Arriving home on 13th December with everyone coming to us for Christmas was quite a daunting thought, especially as I am absolutely not one of those people who has all their Christmas presents bought and wrapped by the end of September. I think the sense of panic somehow adds to the Yuletide cheer, and although most of my presents were at least ordered before we went to Cuba, there was definitely no wrapping or cooking done in advance.

Before we went to Cuba I had tried some very nice four year olds at Hickstead and arranged to have BE Khalissy, a little mare by Colmar, vetted. This necessitated a few extra trips to the WIFI mast in Varadero to speak to Ed Lyall, and WhatsApp Shane, to get the deal done and I went to collect her and have a jump on Heidi on Monday 16th December. So far she has been delightful, she is a brilliant hack, and learns all her lessons very well, and has taken to life here very easily.

The cook’s countdown to Christmas went very quickly. It’s amazing how organised you can get under a bit of pressure. Anna and Rory arrived on Sunday, followed by my stepmother Zandra; Polly, Vincent, Ellie and Nina; and then Sophie and Alex on Monday. We had the whole Watt family to lunch on Christmas Eve, and Tom, who had to work on Christmas Eve, managed to make for a late lunch. It is an annual tradition for the four of us and all our children to get together when Polly is over from France, altogether there are 20 of us, 21 now with Rory. It’s great to see everybody growing up: I’m the eldest and got married at 22, whereas my brothers were a bit slower to get married and have children, and Polly is nine years younger than me, but as time has gone by the age gap between Anna and Sophie and the others seems less and less, especially as Lilac is about to leave Uni, Xander has left school and Isla is in her last term of school. All the cousins had a great time meeting Rory, who is luckily a real party boy. We had a great time catching up and it was a brilliant start to Christmas.

Christmas day also was really lovely, Polly and her crew joined us for Church on Christmas Day and Clare, Mark’s sister, and some friends joined us all for lunch.

By Boxing Day everyone was desperate for a bit of exercise and fresh air. Sophie really kindly helped me ride and then she, Alex , Tom and Twiglet went for the muddiest ever run on Ashdown Forest . The boys were made to rub themselves down with the dog towel before they were allowed into the house, and their trainers were consigned to the horse washing machine rather than the house washing machine.

We had Mark’s brother Simon and his family for supper on Boxing Day, followed by some excellent games: always fun with such super competitive family members.

We were so lucky that Tom, Anna, Rory, Sophie and Alex didn’t go leave us until Sunday evening. The house certainly felt very empty once everyone went home. This was a real Christmas to remember, our first Christmas with Rory and Alex and just a wonderful family time to treasure.