I really should post more

Given I've technically been on vacation since Monday night, that should mean I've had loads of time to post stuff. But of course, I never quite got around to it, so you'll have to make do with this ramble until I think of something fun to put up here.

So, it's Christmas Eve, and the plans are all in place, all the wife's presents arrived in time (apart from one little joke thing that I can survive without), and we're about to head out on part 1 of a two part Christmas, spending Christmas Eve with lots of smelly animals at the Denver Zoo with Meaghan and Holly.

I was thinking back to what my usual Christmas Eve used to be like in Newcastle. I guess I had two "normal" Christmas Eve's - one when my Dad still had the butchers shop, and the other when he didn't (before and after aged 20 I guess). The before part meant getting up (again) at the crack of dawn to work in the shop. It was normally the second busiest day of the year (the day before being busier and longer), but it was always a fun time - plenty of people excited about Christmas, selling them their turkeys and generally having a good bit of a chit chat while the Christmas songs played in the background on the radio. However, we used to try and close up early, maybe around 2 or 3, but there was always this one old bloke who ordered a fresh turkey, and liked to pick it up on Christmas Eve. He managed to spend a little too much time in the social club, having his Christmas pint(s), and conveniently forgot we were closing early, so we would always end up having the shop washed and closed up, but sitting their waiting until he arrived. If we were lucky, it was before 4, but there was one year where we did seriously consider leaving, as it was after 5 or so. Not sure his wife would have been too pleased if he had come home without the turkey, so we did the right thing and hung around until he staggered in.

The post shop Christmas Eve's meant emergency shopping in the morning (the older I get, the less organized I am), followed by lunch/afternoon on the beers in Newcastle, followed by night on the beers in Whitley. Normally the afternoon was just Rach and me, and sometimes a few others, with most of our friends joining for the frenzy in the night time. Pete Sausage (Rach's Dad) was always kind enough to run us around to wherever we needed to be, so it was like having your own personal limo service for the afternoon, and boy did we need it some years. Walking was never my strong point, especially after crashing a few of those PR Firm parties we managed to blag our way into. We somehow always pulled it together to make it through Whitley, but the memories are a little hazy on those nights some years.

Anyway, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and hope all your wishes come true this holiday season (as long as they're nice wishes of course). Have a good one!