Christmas Hoopla

Though not officially tagged by Smiler, I did come across this on her blog and as I was meaning to do something last week to do with Christmas on 13 Thursday and didn't quite get around to finishing it ... here goes in a few free minutes I have.

1. When I was a kid my Mum and Dad platted the hair of my sister and I into tiny platts on Christmas Eve so we could have wavy hair for Christma Day. It seemed that we were up way past out bedtime for this to happen.

2. I love old Christmas movie/cartoons. This year we got the 1967 Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol and a Frosty the Snowman movie on DVD for Dylan. I also got, as a Golden Book, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer - with the same storyline as the movie from the 70's where he and a rogue elf (who wants to be a dentist) go the the island of broken toys and on the way back to the North Pole encounter a yeti like monster.

3. I was 12 before I stopped believing in Santa Claus - when my Mum wasn't patient enough to allow a suitable amount of time between us going to bed, and apparently to sleep, and getting out all the rustling plastic shopping bags.

4. Santa always bought us singlets, socks and undies - being a practical guy!

5. One year my Dad and Uncle drank a whole bottle of rum as they attempted to assemble a swing set from Santa. The swings were assembled just in time for sun up and of course - the bottom of the bottle (my head aches just thinking about it) The year that they assembled the trampoline - there was much less drinking.

6. Santa had the same handwriting as my Dad ... I thought it was pretty cool at the time that they wrote they same way - never put two and two together.

7. Christmas Day, every second year, meant driving. We moved to the country when I was 9, which meant that every second year when Christmas was at my Aunt's we would load into the car around 10:0am and drive and hour and a half to her place. Later on, the drive would also include - a three later arvo trip to my Grandparents and an over night there.

8. As a teenager, Christmas Day really signalled the beginnging of the Summer holidays, as it was that evening, or the following morning that we would pack up the car and trip on down to Anglesea, and either our tent (in the early days) or caravan (later on) for the rest of the Summer holidays. This wasn't necessarily always a good thing - boy issues, friend issues etc.

9. My cousin always had to be goaded into eating her peas on Christmas Day - with threats that there would be no presents if she didn't eat her peas. Lucky for me I was happy to eat peas, potatoes, carrots, potato, pumpking - anything that landed on the plate in front of me. Eating Xmas pudding was not obligatory, nor tied to presents, so I was happy to just go with a bowl of custard.

10. Christmas always means HOT for me ... as a kid it was always stiffling - made more so by the collection of evens that had been going since early morning with turkey and pork. The best Christmas Day I remember (weather wise) was at my cousins, and there was a corker of a thunderstorm late afternoon. The thunder was so loud, and so close, the entire weatherboard cottage shook on its foundations.

11. My first Christmas away from my family was the hardest Christmas I have ever had to endure. It was my first Christmas in the country and we had no time or money to be able to make the trip back to Cairns. We celebrated out the back of the local pub with the lovely hospital publican and his wife. I got some perfume for Christmas that year - Dolce Vitae, my first ever Christian Dior perfume, but it didn't make up for the fact I missed my Mum terribly. I was 23 that year! I went on to spent another two Christmases away.

12. I once fell asleep on the Christmas table after lunch - having worked 14 days straight (with the only day off in beween spent driving nine hours to Townsville and bank to take Mum to a doctors appointment there) and begun drinking chardonnay too early in the morning. Someone took my plate away to put in the dishwasher, I put my head down on the white table cloth and the next thing I remember was being tapped on my shoulder by my partner (it was our first christmas together) and him suggesting I go lie down in bed instead of sleeping on the table.

I wont bother tagging anyone since Christmas is really over for this year ..... I will be writing hopefully in the next few hours (Dylan permitting!) my Thirteen things to be grateful for in 2007!!