MEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS!!

KEEPING UP TRADITION: I of course spent Christmas Eve night with my stocking on my head, as per the tradition in my family...

This is the first Christmas that I've ever 'hosted' and it's been a really interesting and odd experience, to no longer be the person who gets to sit on the sofa, having meals cooked for them and drinks brought to them, but rather the person who, after loading the dishwasher for the millionth time is already starting to prepare the next meal and constantly think about what's next and what their guests might want.

Although it's been tiring and hard work, there's been something fun about the challenge of being the hostess with the mostest and I'm pleased to say that everything's gone pretty well.

On their request, we took Richard and Judy to the National Gallery on Christmas Eve and then I made a pleasingly successful white chocolate cheesecake, as I was keen to have dessert with every main meal over Christmas. I realise I had the opportunity to break the mould and not serve up a disgusting amount of food, to shun the notion that Christmas must be a time of over-indulging with rich food, but I didn't. The tradition is alive and well and I have the tummy to show for it. I doubt I have the body fat of an Olympic athlete anymore!

All four of us were up at 6am on Christmas Day, but not out of excitement at the presents that awaited us (in fact, I was embarrassingly disappointed to discover the stocking I'd put on the end of my bed only half in jest was empty!). We went over to my church to work at Charlie's Place, a homeless charity that works out of the church, serving hot breakfast to homeless people in the area.

Charlie's Place operates every Tuesday-Friday mornings, but they were short of volunteers for Christmas Day, so we all decided to help out and I'm so glad we did - it was an amazing way to start Christmas Day and Max and I plan to become regular volunteers there throughout the year.

Richard and Judy mostly worked in the kitchen, helping get ready the pre-prepared food (rice and beans, pasta with meat in it, salad, bread, veggies...), while Max and I were upstairs in the Sunday School room sorting through donated clothes and distributing them to those who needed them. There were probably about 30-40 (all-male) 'clients' who came for breakfast, and about 10 volunteers. We helped serve up breakfast and my job was to hand out Christmas presents at the end of the line. The guys had the choice of a present or a backpack and in fact, most went for the backpack, but those who went for the present got a box of toiletries and socks.

After such a great start to the day, we went home, not as tired as we were expecting to be, and opened stocking presents from Richard and Judy, then I went to church before coming back and getting the turkey on the go while we opened presents from under our spectacular tree.

It all got a bit embarrassing after a while, because most of the gifts were for Max and me, but Richard and Judy had lots waiting for them back in England and seemed happy enough to watch us open our booty. Maxy gave me just what I wanted - a beautiful two-tiered cakestand that's made from blue glass, with a doily pattern in it. My brownies will look wonderful on it! He also gave me a Nigella Lawson cookbook, which says quite a lot about the way I'm spending my time during this period as the goodly housewife!

I had a nice chat with Pickle, who called from Cardiff, and then served up lunch. It was a minor success - certainly not the disaster of the first Christmas lunch I ever cooked, but not quite as nice as the roast I did for Alison et al last week. Richard and Judy were kind enough to bring crackers over with them because - unbeknownst to me - you can't get them here. So it felt like a really proper Christmas lunch, bad jokes and all.

We were all keen to get out of the house after lunch, as it was a beautiful day, but I was aware that it was my only chance to call Mum and Dad, due to the time difference, and when I called them, they were in the middle of playing a game at Gordon's house, so Max and his folks headed off to see the gigantic tree at the White House, while I stayed home waiting for Mum and Dad to call me back, with a view to cycling down and meeting Max and his parents for the rest of their walk.

So I waited and waited. I cleaned the kitchen, made my thank you letter list, filled in next year's diary (thanks, Mog!) with birthdays and stuff and still waited. Three hours, I waited, all alone on Christmas Day!! It was dark by the time Mum and Dad called back and the walking party came home during our conversation, full of tales of the most beeeeautiful sunset and amazing Christmas tree. Huh!

The day was nearly redeemed by spending the evening in front of the first film off the list Tom and Bambi gave us - My Man Godfrey - which was great fun, though not quite as brilliant as we were expecting.

Yesterday, we went down to Alexandria, where Judy loved wandering around the artisan shops down by the waterfront and I enjoyed wandering around the Gap Outlet. Then I was up until 12.30am, putting together Anne's stinking photo album! It was only when I got halfway through putting the photos in that I realised I'd got completely the wrong person as the groom! So had to go back and make sure the right chap was better represented...!

It was beautiful weather again today, so we walked to Georgetown through a very sparse and spindly Dumbarton Oaks Park and saw the excellent 'Frost/Nixon', before having supper at Bangkok Bistro, where we've never been before and almost certainly won't go to again as my duck was groooss. We all really liked the movie, though and are kicking ourselves for not seeing it on the stage when Frank Langella and Michael Sheen were on the West End. They were both superb and for once I even enjoyed Ron Howard's directing. I usually find him something of a point-and-shoot director, but in this film he really used the camera, lighting and timing to make a point.