Runnin' On

Janet describes a rather special Christmas present from her daughter

"Runnin' on."

I hope you will bear with me while I tell you some of the things we found in our Christmas present from our daughter Debra. Just before Christmas we went down to Oxford to take the Christmas presents to Debra and her four girls, a long drive but the more we do it the shorter the journey seems. I think once we started to recognise the now familiar landmarks it makes all the difference.

When we reached Debra's house there was all the latest news to give them and we found out what they had all be getting up to. Probably a suitably edited version I imagine, well did you always let on about a lot of the things you got up to when you were a youngster?

We gave Debra the parcels to put away for the big day and were surprised to be given a large box in return, very heavy it was and of course we were most intrigued! We gave the box a shake, well Brian did, it was far too heavy for me to lift!

After a day which included a visit to Hayley and her boyfriend's house where we were introduced to their kitten Carter. Of course we thought he was lovely, he amused us with all his antics. Eventually we said our farewells and made our way back to West Dereham, the large box was deposited in the spare room and we waited until Christmas to open it.

Imagine our surprise when the contents were unpacked, the box contained a variety of food and sweets. I'm not going to bore you with a complete list but the selection included everything from coconut ice to Smarties, there was as well, something to wash it all down, a bottle of champagne and bottle of Baileys.

When we phoned to thank Debra for the food parcel she said that I'd lost weight and that had worried her. I think now I could show her evidence of a complete cure, in fact I'll have to start jogging now to lose a bit of surplus body weight. There are enough goodies to make that a slow old job though. Still temptation is character building; meanwhile there is a lot of Christmas cake to dispose of. !

I would have loved to be with Debra on her shopping spree, I can't imagine her buying all the stuff on one day, there were several own brands of goodies so she must have gone to Oxford and had a whale of a time in the big shops there. There would have been several trips back to her car to unload all the treats.

I know it is a bit late in the year to say it, but I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and have now settled down to the New Year, they do seem to come round very rapidly now, I reckon its an age thing.

Janet Tilburn. January 04.