A Crowded Christmas - 1981

We put the capacity of our new house to a real test at Christmas, 1981. My brother Richard and his wife Nancy, with Nancy's children Vanessa and Stefan along with their first child, Romney, who was a tiny baby, arrived from Australia. Nancy had been at her home in Arizona for the birth, presumably so Romney would have automatic US citizenship which she might not have had if she had been born in Australia to a British father. They arrived to a bitterly cold Britain.

We were joined for Christmas by my and Gill's mothers and fathers so, with Romney too small to join us for the celebratory meal, we were thirteen round the table, something my superstitious mother couldn't face, so one of the girls' teddybears made it fourteen.

I remember that most of the party had a few drinks at the Blue Boar while Christmas lunch was being cooked.

It had been cold enough when I drove to Heathrow to pick up the family but after Christmas it snowed, which I suppose might have been fun for children who were accustomed to the climates of Arizona and Australia.

My recollection is that it was a very enjoyable Christmas, though I do wonder what Nancy felt about caring for a tiny baby in our house, which was not very warm. The children got on well, Vanessa seeming to spend much of her time reading 'Gone with the Wind'.

Picture shows, from left to right, Vanessa, Katy, Stefan and Lizzie.