Christmas Tree and Sibling Rivalry.

The most treasured Christmas decorations on my Christmas tree are four beautiful little photo frames containing photos of my four beautiful little children. Each year as the tree went up, there would be jostling and scrutinsing amongst the four to ensure no -one had a seemingly more favoured or more important position on the tree than the others.

As they grew older into teenagehood and were no longer interested in decorating the tree themselves, I would decorate the tree and carefully position each photo so as not to offend. However photo placement became an obseession with Chris, who would walk in the door, see the tree had been put up,and immediatedly check for his photo. If it didn't have star billing, he would swap his around and each night carefully check to see no-one had interfered. It became a family ritual and tradition to see how lomg it would take him to reorganise his picture on the tree. This went on for years until he left home at the age of 23.

Now he is grown and living in London, and because we will miss him at Christmas, I decided this year to give him the starring role at the top of the tree. Tim however feels that since the older two have left home, they have forfeited any rights to the top of the tree and that it is finally his turn. He has a point I guess.!!

It seems jostling for position never changes - the protagonists in this story are 24 & 22!