Anyone else feeling a little weird? Like Christmas is over but feels like it’s still a few weeks away?
It feels like a random Wednesday in February but also like the days of the week don’t exist,
Yet Christmas is TOMORROW! My wardrobe remains rammed with ‘hidden’ Amazon boxes.
The dining table is like a crime scene
Only half the presents are wrapped. Our dining table looks like a crime scene instead of being laid for Christmas dinner and I am 99.9% certain I’ve forgotten something or someone. It’s all fine. It will be fine. I AM FINE.
No advent calendar for me this year. Instead, I’ve pathetically mooched round opening all our kitchen cupboards eating what’s inside.
But now it’s the 24th so time to move focus onto the good stuff. The ‘swanky’ Christmas treats.
‘Back away! that’s for Christmas!’
The stuff the kids get yelled anytime they go near: ‘No! Back away from the fancy stuff, that’s for Christmas!’ Christmas Eve counts right?
It is tantalisingly close to the main event.
Our tree was decorated with minimal arguing this year. With biggest home from university, she instructed Alexa to diligently provide us with a jolly, festive soundtrack.
Except for a few random numbers, it was enjoyed by all, and anything not approved of was ‘skipped’ with one quick bark.
If husbands bought presents for their parents…
What if, and bear with me on this one, WHAT IF husbands bought presents for their own parents instead on relying on their wives to organise it all?
Maybe if I said ‘skip’ loudly, the mister would understand I have enough on my plate and handle it himself? Then again, maybe not.
I’ve sent gifts just to ensure my lovely in-laws get something more than a phone call from their errant son.
It took them 15 minutes to decorate the heck out of the front of the tree.
Nobody spilled their hot chocolate, there may even have been a wee glass of fizz.
The back and sides remained resolutely undisturbed, not even the hint of a bauble. Once finished, it merely took me two hours to fix and only then did the twitch in my eye stop.
At least it had been twitching in time to the twinkly fairy lights.
The kids are no longer at that enchanting age where they completely immerse themselves in the magic of Christmas.
This both breaks my heart and lets me relax (slightly) at the same time.
No more being handed an ‘updated’ list at 5pm on Christmas Eve. A list which naturally included NOTHING I’d bought.
The kids’ Christmas evolution
They used to love Christmas; they still do. Just in a completely different way.
In primary school. they’d spend the whole of December doing very little.
Giving out some cards, taking some ‘Mum made’ buns to the Christmas party and recounting their Oscar-worthy Nativity performance. What a brilliant time indeed!
All the while parents and teachers were having nervous breakdowns and coping with the festive season like it was a second full-time job from early November till December 25th.
Relax Mum, this is THE BEST TIME as Santa does EVERYTHING…… aye, so he does <rocks in a corner><pass the gin>.
I remember writing letters to Santa with our (then) enthusiastic brood.
One, an exceptionally polite sceptic, refused to voice their suspicion just in case she didn’t get presents.
The sarcasm dripped from her voice as she informed her younger sister to state the EXACT page of the Argos catalogue so Santa would know PRECISELY what she wanted…
The biggest Christmas present
These days, I juggle wrapping gifts with lifts to the pub BUT I remain undeterred.
As a Christmas fanatic, I choose from my excellent selection of jovial jumpers, dig out the Sellotape and pop Elf on the TV.
I never realised how old I was until I sat on the floor to wrap presents…
Buying gifts for the kids is tricky. I want to give them the world but also don’t want them to be entitled.
I want to spoil them a little also don’t want to give them ‘too much’. I want them to feel super special but also be grateful. It’s a delicate balance.
My present? Everyone home safe and sound.
No one sleeps better than a Mum who has all her clan secure under her roof and her phone turned off. Merry Christmas All.
