The Man in Red

SIX SLEEPS!    There are just six sleeps until children around the world start waking up their parents at unpleasant times of the night, or if you’re lucky, frightfully early times of the morning.

Master Four is determined to catch the man in red landing on our roof this year. I’m not sure his stamina will allow for such a sighting and I shall be thankful of this.

Coincidentally, I have it on good authority that after Miss 6’s uncharacteristic night time wandering last year that this year’s presents won’t be arriving until Santa is quite sure that the children are in deep R.E.M. sleep. He won’t be having any surprises foiled by wandering children this year! 

Miss Six already smells a rat in the ranks after the local Children’s Centre Christmas party anyway. We need to be extra careful with this child now, she's duly suspicious! 

 After meeting Father Christmas, who arrived on a motorbike only minutes after the children had sighted a much skinnier man in red wearing no helmet, hat or beard on a bike similar, she did turn to Nan and say, ‘Santa smells like Uncle Marc’. Then, after sitting on his lap and enduring an amusing sham Santa voice, she suspiciously remarked, ‘Santa sounds like Uncle Marc too’.

 It’s not to say she wasn't fond of this man in red, I mean who wouldn't like a Father Christmas who smells of ham and fritz?

Lucky for us, I've had plenty of practice making up cover stories from my rebellious high school days, and the magic is still alive in Miss Six. I’m happy to say she is still a believer.  However, I’m not sure how Santa fared with the kindy staff after that visit though; gossip has it that they may have put him on their naughty list!

I guess when people talk about the magic of Christmas they could be talking about random acts of kindness, small gestures of giving that mean the world to another, or something like this. For us, it’s keeping the excitement and joy of believing alive in our child for at least another year. Another, sweet, magical year.

 Have a merry and safe Christmas everyone! 

family gatherings

I love Christmas. I love family gatherings and traditions and the opportunity to spread a little cheer. I’m not so much a fan of organising such events though.

My maternal family is somewhat dysfunctional at times. Organising anything is akin to embarking on a journey of impossible obstacles and challenges in order to reach a semi amicable result. The biggest disagreements come about organising gatherings, but once we’re all together things are often quite lovely, fun and memorable.

However, dysfunction isn't necessarily a bad word. This isn’t a public rant about family, but an observation of how we are educated.

 In life we’re often faced with groups of people we’d rather feed to the lions than reach agreeable terms with, so it might seem that family negotiations are fantastic practice for life. Not that I’d like to feed my family to the lions, well not normally, but sometimes the fusion of diverse personalities does provide an opportunity to learn.

Holding your tongue when Aunty Betty moans and gripes about things from six years ago, or artfully guiding the conversation back to point when Uncle Bert starts pointing out that Betty could do with a shave and a good root is all didactic really. It’s not just table manners and morals that family impart upon us, but the abilities we need to interact within society.

 At this rate, I should be a shoe-in for the role of human resources manager at the United Nations!

Alas, I’m not known for having a lot of tact (or keeping my mouth shut to start with). It’s something that I’ve had to learn and I’m continuing to learn. I mean really, sometimes it’s all too hard to keep it shut for the sake of honesty, but on the whole it’s hardly helpful.

While a few witty remarks can make heated exchanges more interesting, I’ve finally realised it doesn’t always bring tempers down to a simmer. Which is a pity really. I’ve amassed a few good retorts in my arsenal of late.

This year I’m asking Father Christmas for more tact, more patience, and the ability to see things from another person’s point of view. I’m asking that family just gets on with being just that, family, and I wish you all happy gatherings!