bah, humbug
I'm really glad Christmas is over for another year. Next year I'm either going to have a proper, full-on, whole-hog turkey-and-stuffing, brussel-sprouts-and-roast-potatoes, mince-pies-and-brandy-butter, eggnog-and-carols-on-the-radio, bad-cracker-jokes-and-stupid-hats, pine-needles-and-fairy-lights, merry-jolly-bloody-Christmas!!! or I'm going to a hotel. I don't care if it's the least Christmassy, nylon-sheets, shrink-wrapped-soap-and-cotton-bud, tiny-window-view-on-a-car-park, take-away-pizza-for-Christmas-dinner, £29-a-night Travelodge, as long as I have wi-fi internet in my bedroom and bad Christmas telly to snark about, it'll be better than this year's (no internet, no telly, no Christmas dinner and total abject bloody boredom).
I'd rather have the first option, though. The trouble with that, is that if I really want it, I'll have to start making plans in September, because whenever I leave it until December, everyone has already made their plans. I kind of resent that, though: I don't want to be thinking about Christmas when I'm still enjoying the last warm days of the year, and I don't want to be forced into having to make plans for my birthday three months before it's even taking place -- that's almost like getting older a quarter of a year early. The trouble is, thinking like that always means everyone else has made their plans, and leaves me with nothing fun to do and a pathetic hope that I might get a last minute invite from someone to tag along with them.
So I'm making my desires for next Christmas known NOW. I want a full-on traditional Christmas in 2008, with all the food and the trimmings. I don't want my birthday to be entirely subsumed by everyone's Christmas plans (and I definitely do not want to step into a supermarket on my birthday), but most of all I want to spend it with my friends. I really miss the HUGE Christmas gatherings we used to have when I was a kid, when all the available tables were put next to each other to create enough space to feed thirty people, and we sang carols around the piano and played stupid games of Chinese Whispers and Charades. I've always wanted to rent a big house for a couple of days with enough space to have a really big party like that -- probably not thirty people, but ten people would be nice.
I think I'm going to mention this again at regular intervals to see if the idea catches hold of anyone else as well.
I'd rather have the first option, though. The trouble with that, is that if I really want it, I'll have to start making plans in September, because whenever I leave it until December, everyone has already made their plans. I kind of resent that, though: I don't want to be thinking about Christmas when I'm still enjoying the last warm days of the year, and I don't want to be forced into having to make plans for my birthday three months before it's even taking place -- that's almost like getting older a quarter of a year early. The trouble is, thinking like that always means everyone else has made their plans, and leaves me with nothing fun to do and a pathetic hope that I might get a last minute invite from someone to tag along with them.
So I'm making my desires for next Christmas known NOW. I want a full-on traditional Christmas in 2008, with all the food and the trimmings. I don't want my birthday to be entirely subsumed by everyone's Christmas plans (and I definitely do not want to step into a supermarket on my birthday), but most of all I want to spend it with my friends. I really miss the HUGE Christmas gatherings we used to have when I was a kid, when all the available tables were put next to each other to create enough space to feed thirty people, and we sang carols around the piano and played stupid games of Chinese Whispers and Charades. I've always wanted to rent a big house for a couple of days with enough space to have a really big party like that -- probably not thirty people, but ten people would be nice.
I think I'm going to mention this again at regular intervals to see if the idea catches hold of anyone else as well.