Christmas day was a hot, humid one. My dear wife had worked the overnight shift and woke me as she came through the door. All I heard as I woke was “Presents, presents, presents…” repeated over and over again like voices in a crazy man’s head. I shook away my sleep and leapt out of bed, straight on top of the cat. She yowled and took off at a fair clip down the hallway to the kitchen, just as my dear wife was exiting said same room with a hot cup of coffee (I am just not human until I have a least one) and a cup of tea (English Breakfast, if you please) for her. The cat skidded into her shins causing tea and coffee to splash everywhere.
In our house, this is a fairly common event. Our cat is an indoor-residing animal. She is very house-trained but, like a lot of cats, has a lunatic streak she can’t control. We live in a lovely, long 1920’s apartment, which normally provides more than enough room for the three of us to move about. However, in her moments, the cat uses just about the entire length of the house as a madcap sprinting track. She bolts from the kitchen, back legs kicking up like a spring lamb, all the way to the front sunroom at the other end of the house. This is particularly amusing to my dear wife and me when we're sitting in the lounge room. One minute, all is quite and the next, there is the rapid-fire sound of padded feet up the hall and an orange and caramel streak whooshes through, disturbing any loose paper or small items we might have on our coffee table. This makes us laugh every time we see it, without fail.
There are times when these little accidents can be annoying but on Christmas day, it would take something on a much larger scale to annoy any of us. I cleaned up the spillage and the cat apologised with leg rubs and purrs. Then we opened our presents. While I don’t think it necessary to list what we exchanged, I will say my wife knows me so well and this year was no exception to the rule. She has a habit of giving me gifts that not only do I not expect but are items that make me wonder why I didn’t already have them. I also put a lot of thought into the gifts I give her. I try to buy gifts she will not only use but are particularly for her.
This year, one of the gifts I got for her was a book of movie tickets she can use whenever she fancies. As she works shift work, including nights and weekends, she often has time off mid-week and finds herself with not a great deal to do. Also, as I suffer hearing problems, it is hard for me to go to the movies as I often miss some of the dialogue. I prefer to wait until the movies I want to see are released on DVD, and then I can turn on the subtitles. With this gift, my dear wife will be able to go see movies on the big screen, which she loves doing and also act as a reviewer for me. I explained this to her only to have her burst into tears. I hate it when my wife cries as it makes me want to cry too. She is not the sort of person who is given to tears, so her water works were even more surprising. In typical male ego fashion, I thought she was crying because she was sad I was missing out on the cinema experience but, as she explained, she was crying because she said it was a really excellent and considerate gift. Against my better judgement, my ego took this as a great boost. I think I fairly strutted out of the room to fetch her some tissues.
The rest of the day proceeded to be a particularly good albeit quiet one. My dear wife, not long after opening the gifts and making a few mandatory phone calls, took herself off to bed and slept until early evening. I spent the day playing a new PS2 game, eating and napping as I felt the need. Unlike most Christmas’, which I usually spend with my large family, this year was indeed a different celebration. Not bad, but different. Sometimes it is great to break with tradition in order to appreciate it more the next time. It certainly made me appreciate the wonderful family I grew up with and the wonderful family I have made for myself. And who could ask for a better present than this?