I said in my 'jottings' this week that I was starting, after this dreadful year, to look forward to things again. It's not that we're out of the whole coronavuris mess - more that I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and I'm eager to get reach it. Starting to, very cautiously, plan ahead is lifting my spirits now, so I'm going to be sharing these things that I'm looking forward to.
I'm not usually much of a Christmas person. I'm not religious, and when I was growing up my family weren't, so it's a time of presents and parties. It's fun when you're small, then again when you have small people of your own - but with both daughters now grown up the excitement had gone. This year though is different.
Being allowed a lockdown window over Christmas has changed everything. After a year of hardly seeing each other, the whole family can be together again. We're fortunate in being a small family - and that none of us have other people we'd like to see. My Manchester-based daughter will be home for the whole period, and we'll be back and forth, visiting and being visited by my older daughter and family most days. Getting together after such a long time apart is more exciting than presents or over-eating.
For now there's planning to be done. Who will be where, and when? What shall we eat? What shall I wear? Can I persuade OH to put on a different Christmas jumper every day? Will there be beds, and chairs for everyone?
And shopping this year is really different. I'd normally buy quite a lot on line, but this year everything is being bought that way, and there are inevitable disappointments - items that were badly labelled and not suitable; spending days trying to decide what precisely to buy, then finding it suddenly out of stock; small businesses so busy that they're having to stop taking orders for a few days while they catch up and parcel things; and the new nightmare that is waiting for those parcels to arrive, because suddenly all deliveries are turning up earlier than expected! No doubt it will all come right in the end. I hope.
I still don't have decorations up! I know this is late by everyone else's standards but we normally have a real rooted tree, so don't decorate till a week or so before Christmas. Last year's tree, still in a pot, has dropped a lot of needles, so is relegated to the patio but with lights to make it look festive. The cable for lights at the front of the house got trapped in the garage door and cut in half, so I'm hoping OH and some tape can fix that. Meanwhile I'll start the 'big clean', making sure there are no unexpected cobwebs lurking in corners of the ceiling, waiting to be spotted once garlands are hung up, and maybe by next weekend the house will start to feel Christmassy.
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