Happy Christmas Eve

Noah last year and his Christmas Tree

Happy Christmas Eve everyone. It is a day I love. The excitement and glory of it all particularly as we share our time with little people who just make it magical. I am so lucky, I know, to live so close to mine. I know lots of people who will be apart from their families over the next few days.

Though it is a beautiful time, it is also a very difficult time for many and for many reasons. For our family there are always echoes of loss. My father died very close to Christmas having been taken ill on Boxing Day - Sally Ballet always blames her husband as both he and my father got very drunk together while her husband was wearing a leopard print thong (Don't ask but rest assured it was over his trousers!). My eldest son has never got over it and hates Christmas with a passion in part  because of it. Wish I could give the magic back to him.

For me when my children were young it was also a joyous time until Christmas lunch when a sadness would start to descend as they would be going to their own father on Boxing Day. For me Christmas ended then and the Christmas decorations would be down just after they left. I have to say though I was always very lucky I know many people who have to have their children in turns at Christmas  when their marriage breaks down. My ex never asked me to do that and I will always be grateful.

I am counting my blessings this morning despite living at the top of a hill and quite open to the elements and despite a lot of noise I am lucky that there has been no damage to our houses (and we still have power a rarity here I can assure you when we have a storm).

But more importantly I am counting those blessings as we were reminded of the fragility of life yesterday when Noah was taken very ill, very suddenly,becoming blue and floppy. Luckily he was at the GPs at the time and was raced into a treatment room where several nurses and the GPs worked on him. His temperature had gone so high and his tonsils were so badly swollen they were impacting on his breathing. How do you explain to a toddler that if he doesn't swallow the antibiotics and painkillers he will spend Christmas in hospital on an IV drip? Thank goodness with the resilience of childhood by the afternoon he was a bit better. But also thanks to the staff of the NHS, many of whom I know (and including members of my family), will be working over Christmas. Thank you all (plus all the other emergency services.)

I hope your Christmas is joyous however you chose to spend it. And I will see you the other side.

In the meantime the a song by the first love of my life....*sigh* A bit of David Essex and Winter's Tale