Christmas Eve.

I'm confused, on-line all the meteorological sites say the solstice was the 21st and as it relates to the alignment of the North Pole is the same everywhere yet Radio 4 says it's today. I know that Christmas is celebrated on the 25th to coincide with solstice celebrations and just assumed that there had been a little slippage of the calendar. Anyway it has remained warm with the morning's low cloud/drizzle clearing by afternoon. It was so mild that I didn't even bother with a jacket when I drove over to Asda. With Sunday closing at 4.00 I had hoped to pick up some good bargains but unless I wanted doughnuts or beansprouts there wasn't much. Knots of people kept forming whenever a member of staff began reducing things but I wasn't planning to hang around. I called in at the Co-Op on the way back and they must have done their reductions early as all there was to be seen were empty shelves. I had planned to get some tangerines but the only fruit left was bananas.

In the Asda carpark my little car found its twin. Same colour, similar number plates and even the same amount of mud on the sides. My car is the one behind.

Having planned to make the icing for the Christmas cake I chickened out and bought some ready made royal icing. The cake is now finished and ready for my hungry son.

I had hoped to begin a new Christmas Eve tradition by going for a walk along Saunton Sands beach in the dark with coffee and smoked salmon sandwiches at the halfway point but apart from the weather Peter's knees are painful and puffy so it wouldn't have been a good idea. Instead we shall have a trimmed down version of the traditional Lithuanian meal of different types of fish and salads.

Earlier today we delved into the garage for our heavy duty drill and put up a coat rack in the porch. We had hoped to also put up a full-length mirror but the best position was no good because the door would have caught on it, the next place had a switch and phone plug and our final choice at the top of the stairs doesn't have a solid (brick ) wall and with the mirror being heavy we'll leave it for the builder to do.