A Typical Family Christmas

For once, Kate Peters would like a happy, family Christmas; the kind of

Christmas seen in the movies. She wants harmony and happiness, smiling,

glowing faces, tables groaning with food, carol singing around the

tree. She wants love, kindness, and goodwill to all men, especially in

her own house.

What she doesn’t want is drama. Absolutely no drama, whatsoever.

But what she gets is three stroppy children, two equally stroppy

grandmothers, a husband who can’t manage to change a lightbulb, and Pepe

the poodle.

It’s no wonder she feels unappreciated, overworked, and ignored. At the end

of her tinsel-coated tether, and with the only Christmas spirit being in

the form of a bottle of raspberry gin, Kate decides to leave them to it,

and see how they manage without her.

A quiet little hotel somewhere near the sea, where she can pretend

Christmas doesn’t exist, is just the thing she needs. Isn’t it?