I wish it could be Christmas every day

And so this is Christmas

Time the 4^th Dimension is a curious thing. Whatever I did today won’t happen again, there is no fast rewind or post edit in life. I will not type the same thing here again in this moment of time, by the time I have typed these words the time has gone.

I was day dreaming behind the wheel today, but I won’t miss my turning again not today anyway.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, so is the elixir of life, but despite letters to some old geezer with a white beard and a funny red costume, I never got either for Christmas.

I think he is fake.

At Christmas time I tend to reflect on the year past and the past Christmases.

What might have been in a parallel universe. How you can be with someone 24/7 for many Christmases then poof all gone, and there is not even a ghost of Christmas past apart from the memories. It’s as if it happened to someone else and I just heard it or read about it.

Christmas is a family time and that does not change, except we all get older and run out of ideas for gifts to give. It’s those that were invited for Christmas and life as we know it, who change, who are just visiting, except it was not made clear at the time that a parking meter was ticking.

Christmas is also for kids. Once I started getting clothes and not scaletrix, I did not wake up at 3am to rip open the paper. That was only last year of course…….. I jest….

But seriously, as you have kids and grand kids at least the sparkle of Christmas comes alive again in their eyes and faces. Personally I always wanted to be on a beach, not Margate, but a few thousand miles further in the sun, then have Christmas dinner served up in a hotel. Bah humbug some people would say, but it is stress free and many people have a stresstive Christmas, cooking and feeding the 5,000 with loaves and turkeys.

Of course there are other parts of Christmas. No work, yes, well the economy has extended that benefit in 2008. Batteries not included, was another favourite pastime. Now I rip open the packaging in the shop to check the merchandise. As a kid, I always had to fix the toys after their 5 minutes of statutory working too. As a father, no not father Christmas, he is fake remember, I had to fix the toy boats, trains, planes and automobiles, else Ian & Graeme would not be smiling, and their Dad would be cross, money for nothing a dire strait indeed. Charades, well yes, let’s pretend all those toys do work and we don’t have to play with the wrapping paper or the boxes instead. No they are not more interesting than something that cost 2 arms and one leg.

I saw a video the other day. My first grand daughter is in Vancouver and she woke to find a Christmas tree in her home, she waddled over to it, it was so cute, she is one and a half almost, kissed a dangly angel twice, then pulled the tinsel off to wrap round her neck, much better, I suppose.

I dare say I had seen similar before, but today we have the technology to record all these events for posterity or to be saved in cyber space.

Being divorced when Ian & Graeme were still young also meant that every other Christmas Day I missed them, until I collected them days later from their mum. So those alternate Christmases were emptier for me personally.

It’s nice getting presents though, well done Prince Albert, and it’s nice to gather as an occasion. Commercially, I think the High St over extends it, but the decorations and lights are pleasing to the eye, However, although Thrapston, the town I live in now, has pretty street lights it has failed to figure out why the Christmas tree erected these last 2 years is in a black out…………Ho ho ho. Afterall it is the season to be jolly, tra la la la la la la la la. Would be better having a white Christmas rather than a grey cloud overcast SAD one, but never mind we can light up and warm the globe instead, as well as making Energy Executive Fat Cats fatter.

There used to be good films on TV, not any more, not even Zulu or the Great Escape, video and dvd has put paid to that. No more Eric Morecombe and Ernie Wise. Time changes everything.

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done, another year over and a new one just begun.