Remembering 2020 At Christmas

Remembering 2020 At Christmas

Have you seen the Christmas tree decoration getting around that is a roll of toilet paper and says ‘2020’. It sums up this strange year!

Some things are just the same such as the painful slow crawl thanks to traffic along the Nicklin Way but many things are different. I am joining that annoying trend and acknowledging we are more #grateful. I am more thankful for the basics this year: family, friends and fresh air.

I am cringing as I write that corny last line as I am a greedy little pig who usually has melted her credit card by this stage of the season buying gifts, booze, and bucket loads of cranberry sauce. Why is it called sauce? Surely it is a jam or a spread? Anyway, my point is that 2020 has whipped my greedy backside.

I will never forget police roaming my local beach in the height of coronavirus to check we were ‘allowed’ to be there. I never thought I would be fearful for my parent’s and kid’s health as we all watched the world pandemic spread. I never thought I would be home schooling my children. Please never let that debacle happen again. I never thought I would be isolated for everyone’s safety at my radio job and we would broadcasting by ourselves doing our best to keep everyone’s spirits up when we were terrified ourselves if the truth be known.

I feel less caught up in the consumer storm this year as we all have been rattled by ‘rona. I lost one of my best friends as well as my Dad in the middle of the epidemic and we couldn’t give either of them their final send offs. This was simply strange. Now we are grateful to be able to hold a funeral. Dad always wanted a big send off to that last shout in the sky. Lex was larger than life and our Christmas tradition was to share prawns that he would peel in the ocean and we would sit on the beach and he would always say “Bravo!”.

As I was putting a star on our Christmas tree with my Dad’s name on it, I realised I have not accepted the fact he is gone forever. Lex had chest pain so thought he would catch a bus to the hospital where he very sadly had a massive heart attack. I am still chuckling to myself that Dad caught a damn bus. Who does that? Plenty of us have similar stories of losing loved ones this year.

Heaps of friends have lost their jobs this year. Others cancelled their wedding or their dream overseas trips. One Grandma I know has waited 8 months to meet her first granddaughter as she cannot travel. It has been a big year of emotions for everyone. So, sit back and suck in that fresh air this year. I will be suffocating my children with endless and annoying hugs as we wear our matching Christmas pyjamas and belt out Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You”.

I hope Christmas is special for all of you and your families. And if you are looking for me, I will be at the beach peeling my prawns sucking in that fresh air.