For her Christmas stocking, Maureen got Amanda a Daily Mash cupcake apron that said “Let’s eat them while reading magazines”, pink floral padded clothes-hangers from Cath Kidston, decorated sticky notes from Rachel Ellen Designs, pink Filofax pages for 2013, pink and turquoise butterfly paper ornaments that clip on the sides of things and a tiny box of her favourite Lindor chocolates.

Amanda was really pleased.

Her big present was a sewing box and a beautiful grey woollen shift dress.

I got a Magic Mouse for my Macbook and really nice short-sleeved pullover from Brora.

I got Maureen a Bose dock for her iPhone and iPod. It connected to her CD player so it could play them as well.

Hadley gave me a black and grey scarf from Hugo Boss and got Maureen a blouse from Anne Fontaine.

Maureen prepared a turkey lunch with all the trimmings. Lavinia made us all laugh.  She calls me “Uncle John” now.

In the late afternoon Hadley and I made Skype calls to Lonnie and Elsa, Mikey and Jamie.

In the evening Richard and Connie came over. We had a light supper of smoked salmon and avocado just like we used to do when Polly was alive. Richard came with the white wine he had brought over for France, the Tariquet, which he thought was the best in his region.

When everyone had gone, Hadley said: “You’ve got another family now. I think Maureen is good for you. I like Amanda too, even if she’s a naughty girl.”

Hadley had asked me to record the HBO series called Girls which is on Sky in Britain.

She stayed up late to watch it.

“There’s no way I’m watching that with you,” she said.

As I lay in bed I thought: I’ve hardly seen anything of Mikey and Jamie this year. Maureen and I must spend some  time in America.

And I thought about renting somewhere in the San Bernardino mountains and hiking the trails with her.

That was just after we had got together. And it was only just over six months ago.