Bah Humbug!!

I HATE DECEMBER!!! The hype about Christmas, the crowds in the shopping centres, the rising hysteria in the schools, it drives me nuts. Don't get me wrong, I love presents (both giving and receiving!), I love spending Christmas Day with George's family (who actually like each other, don't fight, and have a low-key but still yummy Christmas lunch every year). But why do we have to have 24 days of idiocy beforehand? I;ve done most of my present buying, but I do still have to go to the shops for the normal stuff like everyday food, and the shopping centres are horrible at this time of the year. The schools are ridiculous - all the fuss and rushing around over Christmas preparations and end of year stuff - it was slightly easier in England where Christmas and the end of the school year were six months apart. Here, because the school year ends just before Christmas, we have a double whammy.

Children on the autism spectrum, like Wombat, do best under a quiet, humdrum routine, with no excitements or discombobulations. Just what we don't get in December! His teachers do their best to make sure that he is kept as quiet and on routine as possible, but the rest of the school is becoming increasingly excited and hysterical so it's hard for him. He gets worse and worse until Christmas, after which he calms down again. It doesn't matter that we keep Christmas low key at home, it;s all the external influences that wind him up. I suppose I could homeschool him and get rid of the TV and all electronic items and never let him mix with any other children, but I don't think tactics like that are appropriate anyway.

George has a million and one functions throughout December, hardly any of which I am invited to. Mostly client functions at work, but also for all the voluntary committees he is on. This keeps him out of the house many an evening in December, which I dislike. This year is at least twice as bad because he is also spending three days a week in Sydney at the moment. I feel like a single mother during the week, stuck with a disabled child going increasingly haywire, and an overhyped 12 year old as well.

I HATE DECEMBER!!!

Once Christmas has passed things quieten down. George will be taking the last three weeks of January off, and that's when we will really be able to relax and enjoy ourselves. We won't be going away, just lying by our pool and doing simple barbeques for friends. I can't wait.

Knitting stuff - I have been struggling with ideas for the International Scarf Exchange and have finally reverted to my original idea for the scarf. Now that I have settled on that it is going great guns. But as my scarf recipient managed to work out who I was (I;d never make a secret agent, blew my cover immediately!) I will not say anything about it until it is finished and received, which won;t be until February, probably. Suffice it to say that it is coming along nicely and I like it so much that I am making a similar one for myself too!