By late\nSeptember, the cement in the foundations of the Christmas plans was setting\nnicely and the scaffolding was under construction for our two families. Shared\nfestive traditions had evolved through their years of friendship. Each\npurchased a tree bauble for the other during their holidays and each had amassed\na collection of these items which came to include German figures capable of\nappearing to puff smoke, and smoked glass globes with holiday place names. Food\nwas always exquisite and achieved courtesy of the Marks and Spencer pre order\nand pick up service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Family\nmembers were assembled in their relevant household in good time for the\nChristmas eve rituals of sprout peeling (to get ahead) and mince pie making (you\ncan\u2019t beat home-made) plus the two-family solidarity appearance at midnight\nmass (which makes you feel really Christmassy). This year there was a frisson\nof excitement around the apparently deepening relationship between two former-children\nof the two families \u2013 both due to graduate from different Welsh universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Away from\nChristmas and family affairs, Amy and Paul \u2013 the ex-children in question – were working out how they could make a life\ntogether. Amy thought she might be pregnant (unconfirmed) and they were each\nworking long shifts in different parts of the Christmas economy and renting a\nbed sit for the holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were\nboth tired, and longing for a few days together to talk over future plans and current\nproblems. It wasn\u2019t that either wanted to distress their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They don\u2019t actually need us there to\nenjoy Christmas, do they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul was\noptimistic, and not entirely wrong about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No they don\u2019t need<\/em> us but it\u2019s a kind of sacrifice people make isn\u2019t it? I mean I\nhaven\u2019t even said that I\u2019m vegetarian. It would just upset everybody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy was\nguilt ridden at wanting to break away from the family straightjacket but\ndesperate for some peace to sort herself out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, we\u2019re adults. We can just stay here. The\nroom\u2019s ours until mid-January. We\u2019ll each call our parents and explain how\nthings are. They\u2019ll understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, two\nphone calls crossed the national border. Paul may have talked briefly about\nfinancial worries and Amy might have let slip her pregnancy concerns. Who knows\nwhat was said?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we do know was that, in an\nunexpected turn of events, two cars left the English countryside on Christmas\nmorning laden with tree, food and plenty to drink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We couldn\u2019t leave you all alone at Christmas,\ncould we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul\u2019s mum\nwas close to tears<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially with a baby on the way.\nChristmas is all about children isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amy\u2019s mum\nwas also in need of a tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well it\u2019s a good sized tree<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul\u2019s dad\nremarked as he and Amy\u2019s dad unwrapped the foreign bought baubles to decorate\nthe branches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As they\nchomped on M and S best, perched on chair arms and cushions it was generally\nagreed that traditions needed to be more flexible in future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By late September, the cement in the foundations of the Christmas plans was setting nicely and the scaffolding was under construction for our two families. Shared festive traditions had evolved through their years of friendship. Each purchased a tree bauble for the other during their holidays and each had amassed a collection of these items […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,101],"tags":[102,118,11],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","category-december-2019","tag-christmas","tag-they","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-3M","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}