{"id":1480,"date":"2021-09-09T14:32:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ciarageraghty.com\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2021-09-09T14:32:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T14:32:20","slug":"its-only-november-lets-calm-this-sht-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ciarageraghty.com\/its-only-november-lets-calm-this-sht-down\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s only November \u2013 let\u2019s calm this sh*t down\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 fusion-flex-container nonhundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"--awb-border-radius-top-left:0px;--awb-border-radius-top-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-right:0px;--awb-border-radius-bottom-left:0px;--awb-padding-top:30px;--awb-padding-right:30px;--awb-padding-bottom:30px;--awb-padding-left:30px;--awb-background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0.55);\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row fusion-flex-align-items-flex-start\" style=\"max-width:1248px;margin-left: calc(-4% \/ 2 );margin-right: calc(-4% \/ 2 );\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-flex-column\" style=\"--awb-bg-size:cover;--awb-width-large:100%;--awb-margin-top-large:0px;--awb-spacing-right-large:1.92%;--awb-margin-bottom-large:20px;--awb-spacing-left-large:1.92%;--awb-width-medium:100%;--awb-order-medium:0;--awb-spacing-right-medium:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-medium:1.92%;--awb-width-small:100%;--awb-order-small:0;--awb-spacing-right-small:1.92%;--awb-spacing-left-small:1.92%;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-column-has-shadow fusion-flex-justify-content-flex-start fusion-content-layout-column\"><div class=\"fusion-text fusion-text-1\"><p>Kat Kerrigan is one of the main characters in the book I\u2019m writing at the moment. She hates Christmas. She says, \u2018Christmas makes everything seem worse than it already is.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m a bit like that. Take last weekend, for example. I went \u2013 like an innocent lamb to the abbatoir \u2013 to the cinema at my local shopping centre to watch a film with my children. When I get there, it\u2019s like the end of the world. Mobbed. Christmas music blaring. Christmas decorations, hanging like bodies. A disorderly queue trailing from Santa\u2019s grotto, like the tail of a kite.<\/p>\n<p>A woman in the lift turned to her companion and said, \u2018You wouldn\u2019t think it, would you?<\/p>\n<p>\u2018What?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018That it\u2019s Christmas? Already?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>IT\u2019S NOT CHRISTMAS. IT\u2019S NOVEMBER!!<\/p>\n<p>On the plus side, Santa can come in handy. My aunt Mary used to run to the fireplace anytime me and my siblings were misbehaving \u2013 she\u2019d pick up the poker and bang it against the fireplace and roar up the chimney \u2018SANTY, CAN YOU HEAR ME?\u2019 and then she\u2019d tell the tales that needed telling and we\u2019d stop misbehaving or we\u2019d continue misbehaving in another room, so she couldn\u2019t see us. So yeah, Santy can be a good stick to beat children with \u2013 metaphorically, obviously.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s the availability of huge tins of chocolate Kimberlys. Difficult to source at other times of the year.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the M&amp;S ads that get me. And the Coca Cola ads. And the Budweiser ads. All that happiness. Too Much Happinnes, Alice Munro said, and I\u2019m inclined to agree with her. It makes me uneasy. Am I supposed to be that happy? And what if I\u2019m not? What if I can\u2019t make my children that happy? What\u2019ll happen if we\u2019re not all sat around a roaring fire on Chrismtas morning, bathed in fairy lights, with tinkling music in the background and our hands wrapped around huge mugs of warm, frothy chocolate. What then?<\/p>\n<p>Me and my mam are making the Christmas puds and cake this Saturday. It\u2019s our Christmas tradition. She buys the ingredients. I grease the cake tin with butter paper. She sieves the flour. I peel the almonds. We search our kitchens for the lids of last year\u2019s pudding bowls that we never find. I am dispatched to the local \u2018Home Stop\u2019 to buy more. Everyone in the house has to stir the puddin\u2019 mixture with the wooden spoon; that\u2019s the rule. I think it\u2019s for luck. Hopefully, it\u2019ll be just what I need to switch on the Christmas lights in my contrary heart.<\/p>\n<p>Is Mise le Meas,<\/p>\n<p>Ciara G.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>It\u2019s only November \u2013 let\u2019s calm this sh*t down\u2026 - Ciara Geraghty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ciarageraghty.com\/its-only-november-lets-calm-this-sht-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s only November \u2013 let\u2019s calm this sh*t down\u2026 - 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