I decided to make the best of Christmas Day 2021 by giving the house (and myself) a good clean.
A very clean XMAS floor.
I don't celebrate Christmas - I can't as my only option is to be a tag along to someone else's family gathering and that would just be too awkward for me.
I usually get an invite from a friend, which is always appreciated, I did for today in fact, and the thought of lunch is always temping, but then what?
I had nothing I could take with me (no booze in the house or munchies), certainly no presents, and if presents are a thing, what do I do? Sit around awkwardly for an hour waiting for that particular ritual to end?
No, attending someone else's family Christmas is just a dice roll too far, especially when you factor in that I'd be the 'break to familiarity' - there's a chance someone would resent that a little bit too, but Christmas protocol determines that they couldn't complain about it.
And I know myself at social events, I'm shit at them, I wouldn't be a net addition to the environment or in anyway conducive to anything like a party atmosphere, that much I know for certain.
Being a tag-on is too much of a risk, so I'm left with gritting my teeth and enduring the day on my own as usual.
Thankfully i'm well used to this and it's always handy to have a day to myself to just get ahead with chores and just generally chill, so today I opted to clean the house....
So today I just did a bit of a general tidy around, stuck a load of washing on, cleaned the bathroom, mopped both the kitchen and living room floors and even made a start sorting out my stuff that's been dumped in the hallway and spare bedroom for the last four months.
Some very dirty Xmas water, in a suitably red XMAS bucket.
And cleaning the house is good for lifting the spirit too, not that I get down at Christmas, not at all, I mean it's just about the grimmest day of the year for me still, but I can hardly characterise the experience as depressing, just something to be endured, and it's only one day, and it's always over relatively quickly.
I have to say it's been the best XMAS I've had since I think it was 2014 when I moved the fridge and cleaned behind it!
Merry Christmas!