Well now a post made on Christmas morning might seem a little extreme, but hey ho, Santa brought me a new keyboard so I am having to test it out!

The old one, new just under two years ago is worn down so that the keys look like old stone steps, smooth and dipped and completely devoid of any indication of the letter they represent. I almost learned to touch type once but still 'i's and 'o's, 'r's and 't's interchange far too regularly when I pick up speed.

My daughter Imogen, aged seven, has made my day so far. I love her to bits, but have no idea where I got her from - she's either a genetic throw back or a leap forward. Her father took an interest in the present buying, but as he had to work right up to Christmas Eve but also spent half the year it seems, this year, away on courses, he shopped in another town and on his own. I watched her shoulders visibly sag for all of two seconds when she opened a present this morning to find a diary (the third she owns now, I believe) before she made the appropriate squeaky high pitched cooing noise and declared it was wonderful! How many seven year olds have manners like that, particularly ones that were not consciously taught at home? Her older brother by eighteen months, Lewis, has Aspergers and is rather more straightforward about things. If something is acceptable but not end-of-the-world amazing it is politely unwrapped, put down and kneeled on, to get to the next parcel. Something miraculous happened today however, as he has recently cottoned on that he is, finally, good at something other than computers; 'being sarcastic'. This has caused him to double his efforts and I marvel that the day is noticeably lacking in what he considers to be wit, so far. "Ooh, lovely, not", "Cor who got you that, the crap fairy?"

We bought him a computer game and he is happy; gone to his room and his computer. Silence.

I am off to play whatever my girl wants to play now, one of the craft kits she got, or dolls, or bedroom-rearranging to show off the new things (yes she's like that, incredibly girly, it must have been a dormant gene), then to start washing up from breakfast so theres room to start making lunch.

Merry Christmas!