Downs With Ups

There’s a creaky floorboard outside our bedroom.  It only makes a noise when someone stands on it and from deep within my slumber, I heard this familiar sound.  I gradually became aware of a presence beside my bed.  Opening my eyes, I could see Poppet looking down at me, her eyes shining in the dim morning light.  As I mentioned in my previous post, Christmas is a very exciting time for Poppet.  These are some of the highlights of her Christmas Day.

She could barely contain her excitement and held up a small chocolate Santa for me to inspect.  I looked at the chocolate, then smiled at her and whispered, “Merry Christmas, Poppet.”  I looked at the clock.  It was 6.02 am.

“This was beside my bed,” she said happily.  “And, there’s more.  Come and look.”

I got up and looked down the hall.  There was the line of chocolate Santas, leading from her room to the lounge room.  She stared at them.  “Poppet, it’s really early.  Come back to bed with me for a while.”  She reached up and took my extended hand.  We hopped back in to bed and I lay there very still, hoping she’d go back to sleep.

The kookaburras, magpies and other birds were doing their best to keep us awake.  The early morning birdsong seemed to be so loud compared to the rest of the world, which was still asleep.  I smiled to myself realising that she was so excited, she’d forgotten to eat the chocolate.

My partner had slept through all this and we dozed beside him.  Eventually though, the excitement was simply too much for her.  She sat up sleepily.  “Merry Christmas, Daddy,” she said loud enough to cause her father to stir.  She placed the now-soft chocolate Santa in his hand.  “This is for you.”

“Merry Christmas, Mummy,” she said to me and gave me a kiss.  She got down from the bed and left the room.  I could hear her walking in to the lounge room, and then her footsteps headed towards back to my bedroom.

“Come and have a look.  The carrot’s been eaten.”

I went with her into the lounge room and remembered how magical it was as a child, walking in to a room filled with presents and the seeming presence of Santa.  Poppet was enchanted.  She was keen to share our presents and slowly looked at all the gifts that had been placed on the couch, alongside her stocking.  She couldn’t make up her mind which one to open.  We all sat down and opened our gifts, making a large pile of wrapping paper on the floor, which the cat enjoyed playing with immensely.

With a break in tradition, our whole family spent Christmas day at a special venue, enjoying a feast laid out by the resident chefs.  We usually spend the day at one another’s house, but this time, my mother’s family had come together from all over the world to spend the day together.

There were 32 of us and the seating had been arranged so that we all sat around in a large square.  We hadn’t planned on any formalities, other than giving the children each a present later in the afternoon, so I was surprised when my uncle stood up.  As we started to eat our entrées, he made a short speech, welcoming those families who’d travelled long distances.  We all clapped, afterwards.  It was my aunt’s turn next, who spoke briefly about this special time that we had together.  She sat down as we clapped, each of us smiling.  We turned our attention back to our meals.

Poppet was sitting a long way away from me at the opposite side of the room.  She had her grandmother to one side and her cousin on the other.  I looked across at her to make sure she was managing her meal.  As I caught her eye, she stood up.  My first reaction was that she was going to come over to see me, but no, my daughter had other plans.

“Excuse me, everybody,” she said, clearly.

Oh no, I thought, what is she going to do?

“I’d just like to say something.”

Should I say something?  Should I go over to her?  I didn’t know what to do.  The whole room had gone silent.  Although Poppet was close to some of these people, most of the people in the room were unfamiliar to her and they weren’t accustomed to her behaviour.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she stood there, in her beautiful special Christmas day dress.  Normally when Poppet speaks, she can go into a realm that only she knows about and chats away about topics that seem senseless to us.

“I’d just like to…,” she paused as she looked at all the faces around the room.

“I’d just like to wish you all a merry Christmas.”

Phew, I thought.  That’s all she wanted to say.  But no, there was more.

“And I’d really love for you to…”  Here we go, I thought, putting my serviette on the table, ready to stand up.

“…really enjoy your meals.”  With that, she sat back down.  Everyone clapped enthusiastically, smiling warmly at Poppet.  We’d forgotten to say this and yet she had remembered.  With these special wishes, we continued to enjoy the rest of the meal and the rest of the day.

It was a very tired Poppet who went to bed that night, her dreams of a happy Christmas, I hope, fulfilled.  I went to bed absolutely blown away by my charming daughter, who once again caught me off guard.  Unnecessarily, I had been ready to intervene, to stop her from being a nuisance.  Of course, this wasn’t needed.  Her simplicity and innocence simply helped me, and I suspect some of the others with us, to remember the real reason for Christmas.

Season’s Greetings to you all.