Season's Greetings

Christmas has arrived for me as I took some extra leave to finish work on Friday and by now (Monday) can't even remember what I do for a living. I remember once when I was quite little, nine or ten, my mum told me that she liked the run-up to Christmas better than Christmas itself. Well, of course, at that age that was just proof that my mother was crazy. There's no presents during the run-up, you see. And having five days off before Christmas just meant that the torture happened at home, not school, as I wandered around with a painful ball of excitement in my stomach wondering when, oh when, it was going to be Christmas morning!
Now, I realise how right my mother was. The run-up is by far the best bit, the pottering around the kitchen making brownies - my contribution to the Christmas table as my mother still does most of it - cleaning the house (yes I even find Christmas cleaning enjoyable, just not the rest of the year), listening to Christmas songs, watching the Christmas Nigella, wrapping presents, usually in front of a suitably Christmassy film. I always find it quite magical that you can buy something pretty ordinary for someone, wrap it up in Christmas paper and it turns into a delightful object of mystery, even though I know exactly what's in it!
I love Christmas films and try and watch at least one of Holiday Inn or White Christmas every year, but my Christmas wrapping film this year will be National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I know it off by heart, having watched it a hundred times, but I love the fact that Clark wants the perfect Christmas that he remembers from his childhood, just as I do every year. Last year I did an internet quiz to find out which Christmas character I was and, yep, I was Clark Griswold, which made me happy.
And two weeks off gives me lots of reading time. I read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book yesterday in front of the fire. It was wonderful, and puts Coraline in the shade, not something I would have thought possible. It is the story of a young boy brought up in a graveyard by ghosts and other creatures, while a mysterious and powerful group try and track him down to assassinate him. After reading this book, it felt like Coraline was Gaiman dipping his toes into children's literature and in this one he really lets himself go. If it's not a classic within ten years, I'll eat my hat. I can't wait to see what his next children's book is like.
Of course, it is the time of year that I need my Christmas Dickens and I had been pondering which to read - finally to read The Old Curiosity Shop, or perhaps to revisit one; last year was Master Humphrey's Clock, a collection of stories loosely linked together by Master Humphrey, which was just right. My indecision was sorted by the lovely people at Hesperus Press who sent me copies of A Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire, and Another Round of Stories by the Christmas Fire. These contain stories and the occasional poem by Dickens and others, and were published as Christmas editions of Household Words.

Here they are, don't they just look like Christmas? I am really looking forward to reading them over the next couple of days; between Dickens and Clark Griswold this is going to be a perfect run-up to Christmas.