Christmas is finally over, and we are recovering.
This is taking a little while. I rather suspect that some predatory mini-creature, the sort we can see in microscopic photographs looking fearsome and terrible with dozens of legs and an actual biological spear for murdering unsuspiciously harmless host-cells, has taken advantage of our seasonal exhaustion and moved in for a takeover.
We are not sick, just flattened and shivery. We have got mild headaches and our legs are a bit shaky, the way you might feel after too much over-indulgence in alcohol.
This may not have helped either.
Anyway, yesterday was crammed to the last minute with joyous celebration and over-indulgence, and by half past nine my eyes would not stay open. I had the hottest shower I could manage and crawled into bed. My most able deputies picked up the literary baton, for which I was very grateful, not to mention amused when I got up this morning and discovered what we had all been doing.
It has been magnificent. I have had some of the nicest presents ever. This year for the first time somebody has made chocolate for me. I have packed it into a little box to take to work, it is sticky and divine. I have had some truly beautiful clothes, gloriously scented soap, and a pile of long-wished-for books, and a hairbrush, tastefully decorated with red flowers. Surely life has no greater happinesses.
I could go on all day. I have been overwhelmed with people’s kindness and thoughtfulness.The attached picture was a present from Number One Daughter and Number One Son-In-Law, and it made me laugh, indeed, still makes me laugh every time I look at it. Elise did the picture at the top. She painted it herself. I am bowled over by its wonderfulness, and have been trying to make it the title page but my computer is too painfully slow and I am trying to go to work.
Mostly today we have been doing clearing up. There was a lot of this, which indicates how recklessly cheerful we all were yesterday. We assembled for breakfast at around mid day, which was a peaceful sort of affair, punctuated by yawns.
It has been the oddest of odd feelings. I have been frantically busy for weeks and weeks, and now it feels as though I have been suddenly dropped from a great height into a swimming pool. There was some terrible flailing panic and then all the noise and yelling went silent. Today the world has become slow and dreamy. Today I have no urgent problems, apart from the obvious ones like making sure the laundry is done and earning sufficient cash for us not to starve to death once we have finished the Christmas leftovers.
I am going to spend January writing my dissertation. I am looking forward to this very much indeed. It is going to be lovely to spend whole days gazing dreamily out of the office window and drinking pots of tea.
I was not even doing that today. Today I had nothing to do.
Mark did not have nothing to do. Mark and Oliver buzzed off out for a driving practice. It is Oliver’s driving test in a couple of days, and everybody is busily asking him Show And Tell questions, like, Where Does The Oil Go In? He knows the answers but we all keep telling him anyway, helpfully.
I helped Lucy to carry her bags out to the car and waved her off. She is going to stay with Grandma and Grandad for a little while, because she starts the real detecting bit of her new job tomorrow, and her house has not yet finished being bought. She will be back on Friday but she had a very great deal of luggage anyway.
After that I went to bed.
It was gloriously, wonderfully idle.
I slept and slept until it was time to start getting ready for work.
It is wonderful to be having an After Christmas.
