We (my husband and I) live on one side of this great country, and our children and family on the other. So, in the tradition of Christmas, we arranged flights across, to be with everyone for two weeks over Christmas and New Year particularly, we thought, our children.
No sooner had I struck ‘Confirm Payment’ on my keyboard, than our 21year old daughter said that she would like to go to Europe, as she has friends at university in Germany and England. She is planning to fly December 16. Terrific! Go! We said. Goodness if I was 21, had the money, and accommodation and travel with friends, try and stop me! I can well remember my own time travelling around Europe on a shoestring, and it was a memorable experience. Since giving her the green light, she has been busy arranging Youth Hostels and flights now that university exams are over.
Our son then announced that he and three mates would be driving to Byron Bay for the Falls Festival over New Year. Trying to sound enthusiastic, harder to do when thinking of boys, testosterone and cars, I said…yes…great….and then while peppering him with questions and being fed back glib assurances, so typical of a 19 year old, was wondering how fast Barry O’Farrell could arrange to have completed, the dual carriageway to replace the aged Pacific Highway north to the border with Queensland by Christmas?
Why can Christmas be so fraught! I am very much looking forward to a day with my siblings, their partners and children. We all get on pretty well, and there is usually plenty of laughter and good humour, but my mind will be switching between my daughter, I think she will be in Hungary on December 25, and the improbable, but horrible scenarios involving my son, and cars, and testosterone, and alcohol….you get the picture. And he won’t have left yet!
So, for Christmas we will not be with our daughter, and both children away for New Years Eve, which has left the man in my life, who is my best friend, and I looking at each other and wondering what the Christmas/ New Year holiday is all about.
I have decided that being together and celebrating your togetherness, does not have to be on a specific calendar day, but can be whenever there is an opportunity to catch up and enjoy each other’s company. Those days are our family’s Christmas Days, to be savoured and relished, and are as important as the celebrated day of December 25.
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