BEL MOONEY: How can I spend Christmas with my partner when his adult daughters behave so coldly towards me?

Dear Bel, Christmas is almost here, and I’m struggling with a situation that must be far from unique. Thought for the Week ‘I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely; and I say, God bless it!’ from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens You and Andrew are at the other end of the age scale, yet the issue can be just as acute. Regular readers know it’s my bugbear – that common refusal to do something you don’t really want to do, because it will make somebody else very happy indeed. Or resolve, with him, to spend Christmas Day with him, his daughters and the grandchildren and jolly well make up your mind you’re going to make it a success. Make a Christmas list with a twist Never mind the raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and I’m not sure about those ‘girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes’.