Serenity Saturday

I must be psychic 🙂 as I was writing my ‘man on the moon‘ blog post yesterday John Lewis was announcing it’s annual Christmas advert, aptly named #manonthemoon.

Should I say “great minds think alike?” – please get in touch next year JL if you need some inspiration 🙂

Unashamedly pulling on the heart strings and following in the steps of all the songs that celebrate the heady mix of old and young, and hearth and home that make up the best of family times at Christmas.

Playing on our longing to be ‘home for christmas’.  ‘Tis the Season when it is completely okay to be a total schmaltz.

Even Chris Rea gets away with it while he is ‘Driving home for Christmas’.

With half my family in the UK and my immediate family here with me in Sydney, Australia I always have mixed feelings at this time of year.

It is difficult getting into the Christmas spirit – as I sit here listening to the waves in the distance and looking out on blue summer skies.

Plenty of time for inspiration though, and thank goodness for Skype.  I don’t miss the cold, dark nights but I do miss the Christmas lights and cosy fires and pubs.  Carols in beautiful churches and silly christmas jumpers.  Most of all I miss my family.

I’m off to the beach now.

I think my US friends have it right.  Christmas talk after Thanksgiving. 

But on the other hand, if John Lewis deems 6th November the start of the celebrations, who am I to argue?  I do DRAW A LINE at anything before November though.

The stuff of madness, especially if you have young kids who are going to be besides themselves with pre-‘must-have’ presents/Santa’s letters/Disney movie hysteria even if you don’t start celebrations until December.

My chosen ‘lift off’ point is December 1st – to go back to the ‘man in the moon’ theme…and my particular indulgence is It’s a Wonderful Life which a girlfriend and I watch every year, on opposite sides of the world, over the same weekend.

And like the proverbial pearl in the oyster, grows larger and more glossy with age – like our friendship.

Which reminds me while I like this

I LOVE THIS ❤ ❤ ❤

So if you can’t be ‘home for Christmas’ – what do you miss most of all?