I believe I do have a timeline of events that you might find educational.
Uncle Newt is telling Jerry a bedtime story. The final line says that the villagers sang “paeans of praise” to their returning hero.
When asked by Jerry, Uncle Newt explains that a paean is “a long poem about how wonderful you are”. Jerry asks if he can have one. Uncle Newt tells him that he can maybe have one for his birthday.
They wish each other goodnight, to which Jerry adds: “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”
The Wilkinson family pull Christmas crackers around the table, starting with Vanessa and Uncle Newt. Vanessa wins and immediately takes the hat from inside and rips it up.
She also gets a small plastic cowboy from the cracker, which she gives to her grandson, Benji. Benji is warned not to snatch by his mother, Hilla, who reminds him that “Level 3” behaviour is expected.
Jerry says “onwards and upwards” and nominates Deborah to pull the next cracker.
Deborah chooses to pull her cracker with her grandfather, Walter. Vanessa indicates to Walter that his cracker is on his side plate. Deborah wins, but questions if she has to rip up her hat. She asks if that tradition comes from them being a bit Jewish.
Hilla tells her that lighting the candles is because they are a bit Jewish, but that the hat ripping comes from the Wilkinson side. It transpires that the tradition dates back at least as far as Uncle Newt’s childhood.
Uncle Newt prepares to tell the story of why the family rip the hats, but he is interrupted by a kitchen timer. Hilla bustles out of the room to fetch the pudding, enlisting help from Myra.
On the evening of Jerry’s 50th birthday, he and his wife, Hilla, reflect on the events of the day.
Although he enjoyed the day, Jerry feels a tinge of melancholy. His feelings were unintentionally hurt by a ‘What would Dad say?’ round in a quiz that Deborah had composed. He worries that the high scores in the round indicate that he has become a “predictable old fart”.
Hilla comforts him by saying that, although they may know what he might say, they could never predict what he will do next. She cites, as an example, him training crows to fetch batteries.
Feeling better, Jerry bids her goodnight. As he does so, she intones “don’t let the bed bugs bite” along with him, but he protests that that doesn’t count.
On Jerry’s 60th birthday, Deborah introduces him to give a speech.
Jerry’s ability to express himself is affected by aphasia, but he and the family choose to embrace it. Deborah reminds the audience of how well everyone did on the ‘What would Jerry say next?’ round from his 50th birthday. She jokes that Jerry has now truly turned the tables on that.
Jerry opens by saying “Gently, ladybird, here we come”. Although the speech that follows is very confused and difficult to interpret, it is warmly received by the family.
When he is finished, Jerry raises a toast “To glassware!”, which may be his attempt to say “Half a glass!”.
Deborah is visiting her father, Jerry. Jerry’s ability to express himself is affected by aphasia. Deborah is supportive in helping him to communicate, but can’t quite suppress a giggle when he says “backwards and forwards” instead of his usual “onwards and upwards”.
The two are attempting to play Scrabble. However, after Jerry plays HVRAST (which he pronounces “hockets”), Deborah is able to convince him that he is not yet recovered enough for the game.
After Jerry is able to sing the first line of We Plough the Fields and Scatter, Deborah realises that the word he was trying to play was HARVEST.