Cast The Die

Chapter Nine

December 2017

When I open my eyes, I can feel the softness of my pillow. I can see the sun shining through my light grey curtains. I can hear the music coming from the kitchen. When I sit up, I can move my arms and legs. I stand up to stretch my whole body, I walk over to my window and open the curtains. My dream catcher is hanging from the top of my window. I touch the feathers that are hanging from the handmade willow hoop. I pull on my slippers and a woolly jumper and make my way downstairs.

"Good morning, Moo" my Mum is stood at the kitchen sink. "Are you ready for Christmas Eve breakfast?" she smiled.

"Yes, I'm starving! Are we going to Grandma's today?" I asked.

"Of course, Grandad will be here in a couple of hours as well" she replied.

Dad poured my glass of orange juice and Mum handed me a plate of pancakes with a bowl of blueberries and strawberries. I tipped them onto my stack of pancakes and poured on the maple syrup. I don't know why we call this Christmas Eve breakfast, there's nothing special about it, but its our tradition and I love it.

After breakfast, I took a long shower and got myself ready for the day. I put on black jeans and my new Christmas jumper, it had penguins on wearing Santa Claus hats. I put on a little make-up and tied my hair back into a ponytail. Before I left, I looked at the calendar hanging on the wall. There's three sections for each of us, with all our own individual events. It was coming to the end of 2017; it's been a pretty good year for me. I turned 16, I started a part-time job at a Café in town, I had an amazing Summer, I started Sixth Form. I was happy.

"Grandad!" I wrapped my arms around my Grandfathers neck. He lives in Ireland, so we only see him at Christmas. He hasn't figured out how to use Skype yet.

"You've grown so much" he said looking at me up and down. He glances at my necklace and smiles. He always gives me special gifts for my birthday, but the diamond necklace is my favourite. For Christmas, he gives me a cheque for £100 so I can get what I want with it.

We all piled into Dad's car and set off for Grandma's house. She lives in Southampton, it's about a thirty-minute drive. My Mum grew up in Southampton with her parents, she moved out at eighteen to go to University where she met my Dad. They went to Durham University in the North of England and they fell in love instantly, so when they graduated, she moved to Ireland with him. She fell pregnant with me three years later and they decided to move to Bournemouth, although I think I would have liked to have grown up in Ireland, I like the accent.

When we arrive at Grandma Gloria's, she greets us at the door with fruit scones and tea. I made sure I took two allergy tablets this morning, she has four cats and I'm severely allergic. In the living room we're all squashed onto the sofa talking about what's going on in people's lives. Grandma asks about Mum and Dad's jobs; they tell her everything is going great. They ask her how she has been after her hip operation and she replies telling them she has made a speedy recovery. I devour the biscuits on the table in front of me as Grandma tells us about how she misses her gardening during the winter. Grandad gives her some tips on how to keep the Begonias alive.

We had lunch at a small café in town, Grandma told us how she meets up with her knitting club here. She told me I should go to Church on Christmas Day, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'm not religious. My parents are both baptised but they're not believers. They never baptised me and I've never been interested enough to learn about it. I respect people's decisions to follow Jesus or have faith in a God that may or may not exist, but I don't believe it.

We headed home at 4pm, Grandad was staying with Dad's brother James who lives in Bristol. He's the only other relative I have. Mum didn't have any siblings and Dad's other brother died. So, this is the way Christmas has always been, and I don't mind it.

Mum started making hot chocolates and I got the blankets out the cupboard. Dad setup the DVD player and the films that we chose to watch. We have a Santa hat filled with little bits of paper with Christmas films written on them, we get to pick one each and we watch them all on Christmas Eve. This year I picked out Home Alone, Dad picked Elf and Mum picked The Grinch. The best three Christmas films ever made. Being snuggled up on the sofa in between my two favourite people, watching a little boy getting left behind by his family, is what Christmas is all about.