Well, there is what we have normally done, and there is what I'm going to do this year...
When I was a kid, my brothers and I used to get up early and go through our 'stockings'. (They weren't usually stockings; my parents were quite practical people, so one year all our presents were delivered in brand new waste-paper baskets!)
How early we got into the stockings usually depended on my oldest brother. Christmas was the one day of the year when he would wake up first; he would come and wake me when he had finished opening his presents, or when he thought he could get away with it, whichever was later. (One Christmas morning, he came in, woke me up, chivvied me into unwrapping a few presents, and told me how he had lain awake the night before and waited for Dad to come in with his stocking. Then, under the cover of darkness, he had unwrapped all his presents. And that, dear folcs, is how I learned, at a very tender age, the 'truth' about Father Christmas.)
After I'd gone through my stuff, my brother and I would then go to disturb my other brother, who was, apparently much more grumpy in the morning than I was. (My, how things have changed!)
We'd then have a terrible wait. Then again, all waits are terrible when you are a kid. We couldn't unwrap any of the presents under the tree until Mum and Dad had got the pudding steaming and the turkey in the oven. Then drinks had to be brewed, pens and papers found so that we could make lists of who we needed to thank later on... and so on. Only then -- finally -- would Dad hand out the presents.
So, that was a childhood Christmas. And rather wonderful they were, too.
This year is going to be very, very different.
I'm going to be on my own this year. This is my doing, I hasten to add. My choice. And, grumpy soul that I am, I am rather looking forward to it.
The problem, as far as any presents are concerned, is that some people have delivered them to my mother in person. She won't forward anything on, so I'm having to wait until one of my brothers visits her and does so. Anything that gets sent through the post will get redirected to where I am staying at the moment -- but as I'm not going to be here over the holiday period, I won't get any of that until after new year! The end result, I suspect, is that any presents I'm lucky enough to receive will finally catch up with me around epiphany!
How's that for delayed gratification?!
How will I spend Christmas day? I'm not sure yet, but I think going for a walk along a perfect beach just might factor in there somewhere. It's going to be a very alternative Christmas, and I'm looking forward to it.
Chris
