had little lights in them. Someone else got a collection of dryer lint (I was the only person who had a use for it – put it outside and birds will take it to line their nests), and I got a couple of odd socks. It was all very silly.

Then Diane’s children, their husbands and wives (except for Mikah who is in Iraq) and grandchildren came back with us to her house, and we exchanged and opened our gifts. I had a couple of things I really, really wanted – an Oxo mango splitter and some silicone bakeware.

This evening I went to church with Daisy, George’s mum. It was a long service in an overheated church, and there was far too much not-very-good singing from individuals in the choir doing their Christmas specials, but I know Daisy had been looking forward to taking me, so it was tolerable for a couple of hours. I was glad when it ended though.

And what better way to end the evening than with A Christmas Story. What a great movie! I wish it was shown in England, I love it.

Tomorrow will be a quiet day, just me, Diane, her partner, Dave, and one of her daughters. It would’ve been George’s birthday tomorrow and I plan on visiting his grave. The only thing missing today was him.

I’ve had some wonderful gifts this Christmas, and the ones I’ll treasure most are the ones that money can’t buy.

This is such a nice description Jan. I am very happy you are among loving and caring people. You deserve it. My warmest wishes for the difficult day tomorrow.

Sounds like a wonderful day, jan. George must have been a damn fine person to have come from such a great family. Love for tomorrow.

I'm happy you're having a good time, jan.

Did you know that A Christmas Story was filmed in Ohio?

No I didn't, amro. But I'm not surprised.

And yes, arse_hat, he was a fine man, from a wonderful family. They are really good people and I love them dearly.

We started the celebration with Christmas Eve services at 7 tonight. It was pretty good, and not too many out-of-key singers (our choir is quite good, and a soprano, yes, the one I mentioned as the author of one of the devotionals, sang O Holy Night to perfection).

Tomorrow will be opening the presents early, although we've each gotten our "big gift" already: I got a gas grill, my wife got some tickets to several musicals, my older son got a desk from IKEA and my younger son got a leather coat. But there are still plenty of smaller presents under the tree for the family.

Early in the afternoon some friends will join us for roast beef dinner (we have no family very close), and we will exchange gifts with them. (My wife and I are like aunt and uncle to the two boys... in fact they spent a few hours here after church so mom could wrap presents without them underfoot).

Later in the afternoon, several other friends will drop by, we hope, for dessert.

The day after Christmas, we will be driving up to Oklahoma to visit my wife's cousin. They have a year-old baby we haven't seen yet. We'll be staying overnight, then driving over to visit her other cousin that lives about two hours from the first one.

Then it'll be back home and trying to do all the little things we thought we would have plenty of time for with the time off. As it turns out, we'll only have a day or two to do all that (including getting my younger son's driving permit so he can start learning).

The house from A Christmas Story.

I am so glad you are having a wonderful Christmas!

I played the "Night Before Christmas" game tonight for the first time, too! I got a carved wooden salad spoon and fork (with a Guatemalan design) and a set of Christmas placemats. They were both from my host's mother, who moved into a nursing home. I'm glad that I can give her things a good home.

Saturday night we had company from Vermont - my friend Jan, her son Ryan, and her grandson Tienan (age 5, his mom, Jan's daughter, used the time to wrap gifts). Ryan used to babysit my boys when they were little. They came for dinner, it was a great visit.

Christmas Eve I worked in the morning, then to my brother in law's for a rib roast dinner (I had supplied the roast the night before). There were the six of us, the four of them (my niece and nephew are 3 and 1), my sister in law's mom, my sis in law's brother, wife, and son; my father in law and his fiancee; and Kahuna, my brother in laws' friend and a perpetual little boy, even though he's 35. What a great visit. Noisy, and bustling, and filled with laughter.

Christmas Day, we waited until the last kid got up before opening gifts. We have no plans, so we can all just hang out and relax. My mom and her boyfriend are coming in tomorrow, so we'll celebrate the holiday with them and my brother and his wife on Friday. A nice extension.

Best wishes to you today and all days, Jan, and to your/George's family.

As a result of our oven problems, we're moving our trip to Oklahoma to later in the week. Tomorrow is fix the oven day (if I can get a new coil).