- 2020 has sometimes felt
- Like topstitching
- And finding out that the bobbin thread ran out half way through
- And this happening over and over again
- Times like this
- It's easy to say
- Now what?
- And to brace yourself for more bad news
- That's if you are a pessimist
- Optimists
- Are like those poor Japanese soldiers
- They used to find on Pacific Islands
- 40 years later
- Still waiting for word from the Emperor
- That it was all over
- Their one thought to hold on tight
- Until they heard the all clear
- This is tricky stuff
- We have been at it long enough to admit that
- Out loud
- But this is precisely the moment
- It seems to me
- To remember
- Who makes the rules wins
- And Christmas gives us the tools
- It gives us little boys
- Still running across the field in Santa hats
- Watching your son and granddaughter bite into
- The shortbread you have been making for your kid
- For 35 years
- So what it's on FaceTime
- You still saw it
- And hell would freeze over before that shorbread was not baked
- Didn't break at all on the long mail trip from this coast to that one
- It's in the lights in my neighbourhood
- Up early this year and twice as many
- It's the man across the street
- 75 and living alone
- Who adds more lights every day
- It's my husband making a snowman to surprise me
- And ever practical with two noses so it has a face from the house and street view
- It's these two jogging near my house
- It's my 93 year-old-mother in Manitoba
- Who has to be alone in her house this Christmas
- Cooking a turkey breast and a dinner for herself
- So the house will still smell like Christmas
- It's the memories of other Christmases
- When we had the privilege of all being together
- Making me happy not sad
- Because I am lucky enough to have those times to revisit in my head
- When I want to
- It's the Temptations Christmas album
- And mincemeat like my dad used to love
- Who else puts cheddar cheese on a tart?
- It's seeing an old lame border collie roll around in the snow
- With joy
- It's knowing I am one of a million grandmas who sewed Christmas pyjamas this year
- That little kids still won't be able to sleep
- And will get up way too early
- It's knowing that
- Christmas comes every year
- And nothing can stop it
- Don't even try
