Some friends are so in tune they enjoy companionable silences as much as animated conversation, not needing to fill the gaps with. They are always there, like the pillars on your porch - you don't notice them but they are there to hold you up most of the time. As the year draws to a close and we are all thinking about festive gift buying, trimming trees and ordering poultry, we cast only a passing thought to whether we have paid enough attention to our friends, other than a cursory, 'I hope he (or she) hasn't bought me anything expensive this year because I only bought that tiny gift...' Real friends, of course, don't mind what you buy or not buy them. Close friends will become part of the furniture - almost invisible - no longer acknowledged, simply because they are so close they are party to every thought you have and every idea you express. Friends who stay; friends who come and go; friends who travel and stay-at-home-friends who can always be found at the kitchen table with a ready cup of coffee whenever we need them - steady rocks to sustain us when we are worried or hurt.

Friendships are in this year.