Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Ok, ok, I admit it, I did lie! I said I would be back here saying something “interesting” last night and I just did not have time. Seriously.

Enough of the excuses however, I’m here now.

And what, on the night of Christmas itself, have I got to say? Not an incredible amount to be perfectly honest but as usual, enough for me to justify to myself, sitting here, spilling the beans stored up in my noodle into html for you to read.

I sat down the other night to continue a tradition that has taken place in my family for at least, ooh, 4 years. Yep, the reading of the Radio Times. Not just reading the Radio Times but the circling of interesting programmes in the Radio Times.

I used to think that the Radio Times was an “old persons” magazine and that you had to be knocking on to enjoy, or understand it.

Now I am approaching the end of my 30’s , I know it’s an old person’s magazine! And you know what? I love it!

Yes, I love sitting down with a glass of wine and circling (in permanent marker of course) the programmes I hope to watch or listen to over the course of the next week. With the Christmas edition, it’s the next two weeks, although I have recorded and then immediately recorded over 3 different programmes in two days.

As much as I enjoy this little ritual however, I must draw the line at seeds. Giving away free seeds in my favourite (and only) magazine is pushing the boundaries just that little too far; I’m not that old!!!

So, here we are; December 25th. Christmas Day. Two thousand and seven years on from the main event. And what did we do?

I guess we did what most people did; got together with family members who mean a lot to you. Ate too much, drank more than absolutely necessary, gave and received far too many presents and generally over indulged in one way or another.

Yesterday Joseph played the part of shepherd and Annabel played a beautiful angel, even though she has been unwell and today we ate, drank and laughed with our parents and brothers all afternoon.

Being together reminded me how lucky I am, especially with regards to my children. M and I decided that next year, we are going to sponsor a child or buy a goat with the money we would have otherwise spent on presents, as the amount of gifts our two children received was, frankly, obscene.

It’s not their fault, it’s not ours, our parents or our friends fault but it is not quite right that everything should be geared towards one day of excess such as today. I must say that I am pleased that the true meaning of today has been explained at Joseph’s school and has obviously sunk in because he has mentioned it more than once today.

In fact, the song he sang the other night in his nativity play rang home. The lyrics went something like this;

“Search the heavens, look everywhere, there’s a star for you, up there”.

“Up there” is coupled with pointing up into the sky and for some stupid reason it always makes me upset. How ridiculous!

The song does however, serve as a reminder of how lucky I am, to have people whom I love (my family), who love me (my family), who look up to me (my children) and those that I wouldn’t dream of hurting (all the above) and so on.

I saw a group of pictures the other day which have stayed with me. They were from the Unicef picture of the year awards and to be honest, it was the text for the winning one which has haunted me since. They all remind you of how lucky you are though.

http://www.unicef.de/foto/2007/english/index.htm

I will reserve comment on it so as to let you make your own minds up but they are extremely powerful.

Whatever you did today, Happy Christmas.

Peace.