Christmas 2013

Christmas Blur

So often, Christmas passes in a blur of presents, good food, good drink and good company. This year was no different in most respects except that we celebrated Christmas at my house for the first time since I developed WMD.

More than ever, I enjoyed having everyone here. They all mucked in with their own particular skills – gourmet cooking, drink serving, tea making, tidying, washing, dishwasher stacking, working the CD and DVD players, entertaining, playing games and gossiping. Now the blur is starting to evolve into fragments. My favourite would be the noise and excitement emerging from the table as mixed generations played PayDay, which would have put any banker to shame.

How did my low vision affect this time together? It’s hard to tell as I had so much amazing help. There was the usual contentious discussion regarding the correct way to load the dishwasher and somehow my PC settings got changed so that I could not see to use them, but there was only one “step” incident in the whole 4 days. We went out one evening for the traditional Christmas balti and I did find it difficult to see my bowl in the dim light and I could not read the menu. No problem eating the food, though! Thank goodness for spoons and naan bread.

The dishes got washed in spite of the different approaches to stacking and the PC settings were calmly restored in spite of my very vocal and off-putting remonstrations.
Probably the biggest difficulty is in seeing people’s facial expressions when fast chat and banter is happening. But, thanks to the iPad, I was able to enjoy a friend’s fascinating photographs of a recent visit to Australia.

I’m writing this on Sunday morning. Everyone has left and I plan to spend the day sorting out photographs and memories, eating leftovers, listening to my Howling Wolf CD and Ant and Dec on Desert Island Discs and to Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4 while drinking vast quantities of tea.

Lovely Christmas.