Ask Steph

I remember as a child christmas was the most fantastic time of year. I remember the build up to christmas day, from the moment school finished on that one last day of term, the excitement and anticipation could barely be contained in my house. Growing every day that we got closer to the 25th until I had whipped the whole house up into a festive whirpool, and , to quote my husband ( ever the sharp witted cynic) it looked like someone had vomited christmas all over the house , inside and out. And I loved every second of it. I was nagging to have the decorations up as early as November , catching christmas beetles and whispering lists of all the presents that I wanted to them before letting them go outside my window. I made my brothers and anyone else I could bully enough come caroling with me ( yes , I made them go caroling in the height of an Africa Summer)  , I made my parents stay up late on christmas eve , with the tree lights going , just sitting and talking and singing caro...

One exam down - only 23 left to go to complete my new degree. Sounds really daunting. But I am not really thinking of that ... All I can think about right now is how much I wish I was at home. In Africa.  I have made another memory, without my old friends  and family around. Another milestone. And it's occurred to me at some point today , that this is only the beginning. The start of all those new memories and milestones that they will not be a part of . The paths that were together , and then were running in parallel for a while , are now , ever so slightly starting to go off at different angles. It's christmas next - which is all good an well for people like me that aren't christian , but , even so - I was raised christian-ish . And even after I chose differently in terms of believing or not - I have always spent christmas day with my family. It's rather handy being able to take a public holiday that means nothing to you in terms of religion...