Goodbye Christmas? Hello New Year’s celebrations.

 You can tell Christmas is over because all the adverts for sales are appearing. Do people really have spare money so soon after spending on Christmas stuff? I am amazed (appalled?) to see dresses reduced from £170 to £65. Is that really a bargain? I suppose it is if you buy that sort of fashion clothing.

Also this morning I saw the first discarded Christmas tree. It was sitting on the scoop of a digger outside a house we pass on our walk around the village. Why does it need a digger to remove a tree? You might well ask. Maybe this is the case if your tree is about 6 feet tall. However, the 30th of December seems a little early to be dismantling all your Christmas decorations. But … each to his own!

(Despite the dull weather, we have been trying to walk around the village every day, not quite following the same route as I run first thing. This is part of an early New Year’s Resolution to get us both fitter for 2024. No doubt other resolutions will be made and broken. That’s the way it usually goes.)

People keep asking me how we will celebrate New Year’s Eve. My usual reply is that I’ll probably go to bed early and then send Happy New Year messages out on Monday morning. 

We used to celebrate a friend’s birthday on New Year’s Eve, all of us contributing a food item to the party, a habit which began when he hit 50 on Millennium Eve and which we kept up for a good number of years, even after his untimely death almost ten years ago now. Then Covid came along and prevented us all getting together to toast absent friends and somehow we’ve never reestablished the tradition.

My Spanish sister and her assorted Spanish family and friends are organising a party in the house they have rented over in Southport. My English sister and her family will be there. We were invited but the prospect of sleeping on the floor no longer appeals. We’ll go over for lunch on New Year’s Day. Our niece, daughter of my English sister, had laid in stocks of a particular brand of beer at the house in preparation for the party. The favourite beverage of one of the family, it was supposed to be hidden away. However, the Spaniards discovered it, popped it in the fridge to chill  and proceeded to drink it. Well, other supplies were intended for them so it was understandable that they would think the beer was too. So they have had to hunt out supplies of the favourite beer! These are things that happen in families!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!