I found my three rules for surviving Christmas (below, 23rd December 2011), again. The third one, "Everything can be mended" proved to be true. Younger daughter and I are reconciled. I apologised to her (having discussed the matter with older daughter) without leaving it too long to do so, and after some prompting, she accepted the apology. She did not hug me, or apologise for HER behaviour, but there, what can you expect. Her frontal lobes are taking an awfully long time to fill out properly, but then both my daughters were very late developers. Younger is now 24, and has improved over the teenage years (by 400 per cent, I estimate), but still exhibits signs of teenage behaviour from time to time. So it can only be a good thing that we have moved on, and she offered me her brand-new "Adele" CD to listen to before she had even listened to it herself. Older daughter and I agreed that this constituted a gesture of reconciliation.
Also, Granny is forgiven after her inimitable series of recollections presented at the dinner table. As well as the one about music (see Christmas Day post), she also entertained us with memories of two little boys who were sent for a holiday from the Elephant and Castle in London to the Yorkshire countryside directly after the War and stayed in Granny's family home. This was before she married. She was still living with her parents. My two daughters were utterly enthralled.
I have managed to keep to rules one and two since that episode. I have added a fourth. It is important to go to bed at your normal time. Staying up too late aggravates all issues in much the same way as a hangover or over indulgence in rich foods. Ascetic, true, but I need all strategies to cope with a houseful of visitors, of all varieties, staying, staying far too long, and just dropping in, which has now gone on for over a week.
And it's not over yet. Tomorrow night we host a New Years Eve Dinner Party for eight.
No comments:
Post a Comment