18 Sleeps until Christmas!!! Ding Ding Ding!! Is that sending you into a frenzy of mental
note making? Such as;
·
Write Christmas cards and letters, and actually get
them to all of the recipients this year,
·
make and hang a pudding,
·
dust off the Christmas decorations and pray you
don’t find dead mice in them,
·
take the kids to the Magic Cave,
·
timing and booking your next hair cut and dye to
make sure it’s fresh for the day, and for the hopeful week or two at the beach
after, and
·
purchase a good supply of batteries for
Christmas Day…. and what else….
·
Oh, and shopping. The SHOPPING!!!
Ah, it all sounds too hectic.
We put a lot of effort into Christmas don’t we? Even the ‘simple’ affairs require some
planning. I like it big though. It’s a fantastic time of the year, and just
remember, someone was born in order to give us this privilege (I suspect it was John
Sands or David Jones!).
We like the lead up to Christmas in our house. Little kids
mean big excitement, and there are lots of local events such as ‘Carols by
Candlelight’ and the street parade to fuel those feelings. There’s the
daily fight over the Advent calendar chocolate (you’re no match for the
estrogen monster kids, back down now if you know what’s good for you!), and then the
count down in the unit of ‘sleeps’ and an abundance of Christmas music. And if you’ve got a joker in the house,
singing carols with alternative lyrics. Although, I’m not sure our kids will
ever know what TAA was or, who Wonder Woman is, and what she lost!
On Christmas eve, there’s the special
sacrificial offering to FC of one of Daddy’s favourite beers, and one of Mummy’s
favourite biscuits. You know it’s
appreciated kids, and I’m just waiting for someone to suggest that Santa
actually really loves a bottle of champagne for the trip home. He’s probably a
bit flash too, so best it be Bolly!
The traditions vary from family to family, but the sentiment
is always the same. Unity. It’s about
coming together and celebrating life, breaking bread and sharing the day. It’s
about remembering those who can’t be with us for Chrissy, and not punching the
ones that can. It’s about making
ridiculous jokes over slightly blackened pork, pudding and bon bons. It’s about
still laughing at the Uncle that manages to find a $10 note instead of a coin
in his dessert, even though you’ve seen it 30 times before. And, it’s still funny. I
still love it, and I can’t imagine never looking forward to it.
Then there’s the post lunch snooze off between the Dads. It might be from staying up all night to put
together trampolines and bikes that ‘have instructions written in foreign
languages’ or ‘need another hole drilled here!” Or maybe it’s because the
little people of the house wake before you’ve even entered that deep REM sleep
to see if the big man in red has been?
Sometimes I feel that jolly old man gets far too much credit. Did he get up at 2am for the toy sale? Did he
suffer the trolley rage and smashed ankles in the race for the last of the good
cheap ribbon? No, nor did he have his perfect parked swiped at the last turn, or his feet swell up to look like puffer fish
trapped in Langdon’s new season summer sandals. (Actually, maybe that’s why he
has to wear those awful black gumboots – there are no elves, he’s been hitting
the toy sales and has fat feet like me!)
So whatever your normal Christmas is, it would seem that it
is nearing, and FAST! Indeed there are
only 25 days to taunt the kids with, ‘don’t do that, Father Christmas will put
you on the naughty list’ and, ‘LOOK, did you see that? There was an elf
checking up on you!’ So excuse me whilst I go find merriment in the
house of May, and here’s fingers crossed for a successful district harvest, a
safe and happy summer for you all and a very happy holiday season, because love
it or loathe it, Christmas is coming!
