Thank you.

Is it just me or do we all own an address book that is simply used for the sending of Christmas cards? Every year my grey book comes out and I use the same address's that were placed in it months and years before to send the yearly card, if I wrote the address wrong or the person has moved then the "System" has gone wrong!  My little grey book, to all intense purposes, is the bible of Christmas greeting cards, so if you don't get a Christmas card from me and mine, don't blame me, blame the address book!

The point of the book is it is still a thing of the past that is as relevant today as it was years and years a go, we move so fast in this world and technology is breaking new barriers everyday I still rely on some of the old pillars of a house and family to get me through and make Christmas special.

This is guess is why I like Christmas so much because it is the same traditions of years, decades and generations gone by that continue to make it special without the aid of modern technology.

The tree will go up both in a house and no doubt in price, the fairy that your kid made in nursery will be placed on top of the tree, the lights will have spent nine months tangling themselves into a knot just to piss you off, the tinsel will be colours you have used for years and somewhere in that box will be a Christmas card you had from years a go that you simply don't have the heart to throw away, you will find a lonely plug, a dancing teddy that needs batteries and special things that bring memories flooding back.

Turkey will be cooked and most of us will no doubt spend hours doing the mathematical equestion for defrosting and still end up running the bath to defrost the bloody thing! Nuts will be put out that nobody ever eats at any other time of the year and which are duly thrown away when the tree comes down and a selection box will be found in most houses, it's the great fact that somethings never ever change and can we please stop changing them!

I don't want an "Alternative" Queens speech thank you, the one my glorious Queen presents to us is just fine thank you and I don't want to stick an apple up the turkeys arse thank you very much, some sausages wrapped in bacon will do just fine, I don't want any shop to be open or need or want to buy any fuel on Christmas day, if I have forgotten something then let me imprevise, it may just turn out to be a lovely experience.

I want a proper board game, I want something to build, I want a log on the fire not an electrical "spinning thing" that cost £400 and blows a medium amount of hot air and I want slippers to keep my feet warm, I want shortbread to eat without feeling guilty about the enormous amount of fat I'm gaining and I want to fall asleep after too much lunch!

But, and here is the big but, has Christmas turned into what we want rather than what we need or am I just getting old?

I need my two girls, a tree, a light, a game, some food and a house full of love not hate, laughter not sadness, warmth not cold and a house of peace and harmony, for me, that's all I want for Christmas!

I belive this is why I will enjoy Christmas so much this year because it is really is the simple ideas and the ideas of generations before us tht make it so special! Its not on a screen, its not got an instructional manual, its not linked to a place in the sky nor does it have a cloud a Giga bite or an app, it just is what ever we want to make it!

I have spent last Christmas in a very bad place, to say it was painful would be an understantement but this year my needs and wants are very very simple. I want to wake up with a clear head, a clear conciouns, my family around me and fairy dust left by santa, not too much to ask is it?

I have spent a little time this year saying "Thank you" and "Sorry" I've spent some time mending much pain and making amends, repairing some of my life and trying to go through my day doing the right thing and on this run up to Christmas I am taking just a few moments out of my busy life to stop and think of others!

If every single person on this planet stopped for just 1 minute in the week before Christmas to do something caring for another without gain for themselves what a very special Christmas this would be. I know not many people read this but if everyone that does did just one "Thank You" to someone they do not know for something they did followed by a "Happy Christmas" what a beautiful thing that would be. If we didn't just walk past the homeless person instead we stopped and said "Hello" if we dropped a card into the old person who lives up the road, if we helped someone cross a road or just for one fleeting minute thought of someone else rather than ourselves what  glorious Christmas this would be for someone else, you might just make them do the same thing and thus the ball will start to roll...

I will start this Christmas ball rolling.....

Thank you for reading my blogs this year and thank you for giving me a reason to think of others by way of writing, thank you for giving me a reason and guess what, I didn't need to use my address book to send it!

Roycey.