Categories: uncategorized
Date: 22 December 2004 22:22:29
Yes, we saw The Man In Red himself today. In person. It's great to know that, while there are plenty of people pretending to be Santa to help us get in the Christmas spirit during Advent, the man himself does take time out of his hectic schedule to visit us in person at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Today was our annual trip to ride on the steam train (to the rather pleasant accompaniment of a glass of sherry and a mince pie as we travelled in the luxury we deserved in a first-class carriage ), to have lunch in the station coffee shop, and to explore the enchanting grotto and toy-workshop as we wait for our audience with Santa. He got a lovely hug from Smudgelet (something of a contrast to the first time Smudgelet met him, when he jumped on his tummy and kept pulling at his beard and gloves with a maniacal grin!) and chatted with them for ages about this and that. He said that the presents he gave them today must be taken home and put under the Christmas tree so that when he visits on Christmas Eve, he knows just where to put them - and he signed them with his autograph! It was lovely to see the boys' dilemma - they so wanted to open the presents in the cafe afterwards, but knew that if they did, he might not know where to leave their presents and they might have to sacrifice the future "many" if they wanted the present present. In the end they begged me to hide the presents away where they couldn't see them so that they wouldn't be tempted!.
Today I regretted my impulse to buy a real tree. Last night I set it up, in secret, once the boys were in bed. I'd borrowed one of those lovely Christmas Tree stands from school and managed to secure it and fill the vase part with water, and then decorated the tree. It looked really lovely by the time I'd finished... well worth it. I did not think quite the same when, at midnight, the tree decided it was really too heavy for the stand and proceeded to fall full length across the lounge floor (you'll recall I'm sleeping on the sofa at the moment, so I was aware of its graceful plummeting), strewing baubles in all directions and, more to the point, strewing water across my parquet flooring! There I was, in my PJs, holding a tree upright in one hand while mopping at the floor with a random bit of tissue - reluctant to let go of the tree as it would fall again and pour out more water, and yet unable to get at anything really absorbant without leaving the room completely. Eventually, after much struggling and manoevring, I managed to prop the tree upright sufficiently to clean the floor and retire to my bed, where I spent a sleepless night waiting for the sound of demolition once again.
This morning I tried every method in my entire imagination to get the tree holder to support the tree successfully. Three times the baubles and water went across the floor and three times I struggled to clear the disaster area, all the time looking longingly at my artificial tree with its reliable stand and absence of needles or water. Finally I threw the stand to one side, grabbed a bucket from the shed and a huge bag of gravel from the garage, and had a last ditch attempt to create a stable base to hold our beautiful-but-uncooperative tree upright. Thank heavens, it worked. (I wonder if this episode in any way contributed to Tiddles' evening prayer tonight "Dear God, please make mummy less stressed and help her know that we do love her really". !)