13 - A Mickey Mouse Christmas
Christmas for Emma and I is very much a family affair. I am the youngest of
ten children and have incredibly fond memories of being shoe horned into our
living room with my brothers and sisters while all passed gifts around. After
this we would wait the obligatory six to ten hours for the turkey to be cooked.
Of course coming from a big family does have its problems as well.
Learning to budget for gifts at an early age is essential and if you can get next
year's presents in this year's sales then all the better. Not being so financially
astute when I was ten I have vivid memories of going to the local newsagents
the day before Christmas Eve and buying a chocolate bar for each of my
relatives and then pain-stakingly wrapping them all. This was a tradition that
continued until I was 13, when I stopped wrapping them.
Emma's family is the complete opposite of mine as she is an only child.
Due to this her family is very close and Christmas is a big deal with lots of
routine and traditions. These include: stockings, which to this day are opened
in her parents bed and now include one for me; piles of presents; piles of
turkey and its associated foodstuffs; and piles.... from sitting around watching
cheesy Christmas TV.
With all this in mind it is perhaps surprising that we decided to spend
Christmas travelling. However, the timing of our adventures were dictated by
work, and to have been at home for Christmas would have meant either
travelling for two rather than three months, or having a few days 'off' to come
home for the festivities. Neither of these options was practical. We therefore
decided that if we were to be out of the country during this holiday period we