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5
The first thing I see, when I pull up on my driveway, is the wreath that Jess put on my door.
I know she’s just trying to be nice, and it’s not like it isn’t well crafted, she’s done a really good job, it’s just not my style at all.
It’s dark out now, but the lights from outside my house and in the garden shine bright and ping off the glitter, drawing even more attention to it.
My own wreath, which is more my style, is currently upside down on the floor, having blown onto the lawn. I go to retrieve it. Maybe I’ll suggest we move hers to the backdoor where we’ll see it more? I mean, we won’t, but it’s worth a gentle try.
‘Nice wreath,’ I hear a voice call out.
I glance over the fence to see Kenny, my neighbour, escorting a twenty-something woman into a taxi.
I look at the wreath in my hand.
‘Not that one,’ he says. ‘That one.’
He’s got this cheeky look on his face, like he’s taking the piss out of me.
‘Have you had the local school choir over singing carols for you?’ I quip, nodding towards the younger woman in the taxi, as he closes the door for her.
‘Ooh, good one,’ he replies.
If I’m being honest, there are a few reasons why I dislike Kenny, and the more I get to know about him, the more I dislike him. He seemed fine, when we first moved in, but Kenny was newly single pretty much from the get-go (I think I only saw his wife, Beth, a couple of times before they split – and she wasn’t very nice either) and looking for someone to hang out with, so he started taking Declan on nights out with him. Declan would come home with all the gossip for me. He told me that Kenny and his wife had got divorced, and that he was dating a constant stream of young women (and it would infuriate me, that Declan would say this as though it were something to be proud of) and these days he could do whatever he wanted, and that he seemed like the happiest person in the world, and blah blah blah. To be honest, it just made him sound like a total clown to me, and I can’t help but wonder if everything Kenny said about his new life could have contributed to Declan deciding that he was disenchanted with his own, and subsequently taking off so soon after we moved to the area. You’ve got to laugh, that it was another man who turned his head (to a ‘better life’ at least) and not a woman.
‘Run along, Kenny, the other ones might be trying to escape,’ I say as I start unloading my shopping.
‘You look like you could use a hand with all those bags,’ he points out. ‘Good luck with that.’
Kenny heads back inside and closes his door behind him. As if I’d want any help from him, I’m surely too old for him to waste any time on.
I notice my mum’s face in the living room bay window before she and Jess join me outside. They both have huge grins on their faces.
‘Did you get it all sorted?’ Mum asks.
‘Yep, all here,’ I reply. ‘We officially have enough food for fifty people, most of which needs eating in the next few days.’
I’m exaggerating, but we do have a lot of fresh food that needs eating in the coming days. I could be tempted to make a list, on the home hub that sits on the kitchen worktop. I use that screen for everything from displaying recipes to setting timers for my cooking to organising my calendar and to-do list, it’s great. Although it’s probably not worth the amount of teasing that Jess will sling my way, for something so dorky.
I whizz back and forth between the car and the front door, while Mum and Jess carry the bags inside. With everything unloaded, I lock up and head inside.
It’s so lovely and warm indoors. I feel it the second I close the front door behind me. And then there’s that tell-tale smell, that they’ve got the log burner going, which I love. It’s such a homely and welcoming smell. The diffusers must be on too, because the other thing I can smell is the sandalwood oil that I like to use in them. Perhaps now that I’m home, everyone is here, and the shopping is done, that quiet-ish Christmas can finally begin. Just as soon as we put all this shopping away, of course.
I don’t know if it’s the familiar smells that lull me into a false sense of security, but when I walk around the corner into the living room, I am stunned into a state of shock. I freeze on the spot, staring into a room that is not only unrecognisable from the one I left earlier today, but could not be less me if it tried.
‘Surprise,’ Mum and Jess sing at the same time, holding their arms out, smiling widely.
‘What do you think?’ Mum asks. ‘Do you love it?’
‘It’s…’ I don’t know what to say. ‘It’s… wow.’
When I put my Christmas decorations up earlier in the month, I decided on a colour scheme, and I went for a definite ‘less is more’ approach. It looked great, though, and I loved it.
Now the room is a barrage on the eyes. My Christmas tree is decked out in entirely new decorations, my usually clear sideboards and tables are covered in red tablecloths with gold doilies. There are so many different colours and shapes and textures, it’s hard to truly take in any one thing. It looks like someone threw a Christmas grenade into my living room and this is the fallout.
‘I know you had your decorations up and it did look beautiful,’ Mum starts. ‘But with all mine being in storage, and all the family bits and pieces I usually put out every year, I thought, well, why not put them all out here?’
Mum’s heart was definitely in the right place with this one, and I’m sure that when I look closely, I’ll see all the little details and individual items that make me feel nostalgic, but it’s just all way too much. It’s just so messy, and distracting, and cluttered and… and she looks like she’s really happy with it.
