The ties that bind...

It's blindingly obvious and been said before, but food is so much more than food.

I have a group of four girlfriends who I've known for years. I met one at university when I was 19 and the others were friends of hers. We used to see each other all the time and take turns to cook madly good dinners with ridiculous amounts of wine which more often than not ended up with us flashing our knockers at the neighbours.

As time has gone on, we've seen each other less - one has had a baby, two of us are married and two live with their partners, so life is very different to how it was when we first met. We've been through all kinds of terrible boyfriends, houseshares, jobs and for the last seven years, whatever else has been going on, there has always been Christmas dinner at Sharmin's.

Sharm is an amazing cook and a brilliant convivial hostess. There are pressies, drinks galore and bags of laughing. Boys are most definitely banned. This year we broke with tradition and held it during the day and it lasted around 8 hours. And it did my heart good to be with these girls who have known me so long, round a table, sharing a brilliant meal. If we didn't do Christmas at Sharm's, it wouldn't be Christmas.

So that's the holiday spirit - people you love, being together, having fun, sharing news. It's like a Hallmark card come to life but I won't apologise for that.

So thank you ladies, for another brilliant Christmas.

GGxx