I need more of a warning that Christmas is nearly upon us. Perhaps another two months preparation would help. My mother, two brothers and I are feeling completely uninspired for obvious reasons. It will be very hard to deal with the absence of our father this Christmas and we all seem to be noticing presents that he would have loved. He was such a wonderful addition to Christmas – passionate about what we ate – always ham and champagne for breakfast, followed by mountains of my Grandmother’s secret recipe fudge, followed by present opening ceremony, followed by too much food and drink and games and he always wore his Christmas socks and whilst I am sure we will succeed in keeping his spirit alive over the years, this year will be super hard for all concerned. We have a Christmas tablecloth (that the three of us were always quite rude about) – it is endlessly long and for the last maybe 35 years each person who has joined us for our Christmas meal has signed the cloth where they sat with pencil and my mother has embroidered over the names. An extraordinary memory of past times. This year, we have agreed not to use it. Too painful to see all those signatures of his.
However, I have children to focus on who are embracing the whole Xmas present scene with great gusto. My 10 year old has practically finished his shopping – he is always so generous – buying presents for everyone in the family. Now he’s hassling me to go and buy more wrapping paper. On the way to school this morning I pointed out that I didn’t need to buy any wrapping paper yet because I hadn’t bought any presents and my daughter laughed. Told me that at school yesterday she had had a conversation with a friend who had said how excited she got every year at this time when her mother put all their presents round the tree. My daughter replied “Oh. Lucky you. We don’t even have a tree yet, let alone any presents. My mother always wraps our presents on Chrismas eve or sometimes even Christmas morning”.
Not good is it? To be so disorganised and rubbish. Must try harder. Especially as the 2am Christmas morning wrapping option is always a complete mess.
janelle
December 14, 2010oh i am completely crap…in nairobi at the moment trying to do the xmas shop but its almost impossible when everyone is in tow….and everyone’s just buying their own shit and what THEY want…must try harder and find a book shop….don;t know my way around this city…..aaaargh. x j
Anna
December 14, 20102 am Christmas morning is pretty much my husband’s usual time. His usual time for buying present has for years been the afternoon of the 24th, but it’s gotten better.
Wrapping paper is another issue. Children are very serious about that, it turns out. Our son told us a couple of years ago: “And no more of that black paper next time! I want proper Xmasy red and green paper next Christmas, please!”
Needless to say, this is our Christmas resolution for this year.
Family Affairs
December 14, 2010Funny what they notice! Must be a family trait then! Lx
Expat Mum
December 14, 2010Fortunately, because we go to Colorado for Xmas, I have to wrap all the presents in case someone sees something. It forces me to be a little more organised, although this year, I will have to do some shopping when I get there as I am woefully behind. Yikes.
kelloggsville
December 14, 2010get them a hamster and tell them it would hav ebeen cruel to wrap it up any earlier!
Dulwich Divorcee
December 15, 2010God I couldn’t bear any more build-up to Christmas … always do the wrapping at the last second, otherwise I forget what I’ve bought …. who is this Stepford mother anyway, bet she beats her kids with a coathanger on Boxing Day x
Crystal Jigsaw
December 15, 2010The first Christmas is always the worst, but at least the memories will keep things moving forward for you all. Who needs to be organised anyway!
CJ xx