Mind The Gap

At this time every year, reporters with nothing to write about will churn out a piece explaining that the twelve days of Christmas should start on Christmas Day and end at Epiphany [January 6th] Apparently in olden times, people stopped work on Christmas Eve and began nearly a fortnight of jollity and feasting.  Please note, this was only the rich. The poor folk still had to milk the cows, chop the firewood, cook the feasts and do whatever they did the rest of the year. Decent employers gave their staff a second day of on Boxing Day to mark the birth of Christ with their families. [Tesco please note] These days, many people are able to have a few days off after 25th

But in this weird time of working from home, self-isolating, and everything else, we had Christmas falling on a Saturday, so Monday and Tuesday were Bank Holiday. And an awful lot of people have a whole week off - but fewer venues open, so less opportunity to get out there and enjoy yourself. And colds and covid limit family interaction. People are complaining about this gap in their usual social calendar. What do you call such a space?...a recess, a break, a lacuna [from Latin, pit or pool], a hiatus [again, from Latin, a gaping hole] I'm not sure about lacuna, it is too similar to the name of Aldi cosmetic range [Lacura] and hiatus always puts me in mind of hernia. 

Whilst I loathe the word crimbo, I will accept it in just this one context [thank you blogfriend Anne for sharing it] in the rhyming reduplication that is CRIMBO-LIMBO

These are definitely quieter days for us, now George is back in Manchester with Steph and Gaz. We had a wonderful time with this toddler, and since his departure have been gradually getting the house straight, replacing nuts in the bowl, and potatoes in the veg drawer and retrieving Duplo from under the sofa. He rearranged many of our decorations for us. Having a small child to stay certainly means that you find joy in unexpected places!