for it is in giving that we receive the most

Marmaduke relaxing in the garret.

During this festive season I have nothing arranged, and expect to see nobody at all on Christmas Day.  I’d rather not be spending another festive season alone in the garret, but a little while ago my plans for Christmas were thrown into disarray.  I had arranged to take a trip to visit a friend, however my friend is now spending Christmas with their family, rather than with me.

I suppose I can’t complain about that, after all Christmas is the one time of year that you should really spend time with your family.  Sadly, for me there is only my sister, and she has her own husband and children to spend Christmas with.  I’d I be like the ghost at the feast if I went there.  I guess I can count Marmaduke as my family, so I won’t be totally alone here.

Some kind people have invited me to visit over the holidays….. I don’t know if I can do that.  Finding a flight just before Christmas, returning just after is very difficult this late in the day, actually it’s a’most impossible.  Any flight I’ve been able to find carries a hefty premium ~ like 50% above the normal fare, (or much more) for a really crappy set of connecting flights.  So, anyone travelling for Christmas will have had to have booked their flights some time ago.

Also, spending Christmas with someone I don’t know so well seems uncomfortable somehow ~ as though I would be intruding.  (My strong sense of ethics always stop me from having real fun.)

Whatever Hollywood might say, making last minute arrangements for Christmas Day is somewhere between difficult and impossible.  If you want to travel over the Holidays you have to book your journey well in advance ~ unless you are willing to pay double the normal fare for bad seats on flights that are the most difficult and inconvenient as possible.

Some say that their Christmas visit to the family was a last-minute idea.  And that the whole thing was quite spontaneous.  All I know is that flights over the Christmas Holiday have to be booked well in advance.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

Marmaduke still thinks we’re going away over the holidays