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Blustery but warm

So this morning, Adam and I picked up a Christmas tree for David's family.  David has three very young children, and therefore picking a Christmas tree would be a bit much for the family.  We stayed the morning, helping the girls decorate the tree, and then made our way home before lunch.  Adam was in an excellent mood, but then he just got excellent news on the work front (congrats Adam!). 

We got home with our 4-meter-tall Christmas tree.  As we arrived I saw there were a lot more people than expected for lunch!  I thought it was bizarre that our youngest daughter's new boyfriend was not around this Christmas, what I didn't know is that all the significant others of Adam's siblings were joining us for Christmas.  Our eldest daughter has a two-year-old the happy outcome of a failed relationship.  What I didn't know is that she is in a fairly new relationship with a doctor (our daughter is a GP in London), and they have now been living together for three months.  Our youngest daughter's new boyfriend (he's the one studying medicine at Cambridge) also came up as a surprise.  I didn't know he had graduated from friend to serious boyfriend.  

I had left early with Adam and had not had breakfast, so when I arrived home, my eldest daughter decided it was time for a "private conversation" with her dad in the study.  I thought the conversation was about a potential marriage, but instead, it was a medical check-up.  It seems that my doctor continues sending the results of my annual check-up.  My daughter was, apparently, not happy with my blood pressure (I had a mild heart attack in 2015), and so she wanted to double-check everything quietly with her dad.  She listened to my heart, took a blood sample for tests, and generally enquired about how I was feeling.  You cannot hide anything from your children, they know when you are lying.  So now I have a prescription for a series of cardiac tests,  She was honest, she thinks I may need a pacemaker because there was some damaged muscle that seems to not have recovered...

On a brighter note, my daughter told me about her boyfriend.  He was shocked that she could pick with the best of our crew.  Our eldest daughter was already at university when we bought the farm, but like the others, she learned to pick with her parents.   She said that it was fun, and her daughter may not have much of an appetite at lunch, as she kept on eating the cherry tomatoes off the vine... she will be taking my wife's place tonight in the milking parlour.  Her boyfriend and daughter will accompany her.  

We just finished lunch, my daughter insisted that "the boys" would take care of raising the tree, and my wife, granddaughter, future daughter-in-law,  and I watched the proceedings from a couch.  It's funny watching these eight young people, my future daughter-in-law was "guiding the work from the couch" to make sure that Adam does a good job.   

As I write these words, I think, I am so damn lucky.

Happy Christmas to all

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