Nearly Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve. I’ve just prepared the sprouts ready for tomorrow. We’re breaking with tradition this year. We’re not having a turkey – we had that a couple of weeks ago. Instead we’re having a gammon joint, roasted with redcurrant glaze. Our usual pâté starter & cherry cheesecake will remain.

We’re not the best at celebrating Christmas. It has to be admitted we both tend to be of the “bah-humbug” school. This year it’s got to me. At the end of the day we’re celebrating the birth of Christ on a day arbitrarily chosen by the Church, not his exact birthday. I can’t help thinking if I don’t celebrate that every day of my life it’s not worth celebrating it at all.

The manic crowds at the supermarkets particularly get to me. We did venture down there on Monday but soon abandoned the shop because of the pushing & shoving of others, the trolleys left mid-aisle, the extra items blocking aisles for a wheelchair, the general bedlam. We’re telling ourselves what we haven’t got we’ll do without. All said & done the shops are only closed for the one day!

Christmas seemed more special when there were children around, & family to gather together, but these days there are none. When we were working, Christmas was a blessed time when we got a few days together away from the hurly-burly but that we do now every day so it’s nothing so extraordinary. As for presents we’re now in a position to buy what we need when we need it, rather than use Christmas as the excuse to buy. So what’s so special about Christmas? I wish I knew. It just seems to be about enforced jollity, whether you feel it or not.

I suppose the one good thing is that it is rather nice to see the place cheered up with the Christmas tree with its glittery baubles & coloured lights. It’s also lovely to hear from friends often not seen or talked to all year round. But that’s about it.

I suppose partly it’s the fact our Christmas has been a bit overshadowed by bad news. On Monday in the supermarket I saw a friend & dropped our Christmas card in his shopping bag. He noticed & suddenly I was deluged by what a state his partner is in. She is disabled, largely as a result of alcoholism. She’s already got some brain damage. That day he’d taken her to the hairdresser’s to be asked to come & collect her 10 minutes later, as she had slipped out of the chair & couldn’t get up again. Apparently her eyes are starting to go yellow, a sure sign of cirrhosis of the liver due to the amount of alcohol she’s drinking. He’s tried taking to the doctor before. The doctor told her to go cold turkey & stop drinking immediately. She did & ended up collapsed on the floor, having to be taken to hospital. Her body couldn’t cope with the total absence of alcohol. If she’s to give up, she needs to do it under supervision in a controlled situation. He’s dreading Christmas. It’s seems such a pity. She’s only in her fifties.

After seeing him, we decided to escape to the golf club to be greeted by more bad news. Our friend with a brain tumour, went to hospital to start her radiotherapy last week. Instead she was told her cancer was too far gone. She’s coming home to receive palliative care until she dies. It seems so swift since she first felt any symptoms to come to this. Again she’s not very old – mid-60s that’s all.

All this news is very dampening on our never very jubilant Christmas spirits.

But all for all that, I do hope you all have a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL