He nodded sheepishly. ‘Okay. You got me. But when you open it, you’ll see that I didn’t really break the rules.’

Desperate to see what it was, I yanked at the ribbon and ripped open the paper. Inside was a wooden frame. I flipped it over, glancing up at Marlon as I did.

It was a drawing of Poppy and Noah. This wasn’t like the many simple sketches that Marlon had done of me over the previous few months. It was a proper picture, my children’s faces brought to life with light and shadows. It could have been a photograph, it was so detailed. It actually took my breath away.

‘Do you like it?’ he asked anxiously, and I realised that I hadn’t said a word.

‘It’s amazing,’ I whispered. ‘It’s the most incredibly perfect present that anyone has ever given me.’ I could feel tears brimming in my eyes and I wiped them away with the back of my hand. ‘Thank you, Marlon. Thank you,’ I said, flinging my arms around his neck, the picture still in my hand.

Marlon wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. It felt good.

‘And am I forgiven?’ he asked. ‘For breaking your “No Christmas Presents” rule?’

‘I suppose so,’ I said grudgingly, squeezing him a little tighter. ‘But don’t do it again!’

The four of us piled into the car. Christmas was turning out to be unseasonably mild with no need for even a coat, but Noah insisted on wearing a hat and gloves.

‘But Nono,’ I said. ‘It’s not even cold. Let’s leave your hat and gloves here in case you forget them.’

But he was adamant, so in the end I gave in. If you can’t indulge your kids at Christmas then it’s a pretty poor do.

As the car pulled off the main road and into the estate, Noah started to look anxiously about him from left to right.

‘What’s up, No?’ asked Poppy.

‘Where’s all the snow?’ he said.

‘What snow?’ replied Poppy. ‘We’ve had no snow this winter.’

‘The snow!’ he insisted, pulling his hat further down over his ears. ‘There’s snow here. I saw it on Clio’s Christmas card!’

We all laughed at him, we couldn’t help it, and he continued to harrumph until we reached the gravelled area in front of the main doorway.

The Hall looked beautiful. The front had been decorated with thousands of tiny fairy lights which all twinkled, and there were two tall Christmas trees flanking the front door. A huge wreath of ivy and holly berries hung from the knocker. It was made from real branches, I noticed, not plastic ones.