Traditions of Christmas, Past.

Several years ago now, my sister & her then husband, Nigel, used to have me over for the main days of Xmas.
I would go late afternoon on Xmas Eve, & come home the morning after Boxing Day.
We had set traditions, which were our "Recipe of Christmas".
Sadly, we thought these would go on forever & very few photos were ever taken. Now, I want to record them forever & kick myself that we didn't get pictures. I will just have to make a mini Xmas book & record the memories for posterity.
Christmas Eve, Nigel would always cook us a good meal & it was usually roast beef, or roast lamb.
The last year together, he cooked us Monkfish wrapped in Parma ham.
That was a bad year, but he threw himself into the festivities with his usual gusto...He was having chemotherapy for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.He drank us under the table twice!!! Shortly after Xmas he ended up with Pneumonia & was critically ill.
We often wrapped presents in front of a blazing fire with mulled wine to drink while he nipped to the local village pub for a quick drink.
Xmas morning, he would knock on the bedroom door & leave a mug of tea outside at 8a.m. We would get up in pyjamas & eat some toast & drink coffee. Then we would draw out of a hat (mug!) the number of presents we were allowed to open before lunch. Nigel used to put really high numbers in & we would take them out & replace with lots of 3's!!!! He was dreadful, just like a child trying to dig us out of bed before 7a.m to open presents..
We would open champagne at 10a.m & make bucks fizz & select the gifts for each other. We usually picked the clothing ones for each other so we had something to wear for lunch!!!!!!
We then used to send him to the pub for a free pint of Guinness & a whiskey chaser, while we prepared the veg. He always cooked the meal.
With lunch we opened more champagne & continued drinking it the rest of the day!!!!!!
After lunch, was present time. We wanted the day to last as long as possible & the anticipation of the presents was terrible to bear sometimes!!!! The opening of presents usually lasted until teatime when we used to just have the Xmas pud we couldn't quite manage at lunch!!!!! Then it was champagne all the way to bedtime.
That last Christmas we vowed that when Nigel was better, we would book Christmas away & take our traditions to the Lake District.
Sadly, in the August 2004 Nigel died.......
For me, so did Christmas & a very large piece of my life......
As I'm typing this I am beginning to cry, but finally they are happy tears of memories precious...
Tracy remarried recently to a lovely man, Martin. Christmas will change, the traditions will now be replaced, but I will always remember .........
I must get some more cards made & watch a few more Xmas movies.