On the Twenty Second Day of Christmas

it really is The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

well, firstly it's SUMMER - my favourite season - every day there's endless sunshine - long, hot days and everyone is so HAPPY. Bulldog and the kiddos are home and there's no frantic dashing to daily events - time slows to its Should-Be pace and there's a sort of instant permission for a siesta instead.

family gathers and disperses and and gathers again - the advent chocolate eating ritual takes on a kind of hysteria as the realisation of santa's imminent arrival makes instant mathematicians of the least mathsy kinda kid.

(i do chuckle about Santa-hysteria at our place though - cos he leaves things like an orange, a banana, a new toothbrush and a chocolate Santa - no Nintendo Wiis arrive overnight here lol. i think it's just the wonderful surprise factor of That Stocking Was Empty And Now *magically* It's Bulging!!! sorta thang.)

everyone winds right down and spends time singing and gazing at fairy lights, and wonderful things like strawberries and bubbles and exotic drinks appear, borne by muscly cocktail waiters who also load the dishwasher and wipe the bench after themselves...
ohk, hallucination is over... maybe not the dishwasher and kitchen bench then, but it's beer o'clock as soon as siesta is over.

little plans begin to be hatched for long summer days, for friends arriving, places to go camping over the summer, and weather-patterns are being watched like a hawk. wonderful childhood Christmas Story books are re-produced and pored over, and pressies are smuggled into the house and ceremoniously wrapped and hidden underneath unsuspecting other pressies.

and there is this Magical Wonder All Around - at our place, for sure.
how's it going at yours??
mwah X