The fancy dress wasn’t simply for fun. Every year they dressed up as past members of the Armstrong family. If the other teams guessed the identity, they scored a point, with plenty of bonus points to be had for extra random facts, the more bizarre, the better.

Jed and Mia went first. We all wrote down our answers, although only Mum managed to guess that they were Gordon and Cordelia Armstrong, virtually unheard-of distant cousins to her grandfather. They had such a tenuous link it caused a good five minutes of arguing about whether they were a valid entry until Jed distracted us with the interesting fact that they’d ended up in prison for robbing a casino.

It was six minutes to midnight when we reached the final guess, all of us scrunching our faces, genuinely mystified at Dad’s beige jumper, jeans, and dark brown tie.

‘This is impossible,’ Jed grumbled, only one point behind Mum and determined to catch her. ‘There’s no historical context here. You could be any member of the family from 1940 onwards.’

‘He couldn’t be you,’ Frankie said. ‘Or Mum. Or Nana Joy…’

‘He’s not Tony O’Dowd, is he?’ Elana blurted, before slapping one hand over her mouth when she realised what she’d said.

‘I know, I know!’ Daisy sang, bouncing about on Nana Joy’s knee so hard I feared she might cause an injury. ‘It’s obvious! You’re all so silly.’

‘Okay, let’s have your final answers, then,’ Mum said, inviting us one by one to name one of her cousins or uncles, deliberately asking Daisy last.

‘It’s Henry, of course!’ She squealed, pointing with glee. ‘Grandad’s even brushed his hair into the same style and is sitting all straight like a statue.’

‘Got it in one!’ Dad laughed, pulling a face that did look uncannily like Henry.

‘What?’ Jed sprang to his feet, face turning pink with indignation. ‘Henry isn’t an Armstrong.’

‘Unless you’ve got a seriously juicy fact to win the extra point,’ Mia murmured.

‘Not yet, he isn’t,’ Dad said, waving his hand as if to say, so there. ‘But we all know he will be.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Jed said, practically yelling. ‘That’s ludicrous. Even if Bea does eventually wise up and marry him, this is a historical round. I might as well dress up in jeans and a T-shirt and say I’m Elana’s future husband!’

‘Ew, gross!’ Elana squealed in disgust.

‘Why don’t we vote on it, then?’ Dad asked.

‘Does Daisy still get a point?’ Frankie asked, eyes wide with worry for his teammate. ‘She did get it right.’

The whole time this conversation had gone on, Henry and I had remained frozen in horror on the sofa.

‘We aren’t going to vote!’ Jed growled.