Thursday, December 06, 2012

This Time of Year



Monday of this first week of December, known as ‘Cyber Monday’ was predicted to be the busiest ever for online trading. People wanted to purchase Christmas presents after being paid for the previous month. My wife and I went to Lakeside and it was pretty busy. I’m glad we made the effort, because on Tuesday, down came the snow. Even the weathermen were caught out, as they had not expected three inches of crispy white snowflakes. Traffic came to a halt on most of the main roads. Gritting had not taken place, and wherever there was an incline, vehicles could not get a grip.

 On Wednesday the snow was still hanging around, and even today there has been more than a trace of the stuff. Crunchy snow on pavements that had frozen overnight made walking on them a dicey business, but by midmorning there was a bit of a thaw and traffic was moving again. For those who did not have to venture out, it was a great opportunity for catching up on jobs that needed doing. I was able to make a start on the Christmas cards. Organising them into categories helped. I placed them into four groups: relatives, friends, neighbours and others. Altogether I wrote out 32 cards for relatives, 8 for friends and 9 for neighbours. I shall have to buy 37 second-class stamps, in total £18.50 at 50p a time.

I like receiving Christmas cards, as quite often they come with snippets of news from people I may not have seen or spoken to for several months. As tokens of love and friendship, these colourful cards sit on the mantelshelf or they are displayed on purpose made wallets hanging form the lounge walls.

I shall soon have to climb into the loft to find our old artificial Christmas tree for assembling, along with bits and bobs, an old cotton wool snowman with a black top hat and a metre high Father Christmas. Our grandchildren will love it when they see the tree and other festive decorations. They’ll love it even more when they play with balloons, and gobble chocolates and dance to music. It will be a wonderful time.  I’m really looking forward to Christmas this year, and of course there will be a joyful celebration at the church on Christmas day, followed by a gathering at my youngest daughter’s place, not to mention the traditional roast turkey.

Links

‘Cyber Monday’


 

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