.. and thats all over..

I sometimes get chided as an old curmudgeon, and not always in jest.

At Christmas I really do deserve the label though. It's an old cliche straight out of Charles Dickens, but the older I get, the more antipathy I have towards the festive season.

That probably paints me as some sort of 19th Century money lender fit for a visit of the ghost of Christmas Past, doesn't it? Well I'm not that bad, I plan my present purchases months in advance and hoover up the gifts for E, X and little D with glee. Our little one wasn't too fussed about December 25th this year, but our big one made out like a bandit, as always. X has graduated onto the mega Lego now. Massive, bling-y robot ninja sets which make my childhood Lego offerings look like simple wooden toys in comparison. As I write this his mech ninja robot and ninja helicopter dealie bestride our living room table like a pair of Power Ranger monsters squaring up to one another. I've probably named both those sets wrongly,  and X would correct me briskly if he heard. Like when you tell a child to take his elbows of the table at mealtimes. 

This Xmas was mercifully brief. We loaded up or presents into the car and drove over to see my Mum on the 24th. After a fitful night of sleep the present opening started in earnest. X had the patience of a saint whilst the grown-ups rattled tiredly around him in the house. He would've started opening his gifts at 4am if he had the chance (as I once did, to my shame), but held himself back with admirable restraint. With the rain falling in a steady stream, we strapped ourselves in for the wait before the orgy of eating started. And then we ate. And ate some more. The white wine flowed freely and by evening I felt bloated and ready enough to head home. 

To sum it up, for me Xmas has just become an excuse for large amounts of grub and booze. Hardly a new revelation that, but as time goes by it grates on my sensibilities increasingly. Come early afternoon on the 25th my inner puritan wants to be active, preferably outdoors, instead of slumped on the couch feeling like an anaconda which has just eaten a hippo. 

Hopefully next year we can do things differently. E wants to visit her family come Xmas 2013 and if I had two grand to drop on some plane tickets I wouldn't think twice. In the meantime I busy myself with post Christmas errands and look out the window, hoping for the rain to stop. 

A.