The first set of fairy lights have been turned on, the Christmas letter is written and my mistress is already working out menus for our visitors at Christmas. Don’t you just hate efficiency? She claims that it is because of everything she has to do for the move. I think it is just over enthusiasm to be seen by Santa Claus as having been ‘good’. I have told her it isn’t going to make any difference to the presents she is going to get, but does she listen? She claims that she only plugged the fairy lights in because she was stacking the wood around where the socket was and didn’t want to find she couldn’t get to it. She asked me to write the Christmas letter this year but I was still dozing in my basket trying to decide what I would write when she was running the finished version off the printer. She has used a picture of me, so I can’t complain too much. I have been trying to look at her list for meals to make sure that I am included in the numbers. I am rather partial to a bit of Turkey and diet or no diet Christmas is not a time to leave your dog out. I think I may have said before that the slogan they have in England “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas” should be amended to “A dog is for life but spoil him at Christmas.” All we need now is the tree to be bought, then the living room turned into an extension of the forest and everything will be perfect. I wonder if I will have my own Christmas stocking to hang on the chimney this year. I have better go and write my letter to Santa Claus before it is too late to post it to him.