Honey roast parsnips

Happy Christmas everyone! If you're on your own, or feeling sad, this blog post is dedicated to you. I hope you'll manage to push through the darkness. Christmas Day can be a very painful time.

I had an acid reflux incident in the night which was brought about by way too much rich food. I woke up with a shed load of bile in my throat and it was incredibly frightening to the extent that I was scared to go back to sleep. As a result I've been rather exhausted all day.

Christmas Day for me was spent at my sister-in-law, Sam's house. There were fourteen of us for lunch and Sam cooked another glorious rainbow of food. I helped out a little, putting myself in charge of potatoes, honey-roast parsnips and vegetarian gravy.

My Mum, Dad, Edward and Sascha appeared at about 1pm and we spent the day eating, belly laughing and playing games. We had a long game of categories before embarking on a hilarious bout of "Speak Out," the new parlour game which everyone's talking about (according to the adverts.) The aim of the game is to say various non-sensical phrases written on cards. The catch is that you have to do it whilst wearing one of those weird dental masks which keep your entire mouth frozen open like a ghastly Wallace and Gromit character. It's almost impossible to make yourself understood. Top marks go to my parents and Nathan's Dad for giving it a go. My Mum was particularly hysterical.

This evening we had a Harry Potter quiz. I was utterly useless. I realise the entire Harry Potter phenomenon has passed me by. I've never actually read a Potter book and only ever seen about two of the films. People seem to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the spells and all those bizarre names and customs, but it's all absolute gobbledygook to me.

I'm going to bed after hearing that George Michael has died. He was a Highgate resident. I didn't know him, but no one can doubt his importance in the world of pop music, or, actually, as a gay icon, even though he had a complicated relationship with his sexuality. I'm not quite sure what else this year wants to throw at us, but can we just get it over and done with now please before anyone else is taken from us? Carrie Fisher, my love, it's vital that you buck the trend and pull through...