No politics. A little moment of calm amidst the chaos of small children visiting.

It’s quiet again at our house. Well, briefly! This is the quiet period between our son’s Pre-Christmas visit and the arrival of “actual” Christmas on Wednesday.

For the last couple of days the house has been full. Whenever our daughter comes, she brings along with her the clutter that seems to have to a company mothers of young babies these days: the carseat/baby carrier, a huge rucksack full of changing mat, nappies, wet-wipes, spare clothes and goodness only knows what else. It’s a good job she is breastfeeding for if she had to carry around baby bottles as well she would need a huge van just to transport everything. Then there is the toddler and her smaller rucksack of toys and other essential stuff.

This last two days, as their uncle was here with his small daughter, our daughter’s older children came along as well. Catering for everyone was complicated - small children’s choices of food and a faddy teenage to be dealt with - and just seating everyone was difficult.

And then the place seems to have been full of small girl activity - a three year old and a five year old learning that even when you love your cousin sometimes sharing stuff is hard. The three year old is the second youngest in her family, surrounded by older siblings who give in to her and will act out roles according to her instructions in imagination-fuelled games with small toys. The five year old is an only child, accustomed to organising imaginary game situations according to her own rules. Two quite strong-willed young ladies who each needed to be reminded that the other was not necessarily going to do exactly as instructed.

Mostly, however, the play has been peaceful, if occasionally loud with excitement. And my kitchen-diner is now festooned with paper chains, the product of a creative session organised by my daughter.

This morning my son and his five year old set off back to the south and I have set about putting the house to rights. It’s quite amazing how family visitors always think they can better organised the storage of pots and pans and kitchen implements! And while it has been delightful to have everyone together, a small oasis of calm before we repeat the feast on Wednesday is very nice too. For the next few days I think we will dine on gourmet leftovers.

I never got around to looking at papers or properly listening to the radio yesterday. So today has been a catch-up day. I read that Shirley Hughes, creator of many lovely children’s books, has written another Dogger story. Published in 1997, the original Dogger told the tale of a lost soft toy, recovered thanks to a helpful older sister. Every family must have lost an important and much-loved soft toy at some point. Our son found one on his visit, a rabbit belonging to his daughter, the toy trapped inadvertently down the back of the bed. He himself famously left his imaginatively named Brown Teddy at a friend’s house. The following morning he woke and informed me that without doubt Brown Teddy was already walking back from his friend’s house. Such is the power of a child’s imagination.

Listening to the radio reminded me that I really regret the near-demise of the letter “t”. On Desert Island Discs Lauren Laverne said that a Joni Mitchell song was “beau’iful”. She said many another word lacking the central “t”. I don’t object so much to the letter being rather faint at the end of words like “without”, or should I say “withou’” but it’s really a pi’y what otherwise very articula’e people miss the letter in the middle of words. Too young-people-trendy for my liking!

Another bugbear of mine is the confusion of “I” and “me”. Tim Dowling in The Observer began his column today with the words, “An argument between my wife and I ...”. Really! He should know better, even if he is an American.

And finally, it’s very good when famous people prove to be just as out of date about films as I am. On “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue”, on Radio 4, in the bit where one team have to guess the name of a film or book “enacted” by the other, Sandi Toksvig failed hopelessly to guess “Deep Impact” and then declared “I’ve never heard of it. I’ve not been to the cinema since ‘Bambi’!”

So it goes!