So this is Christmas

For the first time in I don't know how long I am not working. Normally my whole thinking process is totally caught up in what I am going to do! Not this year! What a change!

I am sure it will not take me long to upset someone, but that will just be par for the course! Christmas is a time for giving and maybe this year I will be able to give back a little of the time I have taken from my family over the past 40 years or so. Its a long time and I will never be able to repay them for all the time I have spent away from them. I have already done more this Christmas - this evening I sang a Christmas song with my grand-daughter and then with the bulk of the family went to an open air Christmas Carol event. It was just great.

Christmas is a time for giving -many years ago I stopped off one Christmas morning at St Helen's Children's Home in Edinburgh to drop off some presents. while waiting in the reception area I overheard a young girl say to her mother, 'Mummy mummy, is that my daddy?' The child was asking a question I had never heard before. Certainly one I had never needed to ask. I knew my Dad, he was a great guy. A wonderful Dad and friend, he would have and did give me everything I ever needed, laced with great big lumps of love. (He would not have called it that, but that's what it was). He gave me all of that and more and not just at Christmas time.

I think of my Dad often. his kindness, his patience, his warmth, all that and more signify what Christmas is all about. At Christmas I often think about my Dad.

I am really looking forward to the next couple of days. No work, just doing the things that Grandfathers do at Christmas. Open presents and play games. Annoy my children and try and impress my grandchildren, that will be hard, these are very modern 21st century children - all clued up.

I don't know what presents I will receive tomorrow, but I know i shall be thankful for each one, because i will be able to relax without worrying about what I am going to be doing in a few hours time at work! Not this year, and maybe if I enjoy it I will endeavour to make a habit of not working at Christmas in the future. But there again, we are only given today - not tomorrow so I will just enjoy today and hope for tomorrow.

Happy Christmas to all my friends and family.