Feest Isolation Days –17 December
I went to four different places yesterday until I was able to find a Christmas Tree! Bristol Zoo sold out a few days ago and their doors were firmly locked. The garden centre only had a few paltry offerings so I persisted. My intention was to have a big ten foot tree this year! Ha! Not to be…The next place I tried had nothing bigger than just over three feet. Finally, I remembered on one of my round Bristol walks a few weeks ago, that I saw a garage that fixes cars, (as opposed to a garage that sells petrol) with a sign up saying they were selling trees. I scooted around and bought one of the last three trees in the place. The seller had bought in two hundred. And then were two. Not quite ten feet. More like six. But not bad!
It seems that everyone wanted a tree this year! Or two…Apparently, people are buying more than one this year. That was something we once did. When the kids were younger and the house was filled with the excitement of Santa, it was also home to two Christmas trees. One very large one the drawing room and a smaller one in the dining room where we spent a lot of time.
Today we trimmed this year’s tree and here it is….. Have you put your tree up yet? If not better get a move on.
It wasn’t until we started on the trimming of the tree that I finally cracked about not seeing the kids. There is something about Christmas and family and friends and socialising. And none of that will happen this year. We will be two. It will be fine. But boy will I miss the noise, the running up and down stairs, the piles of towels to put out, the beds to be made, the supermarket shop, the cooking, the piles of presents to wrap and then the opening of gifts and the laughter. SO much laughter. At least we are here and healthy. There are families where that isn’t the case. We will make our laughter spread a bit further this year. The carols will be listened to instead of being sung, and the few presents we open between us have been designed to make us laugh. We don’t normally do presents for each other but this year we will. We are grateful for so much!
Boris Johnson held a press conference yesterday with Chris Whitty and they are trying to get people to rethink their plans for eight days time. The law isn’t changing, there will still be five days over the Holiday period when three families can mix. That remains the law. But Chris Whitty gave an excellent analogy. The law says you can travel at 70 mph down the motorway. But when its dangerously icy and you could skid, you don’t do the speed limit. You slow down. You use caution. The entire country is being asked to slow down, to show caution and not to mix and mingle normally at Christmas. We are all in this together and we all have to be careful. Of course there are bound to be moments when people are upset by what they are missing. Wouldn’t it be a thousand times worse though to unknowingly give a family member Covid? Most people will be sensible. They have been so far and they will continue to be so. Christmas will be fine. Different. But fine. Zoom here we come!
When you need to get your mind off Christmas for a minute or two, there is still the States that you can turn to for some light relief! Randy Rainbow has arrived just in time to put a smile on our faces…..
Enjoy!
With love,
Kathy x