Before …!

I used to love all the preparations for Christmas, and seemed to thrive on auto pilot, running around getting everything ready, it was so much fun and a pleasure to see all the happy faces. I always made many lists well before the festive day, then I knew exactly what was needed. 

Now it's just nice to sit back and enjoy the season, although I still have the Christmas dinner to make, that always leaves me in a bit of a panic, but once I'm in the swing of it all, I wonder what the anxiety was all about. I suppose it's making sure everything is ready at once, and not getting cold, of course then there's the Christmas pudding to get ready too. Phew!  A woman's work is never done, is it? 

Good luck with your Christmas celebrations Rhiannon. Hope it all goes to plan...and thank you for the I P, it was perfect.

Jenny.

I have a ridiculous amount of lists - I often feel as if I need some kind of planning room like in WW2 with people pushing things around on maps!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Rhiannon - one small typo: peeling?

Yes, and yes, just as it is, a nice one Rhiannon. For us a change this year; I usually do all the catering, while my wife does all the rest; but this year we go to our sons, so I don't have to do anything - apart from falling asleep watching Dr Who.

You have really caught the busy-ness before Christmas! I never thought I could miss the struggle back from present-shopping in Guildford on the bus, with bags bulging full of heavy, poking, bashing things, but now I do almost all the present shopping on Ebay, I do miss it, or at least the bit you describe so well:

"So much shopping (through the crowds),
looking, planning"

You have evoked the feeling of unity, everyone bustling about together - it must be how birds feel just before migrating, the urgency and unity of purpose, excitement,perhaps, will it all be ok? Will I get there?

And this part reminded me strongly of the first time I had been in charge of a family Christmas :

"scurrying, worrying (are we doing too much,
spending – unnecessarily – too much;
am I just trying to copy others"

and "earning, earning" as all the time, in your mind the spending is like being in a tiny canoe crashing down a racing rapids going faster and faster

Being the one in charge of even our tiny three person Christmas, is the closest to being a general I ever want to get :0)

Thankyou for your lovely poem, I hope tomorrow's lunch goes well, and that your daughter in law and son enjoy their first Christmas hosting you, and you enjoy the rest :0)

"...to obtain a holiday, a family celebration,
with leisure, and rest from
… hard work!"

I felt exhausted reading the first few lines. Hoping those final lines are how your Christmas panned out, Rhiannon. Paul