Ghost of Christmas yet to Come.

Not quite the image of the grim reaper as styled in Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, but as I sit watching the flames flickering in the grate, finishing off the last of the mulled wine my own ghost of Christmas yet to come, leads me to dream of what I hope are our future Christmas' will be.

Now that number four has joined us the magic of Christmas is guaranteed for another 6 or even 10 years and beyond that I contentedly dream of my children grown into young adults with their friends in tow sitting around the extended dining table or curled on sofas in front of the fire or wood burner drinking mulled wine and cider, eating party food, cakes and chocolate. Playing silly party games, pulling crackers, singing and laughing and falling in love. With a 12 year age gap between the youngest and oldest I dream that as the last teenager is ready to leave, grandchildren will hopefully be appearing from his older siblings and so the magic starts all over again.

If my dreams come true we will have happy Christmas' year after year. Each year will change but I just know that our home will always be full of family and friends. Which means lots of home cooked food, hot drinks and fizz. Every room will be filled with Christmas cheer, tinsel, glitter, twinkling lights, music and laughter. There will be board games involving screaming, Pictionary and UNO no doubt firm favourites and silly parlour games like guess the celebrity or hum that tune. Then in the quiet times we will sit and watch old favourites on the telly, Die Hard, Star Wars and Indiana Jones eating our way through tins of chocolates and drinking copious cups of tea or mugs of hot chocolate.

Dreams these maybe but our number 4 has settled in like he has always been here. He has coped with all our visitors, all our visiting, the excitement of Father Christmas and the celebrations of the birth of Jesus. I know we may have difficulties ahead but based on this year, I am certain that Christmas will be full of love and laughter.