Christmas Eve

I woke up at 4am today. Of course, having a day off means I wake up early anyway! But it's Christmas Eve, so I'm happy. I had some panettone and tea and watched the end of the Hollyoaks omnibus. Then I read this beautiful article by one of my favourite people on Twitter, Ian McMillan. It's about why he prefers Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. Although my memories are different from his (I'm not quite old enough to remember Apollo 8), I agree that the magic of Christmas is in today.

So I'll be meeting my lovely friend in our usual cafe this afternoon. We usually meet on Christmas Eve apart from a few years when illness or travel have got in the way. We must have spent our first Christmas Eve together in 1995 when we first started working on Sundays at Boots in Bromley, and Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday that year. I remember making a bet with someone that I would say "Happy Christmas" to every single customer I served, and I did. I'm not sure I would have been so perky if I'd worked in the shop full time and been subjected to the same Christmas CD all throughout December!

We usually swap presents today, but this year I wanted to make her up an advent calendar, so she got hers early. I enjoyed planning what to put in each drawer, but then as I stuffed them, I saw there was a 25 as well. I think I ended up swapping days 24 and 25 so she would get the best treat on Christmas morning.

Have a lovely Christmas!