Especially for those who have caught the Christmas bug
Another year another Christmas has come around. Either the years are getting shorter or time is going quicker. One of the good things about the passing of time however is the memories created along the way. Christmas seems to be the one guaranteed time of year when most people can actually relax in this fast pace world and spent time with the ones they love.
Here are a collection of more stories and memories I have of Christmas past along with the people I share them with.
Reunited Christmas / Murray's First Christmas
2016 had been a good year for me, I had started rowing, started Transition Year, brought home our first dog Murray and all in all was just having a good year. That Christmas was no different as I received a great surprise when I came home on Christmas Eve Mass with dad. I walked in the door and saw one of my cousins and her mother in the kitchen, I then walked into the sitting room, stopped, and glared. My uncle and my cousin, who I had grown up with were also home.
It was a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as it was their first Christmas at home in almost 5 years. Christmas Night they called back and in turn, we decided to try out the Virtual Reality (VR) Headset my sister had gifted me. We download a variety of apps to try it out including a safari experience, water sports, and horror maps which were by far the most entertaining of the lot.
It was a nice first Christmas for Murray and with not having much to do on St Stephensons Day we decided to take him for a walk along Banna Beach. Myself, dad, and one of my cousins would walk along, throwing stones for Murray to chase, running by the sea for him to run through the water, or calling his name for him to run from person to person.
However, we then approached a woman walking along with a pram, and of course, Murray being what he is, a curious dog ran over. As he decided not to come back to our calls he thought he'd lift his leg as dogs do to claim it as his own. At this point, my dad started to run over while myself and my cousin turned to carry walking as if we didn't know either of them.
Christmas in Ballyheigue
A yearly tradition in our house is to call back to my Ballyheigue to gather with all the Leen side of the family including grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. The younger when we were younger the children would go into one room for most of the evening while the "adults" would be in another. It isn't often we all get the chance to do so, so Christmas day is an excellent excuse to meet each other some of whom may not have seen each other much if at all in the last year.
Christmas 2020 was a very different time for all around the globe and we were no different. Our family called back to Nan and Grandads house in the morning while the others would visit at separate times, in guide with the restrictions at the time. It was strange, to say the least, and goes to show what we take for granted until it's gone.
Coopers First Christmas
The first Christmas of Covid 19 happened to be our first Christmas with our new dog Cooper who was brought home in February and had only turned one that December. Coopers Covid Christmas was treated like any other year, bar the few exceptions. The two bowwows had no shortage of gifts from their doggy advent calendars to their Toy Story Woody and Buzz bowels along with loads of the scraps from the Christmas dinner.
As covid was still a bit thing at the time and no vaccines were produced nor approved at the time along with the rising covid cases, it didn't take much to tell what was soon to come. A few days before New Year it was announced to the nation that Ireland would reenter another lockdown starting from January 1st. While the New Years' countdown is a joyous, suspenseful occasion, there was that bittersweet feeling of making it through another year, but immediately starting off with a rocky start.
Conclusion
Every Christmas and every New Year we come across the good as well as the bad. It can be hard to plan everything for the future as you will come across some speed bumps or detours along the way, it doesn't mean you can't try, however. Do remember and enjoy your nostalgia but don't try to relive nostalgia, it may just hold you back. Set your plans or goals for the new year, some things will change others will not. Every New Year is a new start, a new chapter waiting to be written.
So from me to you, I wish you all...
"A Merry Christmas and all the best for 2023"
-Trev
