Xmas post - early!

Up the road, yesterday

I may have mentioned before that I'm not exactly what you call a Xmas person (never have been really). I'm at least partly with Sheldon Cooper on this (click on name for the clip, it won't embed). But, of course, once you have children in the house it's not really up to you what you like and don't like... well, not all the time anyway... thus I have learned to have (at least a bit of) a Xmas face. And it's pretty when it snows (outside, not my face) and it has snowed this week (bit early for Xmas really but what can you do... it snows when it snows...).

More up the road, good depth on this one (or something).

A couple of weeks ago I even wrote a Xmas poem... about the 'trying to be cheery and in the Xmas spirit' business. It's not as good as the O'Hooley & Tidow Xmas song (posted before ages ago, sounds like this, and yes, they were EXCELLENT at the folk club this week, thank-you very much, really magnificent performances!) but I've read the poem out twice now (in Brechin and at folk club this Tuesday) and it's not the worst Xmas item you'll experience this year, I'm sure. Its title keeps changing... as does a bit of the last line... but for now this is what it looks like:

Season's bleatings

“Are you excited about Xmas?” the young ones all say

"The snow and the tinsel, the bells and the sleigh?"

Well... we older and wiser know what lies ahead

The ups and the downs, the emotional spread

So we smile half a smile and we sigh half a sigh

And we think to ourselves “My... doesn't time fly?

Xmas again and it's come round so fast...”

And we look in our file labelled large “Xmas past”

And we see many entries, not all of them glowing

With happiness, cosiness, carols and snowing

Instead family dramas, the trials we've had

Our own soapy operas, good stories and bad

Silent times too, lonely days, plans gone wrong

Times when the holidays really dragged on

So we give back our answer – a “yes” and a “no”

And a guide to our yuletide follows below.

At Xmas expectations are sillily high

From immaculate beginnings to the perfect mince pie

So we're on to a loser from the start of the game

But we try to ignore that, not focus on blame

And we sing all the songs, even angels and kings

And shop till we flop, wearing out our best wings

And we cook and we stew, and our memories bake

And the telly works hard to keep spirits awake

And we sink now and then, maybe after a sherry

And we try not to tire of the word that is “merry”

And we miss special people who've left us and gone

And we try not to cry but the tears still switch on

Like the lights, that at Xmas, are pretty and bright

There's a positive note, hark, an ending's in sight

For the yule, this is all, it comes round, has its slot

And we wade our way through it, excited or not.

RF 2012