Turning a Corner
Final conference call done. Final expense claim filed. It feels like I’m lifting rocks from an imaginary back-pack and casting them aside, one at a time. I have little or nothing left to do – after months of craziness, it feels strange. Two and a half days to go. I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to sit around in the office and successfully “look busy”.
Two of the children have already finished school – they finished yesterday evening, as did my other half. Miss 17 finishes today. When I got in from work last night, downstairs was littered with boxes of Christmas decorations, and a Christmas Tree had magically appeared in the lounge (the one from the infant school where my other half works).
I wonder how many infant school children would be horrified to discover that the moment they leave the building on the last day of school, the staff rip down everything to do with Christmas, and prepare the classrooms for the first day back in the new year?
We also have the infant school chicken to look after through the holidays. She’s a big black farmyard hen called “Jewel”, and seems very friendly. I let her out this morning. We had chickens years ago, so still had an “ark” at the end of the garden – apart from needing a little maintenance it’s fine, so guess who will inevitably find himself at a local farm in the new year, buying chickens again? There is already talk of converting the trampoline frame into a chicken run.
We have a brilliant photo somewhere of our youngest daughter – aged about four – standing in the garden with a pink glittery cowboy hat on, bright red wellington boots, daisy duke shorts, with a long suffering chicken under her arm.
This Christmas feels strange. I’ve only really bought a present for my other half – she organised all the presents for the children, and has warned me off buying any last minute things, because “they have enough already”. At this point the only avenue left is Amazon anyway, so I would have to order something this afternoon if I was going to.
What do you get for teenage girls for Christmas though? A card for Starbucks with infinite credit? An all-expenses-paid visit to Build-a-Bear? A board game about how stupid teenage boys are?