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Family Traditions

"Christmas would be extra special this year,' thought Sadie, for a start she'd be going back to Torridon and just maybe she'd get to see what was behind the green door " she had always resented being shut out while the adults had gathered together on their annual pilgrimage.

The old hall always seemed an odd place. The tree, always immense, filled the grand hallway in opposition to the ivy trellises outside which seemed to choke the life from what was otherwise a charming Georgian farmhouse. Always the same rituals, the Christmas Eve visit from Father Christmas, huge buffet tea with plates piled to the rafters with every treat imaginable and the long trek to the village Church for Midnight Mass. On their return to Torridon Hall the children were put to bed, by now too exhausted to put up a fight and the adults, strictly twenty one and over would gather in the drawing room, toast the season and proceed to the green door, passing through one by one into the inky blackness behind it.

The teenagers retired to the games room or bed unconcerned about what lay behind the door but Sadie was used to being the odd one out. She was the only one who had not taken up the reins of the family business on leaving school, choosing to go to university to study law instead.

All together there were forty of them that year, ranging in age from eighty three to two, some of the older cousins had begun families already, funny how no-one seemed to stay in touch other than these Christmas gatherings. Sadie was in her familiar room, still the same despite her two year's absence, she had preferred to stay at the vibrant university parties with others escaping their family rituals as well rather than make the journey to this lonely corner of the country. Her room looked out on landscaped gardens. Despite their colour and variety they seemed to lack life, like the vitality had been sucked out of them, not an evergreen in sight. Winter's bare branches only highlighted the starkness of the scene. Quickly unpacking she hurried down the central staircase to the hall where everyone was gathering. She couldn't help but feel a little excited as she saw the joy on the young ones faces and she noted that Jane's tummy seemed to be blooming again, another little Trotter on the way then. Everyone was hugging, admiring the tree that Sadie was sure Great Aunt Elsie had overseen even though she was too weak to do any of the work herself. She occupied the revered place at head of table with

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