The sandwiches are now just a pile of crumbs and a memory. The pineapple on sticks recipe can be rested for 12 months. The Monday party is over. And now it’s just four sleeps until Christmas.

My team, thanks more to cheating than skill, came second in the Indoor Beach Volleyball game 21-20. It was hard work keeping it that close to ensure a cliff-hanger ending. Fortunately nobody noticed that we were sneaking in some movement coaching, so they carried on enjoying themselves.

Then the dominoes…

This time I checked that we all started with the same number of tiles, and the matches were more even, but I still ended up losing. I suspect there’s some sort of Rain Man effect going on and I’m coming out on the losing side!

I did the shopping at the weekend. The big session was at 10.30 pm on Saturday night. The final session was on Sunday afternoon when I topped up with the bits I’d forgotten the night before. Apart from a few veg and some bread I now need nothing more. It’s the most relaxed I’ve ever been at Christmas, and all done without a list or a plan. As long as Amazon stick to their promises I have even done all my shopping for presents.

I nearly came unstuck on the cheese footballs, which are a family Christmas tradition. We’ve had 27 Christmases and each one has been accompanied by cheese footballs – a favourite from Julia’s childhood. I couldn’t find them in the crisp aisle, and I couldn’t find them with savoury biscuits. For a moment it looked like , having neglected to buy them in September, I was doomed to be a tradition-breaker!

A fellow searcher. lamenting to her husband that she didn’t know where the find Twiglets (a snack possessing considerably less charm than the synthetic orange cheese footballs, jogged my memory).

Not crisps, not snacks, not savoury, but seasonal!

Tradition saved.

However, back to Monday. The preserved ginger is labelled ready to be given as presents. We’re washing up and, once Julia has her next night shift out of the way we’re actually going to have a week’s holiday.

It is now, as the title says, the final countdown to Christmas.