Christmas Day dawned in a lovely shade of grey. Not quite overcast, but the sun obdurately remained behind a cloak of cloud. However, it wasn’t cold, with a high of 21 degrees Celsius, which, whilst not hot, wasn’t the lowest ever Christmas Day temperature recorded in Christchurch. In 1975, a large southerly storm off the east coast of the South Island gave us a maximum of 13 degrees – in the middle of summer! Even if that summertime low was an isolated occurrence, Christchurch does have a habit of going hot and cold on you quite dramatically, so you never visit without something warm to put on, even in the middle of summer.

I went to my younger sister’s place in the country, about 45 mins drive from where I live, for dinner, drinks, and the odd shindy or two, as has become the tradition for several years now. This time, my other sister happened to be in Christchurch, too, so came along, as well. Between we three grande dames, and younger grande dame’s husband and son, it was very ‘convivial’. We’re not the sort of family that shies away from controversial and robust discussions, and when American politics raised its head – I can’t remember who was to blame for that – things did get a bit shouty – lol. However, we all know each other too well now, and are all too long in the tooth to be bothered for any length of time over a verbal fracas, and eventually moved on. We’re old hands at this.

And in a strange twist away from what was once was normal, I found I got a bit bored with that particular argument and didn’t engage as much as I might have once done. Admittedly, I couldn’t bring myself to stay out of it completely, but it does go to show we’re never too old to change, eh? Either that, or I’m another victim of social media’s death blow to my attention span.

To be honest, it’s a toss-up whether politics in any time or place stinks more than their dog’s farts currently do from her meds. For as long as they’ve had her, she has lain under the dinner table during mealtimes. She doesn’t make a nuisance of herself, apart from recent noxious emissions, but she’s a big dog, and human feet don’t get the lion’s share of the space under there.

Before making my way out to younger sister’s place, I popped into my niece’s to say hello, give presents to the family, and sit awhile. My other aforementioned sister, Jackie, had arrived the day before from Westport, to spend a few days over the Christmas period with her daughter and partner, his parents, and her grandchildren. She was intending to spend Christmas Day with them, but her daughter, without being prompted, offered permission to her mother to abscond and spend the afternoon in less civilised society 😊 So, she came with me, and added to the conviviality.

And, although, despite the picture I might have painted above, it was convivial. It was fun and comfortable to be amongst ‘old friends’, and have lively conversations – which, for the most part, weren’t about American politics – and eat and drink for no other reason than that’s what the day is for.

I didn’t take any photos, which in hindsight might have been nice to do. Too busy being in the moment, I guess, to take myself outside of it to snapshot it. Not only would it have been good, perhaps, to capture a few family moments, it would have been good to capture a rare moment in time when there were no cats in crates at my sister and her husband’s place. My younger sister does her own cat rescue work, and for some years now she’s always had cats in big crates there, as the initial stage of readying them for adoption. But not this Christmas, and she was unable to explain the phenomenon of no cats needing her to take them in. You can see some short video clips of what she does on her ‘Once We Were Wild’ YouTube channel.

In lieu of a Christmas Day pic, here’s one snipped from a short cat-dinnertime video, showing crates lined up against the far windows, each with a cat in it. This has been the usual scene at her place, until now. Santa has probably just been a bit held up, though, and will deliver new ‘gifts’ soon.

A belated Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all. Or, as some prefer, happy holidays to all.

• Header image by pixelia from Pixabay