Christmas

I'm feeling the Christmas spirit. Nostalgia and sentimentality are clouding my mind and making me dream of Christmases before.

Childhood Christmases ... waking up at 5am. The impatience of having to wait for the adults to rise so we could open the "hundreds" of gifts under the tree. Fidgeting through the church service. Swimming in the pool or at the beach. The extravangant lunch of cold seafood, so much chocolate, plum pudding with custard. Then the annual Christmas concert my cousin and I would perform after a week of intensive rehearsal. The applause ringing in our ears for the rest of the lazy afternoon.

Extended Family Christmas ... One year at Mum's, next year at Dad's. Different cousins, more presents, twice as much food. Lugging presents all over the state and back. Then in later years: Boyfriend's Mum's on Christmas Eve, Boyfriend's Dad's on Christmas Day, fly across the country, do it all again. Too many presents, too much food, too many people. Christmas is losing it's charm.

Perth Orphan Christmas ... where I discovered it was a bad idea to end a relationship so near the festive season. 38 degrees celcius. Cricket in the backyard. All of us "orphans" drunk on cheap sparkling wine before 11am. Tandoori prawns for Christmas lunch. Dvds and the air conditioner as my company in the afternoon. Enjoying the solitude for once.

And the New York Christmas ...
Waking up in that Brooklyn apartment. Opening presents in bed (one of us anyway!). Eating chocolates till we were ill. Cooking my first roast. Walking hand in hand across the empty park. Drinking bottle after bottle of that wonderful beer. Laughing at the silly carols at that bar. And the bittersweet knowledge that this was the first and the last time ...

And now ...
11 days to go. What will this year bring? New friends. Good food. Snow.

I'll keep lighting my candles, keep watering my poinciana, keep drinking my glögi, keep listening to my carols ... and I'll try to keep in mind what Christmas is all about for me:

love