Image Watercolor © Jean Burman
A cyclone blew through here in the early hours of Christmas morning. No harm done. In fact… I managed to sleep through it blissfully unaware of the wildly waving palm trees outside my bedroom door. But a 6.30 am wake up call from a friend holidaying in New Zealand soon put paid to that [they are three hours ahead]
“Miss Jean… are you okay? Merry Christmas by the way…”
I rubbed my eyes and checked the time on my phone before replying in a sleepy voice
“Morning Miss J… yes… Merry Christmas to you too… um… why yes of course I’m okay… why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’re having a cyclone that’s why… check out the window… are you sure you’re alright?” [Being three hours ahead Miss J already knew ahead of time what was about to happen across the planet via the early morning news - grin]
I looked out the window onto the back deck… and the floaty new curtains I’d installed earlier were flying three sheets to the wind. I imagined the furniture had moved and the palm trees were whipping about wildly.
To say I was shocked would be a nonchalant overstatement…[given my years in the north and the experience of more than my fair share of cyclones]… but I was surprised yes… in the very least… that I’d slept through the whole darned thing!
Of course… I had heard the thunder… and it was a bit blowy out there… but where on earth had this cyclone come from… out of the blue in the early hours of this otherwise ordinary Christmas Day?
Cartoon © Jean Burman
My next thought was born out of hard won experience… as I thought of all those poor parents out there who had probably been awake half the night trying to get the kids back to sleep before first light.
Thoughts of Christmas Eve’s gone by… with overexcited kids not wanting to go to sleep and then coming in to check [every hour after that]
“Mummy is it time to get up yet?”
“Noooo” I would howl… “not before first light! Go back to bed… and watch out for Santa… you don’t want HIM to catch you up and about!”
By this time of course… they had usually spotted the tree in the dim half light groaning under the weight. Of course they knew he had been already… they were kids weren’t they? [grin]
And you could bet your bottom dollar that on the way back to bed they would swing by that tree [standing innocently there in the darkness] for a shake of a box here or there to establish what might be actually in it.
And then of course… this shaking and rattling about would usually alert the other kids [who had up until now been sound asleep]… and then tip-toed out to join the fray in the dim early light to investigate under cover of darkness the mysteries that lay beneath!
“Go back to sleeeeep” I would painfully cry… snuggling back down with the doona pulled up over my head. Surely the night can’t be that short?
But it was. And it is. And there is no sleep for the wicked [or the naughty or the nice]
No… on Christmas Eve all bets are off for a good night’s sleep to be had anywhere on the planet. Especially when there are kids and/or cyclones involved… and the promise of those intriguing surprises that lie beneath that magical tree that stands sentinel in the corner of child friendly lounge rooms across the planet.
Christmas is fun. There should be more of it. But then when would we ever sleep?
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Read SOUL FOOD – the making of my Christmas Cake – over on DearDotCom
Leave a note… here or there… enjoy the Festive Season!
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