After the big day is over on Tuesday, I have promised myself that I am going to take two days to do nothing during the remainder of the Christmas holidays.
You know, like jammy days of yesteryear. Lie around on the floor and play with my toys. Eat various turkey incarnations at weird hours and pig out on shortbread continuously.
I think it is a good idea to remember how much fun Christmas is by spending a little time looking for your inner kid qualities.
I am going to watch cartoons and drink pop, nap, wake up and repeat. I might read some magazines; books will be too intense for my sabbatical. I'm not planning on washing or brushing my teeth either.
I am most definitely not going to watch the news on these two days. I have to take some time to remember the world is overly complicated and that more often than not, the myriad of local, regional and global problems we are exposed to on a daily basis cloud the simple pleasures we should be enjoying with our loved ones at Christmas time.
I will, however, watch the weather report in hopes of getting news of a pending snow storm so I can go up to Diefenbaker for some tobogganing. That will be the only reason I get out of my jammies during these two days.
When I was a kid, the Christmas break seemed like an eternity and my brothers and I would take all of our Christmas morning treasures down to the rec room where they would be put in regional brother boundary piles for several days.
The booty would stay there until the end of the holidays, at which time it would gradually make it to the sanctity our own rooms.
If no one was around, this rare openness would afford opportunity to check out each other's cool stuff and maybe even play with some items before being caught. These chances would require deft timing and supreme memory skill to avoid a look of disruption to the regional pile.
The memories flood in this time of year and I want to go back to live the moment.
Who would win in a fight, Major Matt Mason or GI Joe? Major Matt Mason was dwarfed by GI Joe but the space major had a gun that could vaporize an entire battalion of Joes.
I remember one year Santa gave me a tabletop hockey set. After my dad helped me set it up, he called my Uncle Blake over and I got to watch the two of them go at it for days on end. It was an epic tourney of Leafs verses Canadiens in which I was limited to observer and occasional puck dropper.
I recall another year Santa delivered a ping-pong table for the kids. How he got that down the chimney with no one noticing at our house is still a mystery. The table was set up on Christmas morning. My brothers and I got to watch my dad and Uncle Blake play for several years. We were very good ball fetchers.
I'm going to relish my jammy days and I am going to remember the simple pleasures of an uncomplicated yesteryear. I hope you all can do the same too.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.
