Carol's Christmas

“Are you coming, Carol?”
My workmates were all going to an after work party down the pub, to celebrate Christmas. I wasn’t, however. I’d promised my kids I’d stay up late with them to munch on a few nibbles, and watch however many Christmas movies we could.
“No thanks,” I answered. “I’m going to spend Christmas Eve with my children.”
“Suit yourself,” Mary replied. “Just remember, you’ll be haunted by three spirits tonight.”
I ‘oooohed’ at her, then made my way to the car park.
As I opened the front door, my three kids, little Jakey, and the twins, Nicky and Charlie greeted me.
“What film are we watching first!!? I want to watch Muppets’ Christmas Carol first!!” All three voices started yelling at me when I hadn’t even got inside.
“All right!!! Just let me get in first, will you?!!” I laughed. “Right, I’m going to have a quick bath, and get into my comfy Jimmys, then we’ll start our Christmas movie marathon. That sound okay to you?”
“Yaay!!!” The kids chorused.
After I’d had my bath, and got dressed in my comfy Jimmys, I came back downstairs. The kids had already put the TV on, and the Muppets’ Christmas Carol DVD was in the player, ready to play. I brought the snacks into the room. There were peanuts, Pringles, chocolates, and even mince pies, which I didn’t like, but little Jakey did. He could eat a whole box, if I allowed him to. As well as the snacks, I brought in the alcohol. There was a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of vodka, and a bottle of gin. I’d also brought in a bottle of coke, to go with the vodka. I couldn’t think which drink to bring in, so I thought I would bring in all three, and then have one glass from each bottle.
The twins nudged each other and giggled, when they saw all the bottles.
“Mummy’s getting pissed tonight,” Nicky said.
“No, I’m not,” I said. “And I don’t want to hear that language from you, otherwise Santa will put you on the Naughty List.”
“Sorry, Mummy,” Nicky apologised.
“He can’t do that,” Charlie said. “It’s Christmas Eve.”
“Ah, but Santa does regular check-ups on children every two seconds,” I humoured her. “So you need to be good all the time.”
Charlie seemed okay with that, because she kept quiet.
“Right, who’s got the buttons, because if you want to watch this film, you’d better press the play button.”
Nicky picked up the remote from where it was lying on the floor, waiting to be used, and pushed ‘Play.’
I looked at the bottles containing alcohol. I was right, I wasn’t going to get pissed tonight. I was only going to have one glass from each bottle. What harm could three glasses do…?

I woke the next morning. I couldn’t remember anything about last night. Well, I remembered the kids sticking on Muppets’ Christmas Carol, but I couldn’t remember what other films we’d watched. My head really hurt, and there was a nasty feeling in the back of my throat, like I was going to be sick. I looked down at the floor. There were sweet wrappers everywhere. Little Jakey not tidying up after himself as usual. There were also peanuts all over the place, the twins having a peanut fight, no doubt. And, lying on the floor where I was, were:
‘Oh, no,’ I thought, my heart skipping a beat. The whiskey bottle lay on it’s side, empty. So where were the vodka bottle and the gin bottle. The coke bottle was half empty.
‘Oh, my God,’ I thought. ‘Not just the three drinks, then?’
The sick feeling overwhelmed me. I ran upstairs, and threw up in the toilet. I ran past the twins, who had just got up, and I heard one of them say: “Merry…”
I stayed in the bathroom all day. My parents came round for Christmas dinner. They cooked the roast themselves, which I couldn’t eat. Mum was quite sniffy about the whole thing: “Fancy being invited round to Christmas dinner, and then having to cook it yourself,” and “Fine example you’re setting to the kids, Caroline.”
My friend Mary was right. I was haunted by three spirits on Christmas Eve.