Christmas riches

Recollections of when the babes were as little as the bank balance

So, recently I have been digging around my old photographs for a project I am delighted to finally be getting done (My first children’s book Lavender Pots). To rummage in old photographs, diaries, scents and songs, is to time travel and I have been back to 2006. I wrote this in my head, if not in words, back then when my little ones were babes in arms at 6 and 4 and I was in a freefall in a ‘fall from grace’ trying to survive as a broken hearted, nouveau-pauper, frightened single mum. But I remember those times which such tenderness.

So this is a story from Christmas Eve 2006. I hope you enjoy it. I really would welcome any constructive comments if it needs a tweak. And for all those single newly impoverished mums out there, - It’s going to be okay.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

‘Have you got your wellies on? Which woolly hat are you going to wear- the one with the ears? Come one, let’s get you all zipped up’ said Mummy. ‘It’s supposed to really cold today’

Everyone was getting all muffled up for the Christmas Eve walk to the Kings Seat in the Magic Woods.

Mummy parked the car underneath the ‘Private Property, Do not park’ sign in the muddy field. Merlin jumped out of the boot. Bronte and Archie began to walk up the hill.

First was the steep climb through the beech woods that clung to the slope. Bronte and Archie rushed forward laughing and jumping into the mountains of fallen beech leaves beneath each empty canopy.

Tickled by a light wind, every now and then one of the few remaining leaves detached from its twigs and pirouetted down. Mummy chased around after them.

‘Quick! Catch them! Put them in your pocket and make a wish!’ Bronte and Archie squealed and chased leaves while Merlin woofed. Soon everyone had cold, apple-red cheeks and Merlin was smiling with her tongue lolling out of her mouth

They all huffed and puffed to the top of the hill. They sat on a fallen tree, the Kings Seat, staring out into the distance. Mummy found some sweeties in a pocket. In front of them, over the tops of the trees, the hill fell away into patchwork fields and villages of Surrey. Thin lines of smoke rose from unseen chimneys. In the distance grey hints of hills melted into the sea.

‘I used to sit on those hills over there and look towards these hills when I was young’ said mummy. They began the gentle descent back down the hill.

Frost still stood in the shady parts of the woods. Spiders webs hung white and bejewelled. The pine trees were laden with cones and twiglets of pretty cones. The holly trees were covered in bright red berries. The thick ivy was thick with purple fruits. Robins sang. The wild deer bounced away into the undergrowth. In the fields the white deer looked up standing amongst the standing stones like mythical beasts of Narnia.

While Bronte and Archie did aeroplanes and jumped on the ice crust which had formed on some of the shallow puddles, Mummy gathered up fallen twigs of pine cones. She clipped cuttings from the trees until her basket was full to over brimming.

They stopped half way down next to the beech tree with a log swing. Everyone had a go at the swing screeching and laughing as they swung backwards and forwards.

At home, Mummy got some chicken wire and secured it with bricks around the fire place. Mummy tied tartan ribbons around the pine cone twiglets. Bronte and Archie made salt dough ornaments of snowmen. They threaded cranberries onto old bits of wire that they bent into hearts. Outside the violet sky slowly turned to grey. Mummy lit the candles in the glass lanterns on the window sill.

They all arranged the green, the berries, homemade decorations and tiny twinkling lights into the chicken wire until all you could see was a sparking garland of green.

After tea, a bath and cleaned teeth Mummy lit the logs in the fire. The sitting room smelt of the magic woods, of log fires, mulled wine and hot chocolate. Mummy put the Christmas stockings up and put a plate with a mincepie and carrot on the hearth. Merlin perked up.

‘Nooooo’ said Mummy – they are for Father Christmas and his reindeer.

‘Tonight is Christmas Eve’ said Mummy, ‘Father Christmas is coming’

‘Can we stay up?’ Asked Bronte and Archie.

‘I think he is very shy. If you stay awake you might frighten him, and he comes very, very late’

Bronte and Archie didn’t want to go to bed. Mummy had a lot of things that she Really Ought To Do but Mummy didn’t want them to go to bed either.

‘I have an idea, why don’t we make a big bed here in front of the fire downstairs?’

Bronte and Archie squealed with excitement. Merlin woofed.

‘Quick! Go and get the pillows and duvet and the snow man patchwork quilt – and Mistletoe and Rabbit - from upstairs’ Bronte and Archie ran upstairs and soon all you could see was a mountain of bed linen ridden by teddy bears coming down the stairs held aloft by little legs in pyjamas and fluffy slippers.

In no time at all the feather cushions from the sofas were on the sitting room floor, and the bed made up. It looks like a bed made from a cloud of feathers fit for a princess.

The cuckoo clock was sqwarked eleven. Merlin thought it was rather late, and the fire was a little too hot for a fluffy dog so she laid in front of the gap under the front door with her stuffed lion.

Mummy put some more logs on the fire and sank into the cushion bed. They all snuggled up together. The old house was drafty and the cold of the floor seeped into the cushions but the fire radiated a warm glow on their faces and all snuggled up they were as cosy and warm as can be.

Bronte and Archie were trying very, very hard to stay awake. Outside rain had started to fall.

‘Where is Father Christmas?’ asked Archie sleepily.

‘He is very busy. He has to collect the wishes and turn them into presents’ said Mummy.

‘There are all the things in the letters to Father Christmas…’

‘And birthday cake wishes?’ said Archie.

‘Yes’

‘And wishing well wishes?’ said Bronte ‘And caught-leaves-in-pockets wishes?’

‘ Even shooting star wishes’ said Mummy

‘You know, wishes are really important’ Mummy said, ‘they light the way to go, like stepping stones, so even if you do not get what you want the first time, they show the way, and when an opportunity comes you can go towards it.’

‘Mummy’ said Bronte after a pause. ‘Are we poor?’

‘I wouldn’t worry about money’ said Mummy, ‘money is just another word for choice. If you go to bed and are not hungry does it matter to your tummy whether you are full with beans on toast or - roast swan and liquorice pickled custard?’

‘oooo- No!’

‘And if you have to get somewhere, does it matter whether you go by red bus or puff train or car as long as you get there? Anyway Merlin would look silly in a Ferrari.’

‘But I think whether you are rich depends how you count your riches. We may not have as much money as we used to have but in many ways we are richer than ever’

‘What do you mean?’ said Archie sleepily

‘Well, No one is ill in hospital, and even the Gramps are tucked up warm and well in their beds. But do you know what makes us really rich, far richer than most people?’

‘No?’ said Bronte half way to her dreams

‘Time. We can be with each other all the time- walk in the magic woods with Merlin, in the tumbledown fields, in the bluebell woods and I can be with you while you are little, enjoying the moment and making memories forever’

The logs on the fire spat, spluttered and sparked, the flames willowing. In the lanterns bright flames danced atop their wicks, the candles a soft glow that reflected in the wonky glass of the old windows. The rain outside had become silent, silent and white. Snow flurries spun in the lamp light outside.

Bronte and Archie were soft and warm, all snuggled up in Mummy’s arms. They smelt of hot milk, biscuits and shampoo. Their breathing was soft and full of sleep. Merlin was snoring and snuffling by the front door. She smelt of wet dog. Mummy was so sleepy too. It didn’t matter that Mummy hadn’t done all the things she Really Should Be Doing.

‘Love you’ whispered Mummy. Bronte and Archie cwtched up and mumbled back in their sleep.

‘Sweet dreams my darlings’ said Mummy gathering the sleeping bodies even closer. You that make me the richest person in the whole world’