All those pictures of food and jollity.
Other people's Christmas.
Mind you, if I was having a Christmas like that I'd be hitting "Post" button too.
So here, for you...is the non-Facebook Christmas...
Dear Son is still away. 3 weeks now. Maybe home for New Year....maybe he ran off with a ski instructor nymphet and hasn't told me yet. When he tells the ski nymphet about his 86 year old mum he'll come back to me...
Christmas in Japan this year was a wonderful 3 day weekend. The Emperor's birthday, then Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Then Friday morning it started snowing here. And snowing. By evening we were thigh deep. A base of almost 1 m. Some 6,000 people camping out at the airport, trains and planes stopped. Holiday plans in a mess.
I was meant to be going to a friend's potluck party in a city near the airport, with a vegetarian lasagna. But I got on two trains at the chaotic station. One cancelled, the other threatening to be an all-station stopper into the snowy wastes...so I got off the trains and fled the crowds. Took the lasagna to a friend's home in the city.
Day Service came and took Okaasan out.....in the storm. These people are amazing!
Christmas Eve was snow shoveling day. All day. It topped up my headcold nicely. I had no energy left to ski.
Then one cat went missing for 24 hours. I didn't sleep thru worry. Imagined him buried under a meter of snow. I waited up, failed to sleep...didn't see Santa...but finally the cat came home at 3 am.
Christmas Day I sat on my own with a coffee and the TV.
Took my presents from under the cat tower tree and opened them....
Really, thanks to UK friends and students, I felt it WAS Christmas.....as chocolates, bath products, silly books and more chocolates came tumbling out. I had chocolate Santas for breakfast.
Lunch with Okaasan. Leftover vegetarian lasagna for me. Then took her out for a walk to the local supermarket. Millions of Japanese people had done their Christmas shopping, so it was quiet. We walked and looked at stuff. Had coffee in the Macdonalds.
She is passive really. Just follows what I suggest. Sat for ages and looked out of the Macdonalds window at the parking area.
Came home. Ate more chocolate. Watched a Colin Firth movie on TV. Slept in a blanket with the cats on the floor.
Heated up supermarket chicken for dinner. Decorated the table. Wrapped a small present for Okaasan....a hand towel with a rose on it and a Christmas cookie. She opened the present and put it to one side on the table....I had to talk about it to get her to pick it up again and go thru the motions of talking about a present....and she thanked me sweetly. I think at some level she does know how much I do for her and appreciates it.
We talked about the cats. And roses. And the Santa candle decoration.
Then I came back upstairs to eat shortbread. And chocolate. Drank the plum brandy a student made.
Went to bed by 9pm knackered.
Such an exciting Christmas!
Dear Son? The bugger was at a ski instructor's house for Christmas dinner. I saw pictures. Facebook.....I was invited too. But it was a 2 hour drive away and today - 26th - I had a 10 am lesson in the opposite direction. No chance.
So. There you have it.
A non-Facebook Christmas.
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