Well hello there, December. Is that snow I can see in your pocket? Come in and rest your hoary head.
How soon the seasons come around. One minute I notice the first leaves start to turn brown, the next the decorations are going up and people are rushing around in their customary blind panic.
Unpacked and dusted down is the above antique. A seasonal decoration that is now thirty seven years old. A masterpiece of royal blue and gold.
The things you can do with toilet roll and tinsel.
This is the last link to my very first school, Mossfield Primary. I made this aged five, in my very first year at school. A year later I left due to my family moving home.The cracker came with me.
Every Christmas this inimitable creation took pride of place on many a tree that has long since been discarded. I think once I got older and left the family nest my folks were pleased to see this work of art go with me. And then my less than impressed wife, every single year, tries to relegate it to the back of our tree where nobody can see it, or, even more brazenly, attempts to leave it in the cardboard box altogether. Ostensibly to help preserve this ancient artifact, but she has been heard to mutter, God forgive her, that it is ‘just a thirty seven year old bog roll.’
Uncouth, common, love of my life that she is.
It is a symbol, dear wife, a symbol.
So the cracker is on the tree, the fixed points on my timeline are all joined up. Our season of celebration has now started and Christmas Day will be here before we know it.
Try to take some time out if you can, to enjoy the season, and attain a bit of perspective, before you get swallowed up by a mass of competitive humanity rolling in the aisles over that last bag of sprouts.
Have a great time.
In fact, have a cracker.
The poor dear. Just doesn’t understand art. This piece is clearly and deeply symbolic of the concurrency of past and future embroiled in the morass of the present circumstance of man(and woman)kind in modern post-industrialist, social-media-saturated, post-colonial, guilt-and-enuii-ridden….umm…messiness.
Or something.
The poor dear.
😉
Thanks for the cracker.
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My thoughts entirely. Thank you.
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I’m impressed that you still have this. I made ornaments when I was a kid, but none survived the passage of years. It’s great that you have something from childhood to show your children. Does your wife have something she made when she was a child? If so, perhaps you could compliment her on it. 🙂
I’ve just begun to decorate for Christmas. I’ve enjoyed the Christmas lights that neighbors have put up.
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I think she secretly likes my sentimental and nostalgic side 🙂
Christmas lights going up all over the place now to dispel the dark. Happy times!
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Because of all our travel this year we put up a smaller Christmas tree, which meant we could not hang all our ornaments. We had to choose the most meaningful ones and guess which ones they were? The ones the children made, of course! I love your antique toilet paper roll!
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Of course that makes me an antique too-but thank you!
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I think it should have pride of place on top of the tree. It’s a consummate conversation piece. Happy holidays!
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Thank you, I shall try and keep my feet on the ground! Happy Holidays to you too.
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Reblogged this on City Jackdaw and commented:
December arrives, and the age old struggle with my wife continues afresh. This is from last December 1st, meaning my beloved artifact is another year older too, making it now a thirty eight year old bone of contention.
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I can’t wait for this time of year when the cracker comes out.
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I will be sure to show you next time you call around.
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I have an ornament I made in the second grade. It consists of religious stickers pasted on manila paper, and I treasure it. Love live your cracker!
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