christmas spirit

We've had this old Victorian pub gin barrel in our family for a long time - the late 50s, I think.  Alas, it doesn't hold anything. but Alice and I snuck a bottle of artisanal, tasty Cotswold gin into my parents' fridge, where it presence has been very useful.  Today ... some annual portraits:

my mother, with Simba;

my father, apparently thinking - oh, another sweater?? - whilst my mother puzzles over whatever I could possibly have given her;

my father, unwrapping my annual calendar (of my photos) - about which he was, I must say, remarkably appreciative;

and Alice, meditating on The English Christmas Cracker, and all that comes with it.