Christmas Jumper – Jenny 36

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and this one.]

[For other back story click in-links]

“It’s only once a year,” said Izzy, brightly, “and let’s face it this year we could do with something special.”

Jenny and Izzy were having a Christmas conference, to get the finer points of the festive week worked out. It was always going to be a different affair this year, and Izzy wanted to compensate by getting the kids everything they wanted, and even everything they didn’t know they wanted. Ever.

“Helen was mad keen on those oil paints,” she said. “We could get her a proper easel and everything. Give her something she could really get stuck into.”

“She hasn’t spoken about that for ages,” said Jenny. “I admit she has spoken of it, but not in the past few months. That was more last year I thought.”

“Either way, it’s a nice thing to go for,” said Izzy, “and we could rekindle something for her.”

Jenny was a little dubious about this approach, feeling that it could result in the house becoming cluttered with things that didn’t get used. It wasn’t a problem on its own but if they were going to get things the kids valued and used then they needed to be more targeted about it.

“Also thought we could get Peter one of those ‘experience of a lifetime' thingies,” said Izzy.

“Experience?”

“You know the kind of thing – choose between skydiving, driving a formula one car…”

“Is he old enough?” Asked Jenny.

“For some of them, yes I imagine so,” said Izzy. “Bungee jumping...”

“He is not bungee jumping!”

“I think he’ll be old enough during this year anyway.”

“But they won’t be open, will they?”

“He’ll be old enough when they do open,” insisted Izzy, “And you’re automatically socially distanced when you bungee jump,” she added.

Before Jenny could suggest that books would be a quieter and less life threatening way to celebrate Christmas, Izzy had moved on to catering. In this area she had already identified a few food hampers and wine suppliers who could still get their produce to them on time. A lot of the food was already prepared and would come fresh out of the box, into the oven and onto their plates.

“Can we make our own mince pies?” asked Jenny. “We sort of have a nice time making mince pies. We did some last week and even Peter came and glazed a few tops.”

“You can absolutely,” said Izzy. “But I thought by doing this it would mean there’s less chance of us being stuck in the kitchen and more chance that we can all be together eating, drinking and being merry. I think we should just kick back and enjoy ourselves.”

Naturally Jenny was all for kicking back and enjoying and in the end they decided that since the money was there, since the opportunity existed and since everyone needed a break, they would go down the route of getting what they could in order to have it on hand to throw into the mix whenever it seemed like a good idea. It would be a spontaneous Christmas – a planned spontaneous Christmas. There would not be organised parties with other people, visits to or from relatives and aside from special movies and television shows they’d do everything and anything that seemed like a good idea at the time.

“The magic of Christmas is still out there,” Izzy assured Jenny, “We just have to find a way of letting it breathe!”

Jenny liked this idea but she was still bothered by the expense. “You do realise I can’t get you anything like the bike,” she said. “And I had thought maybe we’d just buy small presents this year but... well, it’s a bit past that now, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Izzy, stroking Jenny’s hair. “It’s not a competition or anything. It’s Christmas and all that matters is that we’re together.”

Jenny smiled and agreed, but she was still worried, hoping Izzy did feel that way and that she was right.