The Merry Month of December

This time of year is ridiculous, don't you think?

Everything happens all at once. Every year I swear I'm going to be super organised, get all the Christmas shopping done early, have a clean house. Yeah, nup. Never happens. 

I also started writing this blog post at the beginning of December. I wrote about how I had just put up the Xmas tree. 

I wrote: 

[The Xmas tree is up. And for the first time in ages I wasn't doing it all myself while the boys heckled me from the peanut gallery.

Sonofagun No.2 had his bestie over and they both jumped in with both feet and had a great time. I assembled the tree and had help with the lights (which go on first) but after that it was all them.]

Annnnd that's as far as I got! So that's officially old news now as tomorrow I will probably take it down.

December was like a ride in a race car. It sped along so fast the landscape outside was a blur.

At the beginning of the month the Bear and I had to get dressed up ridiculously fancy to attend a dinner for his work. Like super duper schmancy- fancy. I found a pretty dress and Bear had to wear a tux. THAT schmancy. He actually wore a tux. 

Funny/ not funny fact: the venue was an hour away. When I was at home my hair looked very nice and neat. Then I walked out of the house to the taxi and it was ridiculously windy.

My hair flew straight up and then all over whipping around like it was in a blender. And then I was in the taxi with no way of tidying it up. For an hour. Plus I reasoned before I left that when LADIES get schmancy dressed up, they carry tiny little clutches. I only had 1 clutch purse. The rest of my bags are a bit too casual for schmancy. And tiny little clutches hold a grand total of 1 items. Usually a lippy. Mine held a lip balm as I don't have any lipSTICK. And nothing else. So I used my fingers to straighten my hair and hoped it would suffice.

December was also taken up with Sonofagun No.2 finishing primary school. He and his friends have spent months and months studying at home but we're finally able to go back to school at the end of October.

His school did their best to give all the 6th graders a fun final 7 weeks at school but the last 3 weeks in December was all about squeezing in as many excursions as possible, graduation ceremonies, a 6th grade sleepover at the school (school camp had to be cancelled in early October), final school assemblies and graduation dinners. All this as COVID cases started popping up around the school.

He happily (reluctantly) reenacted this photo for me. His 5 year old self walking into school on the first day and his (crazy haired) 12 year old self walking in on his last day of school.

My one little escape through the bustle of Christmas was to watch as many Christmas movies as possible (and sometimes with egg nog). I managed to get through 17 so far with 1 more scheduled for tonight New Years Eve. 

My Christmas movie list was not very planned. With the exception of Die Hard. Every Xmas movie month should include Die Hard. Normally I kickstart Xmas movie month with Die Hard, however I decided to pace myself.

1. A Castle for Christmas: Brooke Shields meets the Dread Pirate Wesley in Scotland. There's a knitting group and lots of tartan.

2. The Princess Switch 3: The 3rd instalment where 3 girls look the same and change clothes for reasons.

3. Serendipity: John Cusack runs around looking in books for a girls phone number. One of my favourite Xmas movies.

4. Holidate: A girl and the unofficial 4th Hemsworth brother hang out together for all the holidays in a year and get shitfaced sometimes.  Actually super funny. Another new Xmas favourite.

5. Fatman: So Mel Gibson is Kris Kringle. Stay with me on this one.  Fargo meets Xmas. A kid gets coal for Xmas and decides to hire a hitman to assassinate Santa. We really loved this movie. Not really suitable for kids. At all. But not as bad as Bad Santa.

6. Elf: If you haven't seen it, you must hate Christmas. Sonofagun No.2 asked if we could watch it. If his sarcastic, cynical little heart wants to watch Elf, you know it's a classic.

7. Mr Poppers Penguins: I know this isn't classified as a Xmas movie, but Sonofagun No.2 insisted that because there's snow it must be a Xmas movie. Which is funny because it never snows here at Xmas. Because it's summer.

8. Hawkeye: Not a movie. But a Xmas tv series! 

9. Christmas on the Farm: Xmas in Queensland. Everyone has confusing accents. And zero sexual attraction.

10. Die Hard: On the day I watched this, I was present shopping at the plaza and found this.

We already had multiple copies of all the Die Hard movies. But this had a Xmas jumper cover so I bought it. I'm not ashamed.

11. A California Christmas: there was something about a vineyard and a rich guy. I think my brain dribbled out my nose and my eyeballs rolled to the back of my head with all the cliches.

12. The Apartment: A bonafide classic with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. And so many sleazy old men.

13. Single All the Way: Lots of hot gay guys but Jennifer Coolidge steals the show.

14. Let it snow: Gen Z get angsty at Xmas and someone made it into a movie.

15. 8-Bit Christmas: A guy tells his daughter of his quest to get a video console for Xmas when he was a kid. Lots of 80s nostalgia.

16. Iron Man 3: Yes. It snows, there is xmas trees, it's set at xmas and because the internet says it is.

17. Love Hard: It's a sign of the times when catfishing is the premise of a romantic xmas movie.

and tonight is New Years Eve so we will watch our last Xmas movie of the season: Die Hard 2.

Rather apt don't you think?

In the middle of all that we had a lovely couple of Christmas lunches with family and friends and ate a ridiculous amount of food. 

I'm not the type of person to hang too much on the idea of New Years being this big amazing fresh start. I think every day could be a fresh start but I do love the fireworks on TV and spending time with family.

So from my family to you and yours I wish you a marvellous 2022.

Louise

Red Haired Amazona