Merry Christmas

Thanks to the Anti Bogan for the image.

Last Christmas, I was full of codeine, and the pain, though intense, was somewhat numbed by the drugs. This year, there are no drugs, and front and center in my brain is the fact that my babies should be celebrating their first Christmas with us. Ripping paper, and getting more excited by the wrapping paper than the presents, and conking out halfway through the day like a pair of aged hooligans.

Yesterday, a friends dad died. It wasn’t unexpected, but this Christmas is going to be sad for lots of families. A day of expectations, that many people find it hard to meet. I find it hard to meet any, and finding the festive “joy to all” spirit is proving a challenge.

So this year, I am sending a special thought out to everyone who can’t be with their loved ones this year, and those who don’t have anyone to love. The homeless, the dispossessed, and the refugees. And especially the bereaved.

Our Christmas charity this year will be SIDS & Kids, without whom this year would have been so much harder. Everyone knows that they do research on SIDS, and that they provide safe sleeping information for families, but it isn’t well known that they also provide counseling for bereaved parents, and their families and friends. Although counseling hasn’t made the horror go away, it does help a lot to know that the crazy is normal. Archie and Aubrey’s brief lives and then their deaths have changed me irrevocably. Eventually, I’d like to be able to say that I am a better person from having known the loss, and if I get there, SIDS & Kids will have been a bog part of that.

I’ll leave you with a little video from yesterday, Santa leaving the Pearl Beach Progress Hall after the chaos of meeting the local kids.