Now I’m a festive person and I love going home for Xmas. I love Xmas shopping (though not the price tags) I love the food, the bubbles, the weather is usually sunny and home is lake Karapiro where it’s so beautiful and relaxing, there’s something about being home that relaxes me instantly.

But what I don’t love:

• Tripping over tinsel.
• The sun hitting disco ball like decorations and blinding me while I cross the street.
• All the toys that dance and sing and little punk kids running around turning them on all at once.
• Those buckets of cookie time cookies. I’m trying to diet dammit. I could eat an entire bucket they have crack in them or something what makes those cookies so good.
• The traffic.
• The crowds.
• The non-kiwi decorations. Great for those who know Xmas as a winter wonderland but it’s summer here surely the majority of decorations should be specific to how we know xmas: back yard cricket sets, pavlova, strawberries, BBQs, camping, beach shells, swimming togs, jandals. That’s what I think of when I think of Xmas…  The smell of freshly cut grass and lying by the pool at my parents house with Mum. Dad on the BBQ. My little bother swimming. Not sitting by the fire roasting marshmallows drinking eggnog!
• The commercialism. We live such busy lives and I’m not a religious person so I think of Xmas as quality family time and I love it for that reason. Everyone loves presants but if you don’t have small children to spoil then what’s the point of going broke. There are other times to buy gifts for the people you love. Like sales and around pay day not the most expensive time of the year. I wouldn’t mind not being given anything I’m happy just to have the mini holiday.
• The stress. Cooking the perfect meal, decorating the perfect tree, finding that perfect presant.
• Guilt. There are children in poverty and we spend $200 on gift baskets filled with bubble bath and shampoos.
• Neglected pets when people go away.
• Drink driving.
• Seeing High School “friends” I don’t really want to see and forced catch up conversations. Not to sound like a bitch but we aren’t friends for a reason. Aint nothing like you..
• Work parties. Seeing clients/bosses/colleagues drunk and embarrasing.
• TV and radio repeating the same movies/songs every year.
• Careless parents/children playing with their new toys in the street.
• Crime.
• Seeing the death toll on the news.

I really should be thankful decorations are a reminder for me to sort my shit out early this year. Don’t be that loser shopping on Xmas eve.

45 days to go