Have a Christmas filled with Love and Peace

Well the time of year is fast approaching that most people look forward to and get into the spirit of. Sadly not any more for us. I can't imagine Christmas will ever be fun again. Anyone who has lost a loved one will know what a difficult time of the year this is. There's no way of avoiding it - it's everywhere! Christmas is for children and Luke loved Christmas. He spent hours going through the Argos catalogue and bending back the pages of the gifts he fancied. Every week he would change his mind about what he wanted for Christmas. He still has his presents from last year which have been barely used and still waiting for him in his bedroom. He used to climb into our bed first thing in the morning and still had a pillowcase full of presents. He never asked about Father Christmas and so we pretended to eachother. He always bought Neil and I a present every year. He was a special boy and life is empty without him.

We've been invited to his school this Wednesday to an awards evening. They will be giving out a sporting award in Luke's memory to someone in his year, which will be difficult but is a lovely gesture.

Christmas morning we will have to be up bright and early, about 5.00 am, to set off for London so we won't have time to feel gloomy. We have to be in Deptford at 6.45 ready to open the doors at 8.30 am. We went to a meeting last weekend which explained what we should expect and what we might be asked to do, eg. washing their hair and their feet, 'Marigold Duty', ie. cleaning the toilets, as well as the more fun things like serving the food and talking to the guests. Christmas certainly will be different this year!