A Very Odd Thing Indeed



It occurred to me yesterday that we are ready for Christmas. And have been since Monday.  I find this very strange.

 

You see, normally I hate the run up to Christmas. Forget all that stuff about Season of Joy and Goodwill to All Men. The run up to Christmas for me has for many years been a Burden and a Chore. This is mainly because for many years all the organising has fallen to me.I bought wrote and posted all the cards, had the ideas for presents, not only for my own family but for OH's as well, not to mention being obliged to come up with ideas for presents for both families to buy our children and one another, and quite often being the one that had to buy them too. I did all the wrapping, posting and arranging for visits, deliveries etc. On top of that there are two birthdays; one husband and one son in the four days after Christmas so I was dealing with those as well. I wonder how many years I was given cards and presents to put aside for the birthdays and in the general whirl  forgot where I had put them. Plus the annual saga of where do we go and who do we spend The Day with. Bending over backwards to please everybody, which was always going to be impossible because they all wanted such different things. No wonder I didn't enjoy it!

 

I know I'm not alone. And to be fair, things have eased up a lot over the past few years and  I have managed to negotiate the Festive Season without getting quite so stressed. The advent of the Amazon Wishlist, though scorned and derided by my OH has been a godsend for me, as Uncles and Aunts no longer have to rely on me for ideas for presents. When I am lacking in inspiration for presents for OH's family I tell him to sort it out. This means they generally get food, and quite often direct from the producers so that OH doesn't have to bother with stuff like wrapping and posting, but they seem to appreciate it, so that's fine. There's no longer any question about where we spend Christmas since we are at the opposite end of the country from our one remaining parent, OH's Mum so we have no-one to please but ourselves. Christmas has become more relaxed and so have I.

 

There is still a lot of preparation to do though. So I find it slightly odd that with over a week to go on Monday, we sent off our last lone card and the final presents. Especially since I've been stuck at home for eight weeks with a broken ankle and latterly the bug from hell.

 

I'll tell you what though. It's a great feeling. Ready. With over a week to go.