so this is christmas

I have a terrible memory.

It's shocking. I barely remember what day it is today much less what I did yesterday. Okay, so somehow I cn keep the most minute details of my current work in progress in my head for months at a time, but ask me how my weekend was...? I have to reach far far into the recesses of my mind to let you know.

Yet I remember Christmas like it was yesterday.

I remember the Christmas I got my first bike. I remember getting Pinkie, the oddly shaped stuffed rabbit that my Mum made from a pattern. I remember getting the gold locket my father bought for me when I was sixteen. I remember getting records - "1984 on Fire" was the greatest", and tapes - "Choose 1985" was a classic, and CDs that I played over and over on Christmas day until they drove everyone else in the family mad.

I looooove this time of year. The decorations in shopping centres. The musak in carparks. The extra pace, the hurry, the frenetic feeling in the air - is that excitement or pure panic? I love the search for Chrissy gifts - feeling no pressure whatsoever that I have to buy. I want to buy. I want to give my family that wake-up-Christmas-morning-with-a-bunch-of-brightly-wrapped-presents-under-the-tree feeling that I love so much. It's joyous. Exciting. The anticipation has been building for weeks...

And I don't really care if I get a $3-00 book of mind bender puzzles (actually I really like those types of books as they can keep us all entertained through Christmas lunch and beyond!) so long as when I slide down onto the lounge room floor in my pajamas with my hair a mess there is a package there with my name on it, I know that a memory to cherish is being created.

Wishing you all happy holidays!

Ally

PS. Try this one at Xmas lunch!
A prisoner was made to carry a heavy sandbag from one side of the compound to the other. When he got to the other side, he had to take it back again. This went on, hour after hour, day after day, until the prisoner realised that he could put something in the bag that would make it lighter. What was it?