Misplaced

We all know how much I love Christmas. I've mentioned it often. I love preparing for it and having the house decorated. I love the atmosphere, the cold outside and the warmth inside. I love the lights in the streets and the bustling shopping malls (though not because they're bustling, I'll admit that). I love browsing and choosing the perfect gifts for loved ones.

Only, it seems, that this year all the above needs to be switched to the past tense. There is none of that happening. I seem to have misplaced my Christmas Spirit. It's making me feel quite sad.

Has the season been tainted with the insecurity of the move last year? I know my Spirit was more than lacking then too, knowing the big move was coming up on the 17th January. But I kept up the act, I decorated the house for Emily's sake and it was worth it.

But this year... my Christmas boxes are still buried under more boxes. I'm not yet sure where everything, including the tree, will go. Not to mention the house is much bigger so I probably need new stuff anyway and I'm not quite sure where to get it.

The weather is most definitely not cold outside and the houses are not exactly warm. More chance of needing long sleeves indoors half the time.

Atmosphere seems lacking. Perhaps it's because I don't have Rochester High Street on my doorstep any longer. I was more than spoiled there.

ALL gift shopping has been done online this year, because let's face it - I'm not thrilled to be ripped off by shopping in person in most Maltese shops.

Shopping malls are decorated but I'm just not feeling it. I look and don't quite see. I don't feel.

I've become Scrooge.

Where have I left my Christmas Spirit? I am slightly worried that it got stuck in 2011. How on earth am I going to pull it all the way into 2013?!

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Note: I wrote this on Friday (and forgot to post it). On Saturday we went and bought a Christmas tree. The decorations in the shop did pop some Christmassy thoughts into my head, and on Saturday afternoon I was shuffling boxes around to get to the stuff I wanted. The weather even got significantly colder over the weekend! 

This year we will have not one but TWO Christmas trees, so we've set up the smaller one (which I've told Emily is hers and Adam's and she can play with the ornaments on it which she is loving), but things have more or less stopped there. The boxes are open, I'm surrounded by Christmas decorations and yet I feel no real motivation to do anything with them.

On Saturday, walking into that shop, I thought it had done the trick. But I guess it's going to take a bit more than that... and I'm running out of time! 

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Conversations with Emily: Circle Time

We are in the car on the way home from school. Emily is talking about Circle Time.

Me: What's Circle Time?

Emily: It's when we sit in a circle and read books and sing,

and then we get up and we dance the wiggly woo!

Me: Oh wow, that sounds like lots of fun!

Emily: It is!... Don't worry Mummy, you'll do it too when you're older.

o_O

She loves it so much, even her Happyland children get treated to Circle Time ;)