In 1976 my father asked me what I would like him to give me for Christmas.

He had taken-up book binding as a hobby in his retirement so I asked him to make me a book of blank pages.

It became a potent reminder of him after he died in 1979 but it remained pristine until 1986, ten years after he gave it to me.

I think it was Sue's idea that it should become our 'Christmas Book', a book in which we would enter details surrounding Christmas and the year that was coming to its end.

The Christmas Book in front of this year's poinsettias which are still thriving

So, although centred on Christmas, it became something akin to a family commonplace book and has, on many an occasion, proved an invaluable reference for settling arguments as to when certain events happened.

It is amusing to note that the very first entry is this.............

..............and further that Sile, on seeing it, pointed out, very firmly, that it was her Christmas Cake not Martin's - hence the correction!

In 1980 a young man with an American accent and a big beard knocked on our door and asked if I had any work for him. He told me he was a woodworker visiting Europe and needed to fund his trip as he went.
As it happened I was making furniture for Marshall Field at the time in which the 'fan detail' (see post Irish Country Furniture 1 27.11.09) was a significant design detail. I asked him if he could carve them and he said he could...............

.....................and next day he proved himself.
And so Whit Whitaker joined the team and for the next number of weeks he sat carving fans and chewing tobacco in a corner of the workshop.

And Whit has, loyally, sent us a Christmas Card every year since from Boon in S. Carolina, where he teaches woodworking.

And in 1986 we went on a family holiday to France.
We took a gite just outside Lezay in Poitou Charantes and where our neighbours were the Gaillards - Isabelle, Joel and Mickael. They were (are) small farmers, at the time certainly, mainly of goats.
We made quite a connection with them - especially Alice who was feeding and milking the goats within days - and they too have sent us a card or message every year since. - This from Priscilla, in 2005, who was not yet born when we were there.

This was our Christmas card in 1989 from our friend Cormac Boydell, the ceramicist from Beara.

And as I browsed, I came upon this ticket to Naoise's Leviathan when it was less than a year old.............

.................and this list of christmas cards, received in 2007, compiled by Dylan, is its first entry from the next generation.

Just a glimpse of our, undoubtedly bockety, Christmas Book and I note that nobody has done an entry for 2010 yet but I've heard mutterings from Sue that she has plans................and I think and hope that my father would have been pleased by the use to which his present has been put.