How I spent my Christmas vacation

We spent a lot of time eating, getting ready to eat, discussing what we would eat next time, eating out, and wishing we had eaten less. As we had a house full of full people, including a five-year-old dynamo, no-one could concentrate on anything more intellectually taxing than re-runs of Meet Me in St Louis, the bespoke Christmas film of the Charm family. And burping.

I did notice, though, that all the adults had had time to scrutinize the latest copy of In Touch Weekly, and were all well informed on which actresses had had boob jobs and which hadn't. The verdict of our panel of experts: Renee Zellweger--probably. Britney Spears, probably not. Nicole Kidman--a provisional yes. We also had read and had opinions on whether Mel Gibson was back on the sauce (We're pretty sure he is).

My younger daughter, mother of the five-year-old, likes doing laundry. She brought some dirty laundry with her but soon was finished with that, and offered to wash the dirty sheets that were on the floor of the laundry room. The next day, she discovered some more laundry had magically accumulated and did that. I was afraid she would go around to all the neighbors offering to do their dirty laundry, but thank God it never came to that. It was a close-run thing, though.

I think everyone was happy with their presents. The five-year-old worked on his first Science Kit with his cousin. Mr Charm got a new watch, and was so pleased that he read the whole manual. He likes watches. I got a gift certificate, which was a good thing, as I like shopping. The Laundry Lady got a cashmere sweatsuit, which I sincerely hope she will send to the cleaners.

However, my camera is broken. It took pictures all right, but when I went to upload them, there was nothing there. Bummer.