Christmas is coming and the cat is getting fatter. Once again, copious amounts of music listened to, more Christmas cooking, and more trees knitted. On the tree front, I nearly have the requisite four for the sprats plus goddaughter. They will treasure my hand-made gifts, goddamit. By next Christmas, there will be a forest – but only for the lucky ones.

In my rather low key week, I’ve noticed a few things, namely to do with Christmas and my views about seasonal festivities. So, here we go: less is nearly always more; blingtastic crud is only enjoyable in a moving vehicle at some distance from my home; lights must twinkle, not flash – and again, less is more; blue neon lights are very, very bad and require a new category “shit” all of their own; I love deer, but not lightly braised in cocoa à la Masterchef – alive and kicking in Cornbury Park or in my growing number of deer memorabilia (I know, Bingley, I know); cranberries are over-rated; short, smiley empathetic chit-chat goes down well with sales assistants, as do free sweeties with me; I loathe tinsel; some Christmas songs are worse than others; I really love mushrooms (is that seasonal?); there’s nothing quite like watching a favourite black and white film with the home fires burning, particularly if you’re left alone to enjoy it…; the best things in life don’t cost much, but are very sparkly – most favourite friends included; stopping by woods on a solitary frosty morning with your dog is just heavenly.

You saw the crescent, but I saw the whole of the moon.

Jingle bells.

Mrs Mackerel x

Download Sera Cahoone – Deer Creek Canyon mp3 (from Insound Vinyl Mixtape – October 18, 2012)

Download Deer Tick – Cheap Sunglasses mp3 (ZZ Top Cover, live at the Laundromat)

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(Photo: Deer in Cornbury Park. Credit: Alasdair Ross)