Order of the day

The stress is beginning to show. Now that the tree is up I want to spend the evening curled up watching Christmas movies, but there’s a mountain of work to do before I can unwind with a Baileys and a pork pie. My instinct is to play ostrich, to stick my head in the tinsel and say, “But there’s loads of time yet.”

Well, there is and there isn’t. Yes, of course, the Christmas cards can easily wait another day, and no, I can’t send the overseas presents until I’ve bought them, so there’s no sense in getting into a tizz about them, but with each passing day my panic level quadruples and my efficiency rate quarters. Instead of tackling my tax return, I start reading about how I can save money by caramelising my own peanuts. And instead of browsing online for presents for my sister and Upstairs Clare – hardly a chore – I get distracted by a stray email from an animal shelter and start wondering whether we have room for another dog. A question with a very short, sharp answer beginning with the letter ‘N’!

Doughnut meanwhile is facing his seventh Christmas with us with resigned good humour, resisting the temptation to pee on the tree or chew up the red felt reindeer horns that we threaten to put on him every year then, every year, think better of it. He already has Bambi legs and Bambi eyes. Less is more, repeat after me, less is more…

Posted by Amanda Blinkhorn