If you go down to the woods today

There used to be a tradition in our family that every christmas day, after indulging in far too much turkey and spuds, we would take a leisurely walk across the common, collecting bits of firewood so that once we got back to the house we could make a fire and toast some crumpets and let the adults have a good snooze in front of the flickering flames while we, the children played with our latest shiny toys. 

This all stopped when it was discovered that the house had subsidence and the whole front wall of the house was trying to lie down in the front garden. Apparently someone decided to build the houses so they straddled a perimeter ditch that was filled in with sand, which has a tendency to shift over time.

We were relocated for the greater part of a year to another house while the house was underpinned, which also allowed us to completely redecorate the whole house in the absence of any inhabitants. Part of this plan involved taking out the fireplace, leaving a hole in the wall, which was to eventually be filled with another fireplace.

Fourteen years later and the fireplace still hasn't arrived to take its rightful place (Due to the fact that no fireplace has been ordered) At the moment the hole is covered up with some of my sisters artwork, which is held up by our VHS and DVD collection.

Hopefully by next christmas we will have a new fireplace, so we can toast crumpets again, that would make my christmas!