So it’s Christmas Eve…let’s get personal

So it’s Christmas Eve and the house is thoroughly clean, the black cake is baked, the ham thawed and ready for the oven, the tree’s up and beautifully decorated, and the gifts wrapped, just to place under the tree later tonight…did I leave anything out? Don’t think so. It’s just for me to relax now and wait for tomorrow. Hold up! That’s in an alternate universe!

Let’s go back a bit. Every year, yes, every year I say the same thing…”Christmas Eve must find me with every thing done. I’m not going through this another Christmas Eve! No! Next year I just want to be able to relax on Christmas Eve and wait for Christmas.” Yes folks, every single year I say it and every single Christmas Eve I’m in a supermarket somewhere. Why?

Psst...I have a cousin, by mid November she’s already posting photos on Facebook of about 12 black cakes, 10 sweet bread, her beautifully decorated tree, pone, paime (pronounced pay-me)and pastelles – everything done at her house! And, on top of that she’s the manager of a very busy bank. Now’s the time to scream “Arrrghhh!” if you care to.

Let me begin again…

So it’s Christmas Eve and all the public spaces at my house are thoroughly clean, “Yay!”…the fruits for the black cake I put to marinate in alcohol only this past Monday, the ham, my husband forgot to take out of the freezer yesterday, this he tells me in the dead of night last night, so that has to be done this morning, so you know what that means, it won’t thaw ‘til tomorrow – Christmas Day – if you want to scream "Arrrghhh!" again, on my behalf, be my guest. 

My saving grace…the tree is indeed up and beautifully decorated, actually two trees are up and beautifully decorated. I did one, the Peacock Tree and my daughter the other. The other, lovingly called Scanty Tree, is the first tree my husband and I bought as a married couple, so it’s that old and it is indeed scanty, you can see straight through it. Left up to me I'd throw the thing in the garbage but my daughter says, "It has sentimental value Moh-meee!"

These days we only get gifts for small children – my neighbour’s six children (that's enough gifts right there), my 2 year old goddaughter, my 3 year old great nephew, and 9 year old twin nieces. I just know that I’ve left someone out.

So it’s Christmas Eve and I still haven’t seen a supermarket, I still have to get gifts for the small ones and wrap them, I still have cake and ham to bake, and let’s not talk about the private spaces. But I promise you that it’ll all be done by midnight (well, not the ham) and, I am not letting Christmas Eve find me in this same position next year.

Peacock Tree and Scanty Tree

So it’s Christmas Eve…let’s get personal Shelley Johnson 24-Dec-2015