From the kitchen, I heard my partner Dean groan.

‘These instructions are useless!’ he sighed as our son Jake, then 4, hovered impatiently.

I’d go to help him, but I had my hands full with peeling the sprouts!

It was Christmas 2020 and we’d been up since 6am, when Jake had woken us.

Now Dean, 40, was building the toy car garage that Santa had left, while I prepped dinner.

During lockdown, it was just us three, and our elder two kids Millie, 18, and Mikey, 16.

Looking out across our peaceful crescent in Norwich, I imagined similar scenes happening behind our neighbours’ front doors.

We’d moved from London when