136. New Order

This is the first day of 2021 and people around me are behaving out of the ordinary.

It starts with Miss Maths-Head saying:

'Mum! You were right.'

I don't ask what I was right about. The magic of moments like these is delicate and could shatter at the mere feel of an intake of breath. I stay rooted to the spot until my husband comes into the room and I ask him to pass me a plate. Right away (even though he is still on strict holiday-mode) he answers:

'Yes! No problem. Whatever you want, just ask.'

I am frantically looking for a list somewhere. Quick! There must be a list lying around somewhere. I have dozens of them scattered around the house and I cannot precisely locate a single one right now when it is so important. But Baby of the family now comes into the room and right away, without any prompting, senses the importance of the task at hand and says:

'It's all right, mum ... I'll wait. It's not important anyway, I'll come back later ...'

This is so weird that I forget I am looking for a list. My husband has - already - passed me the required plate and I am just staring at it as it sits pretty on the kitchen worktop. Why did I want a plate for anyway? I can't remember! Maybe it was just a test question. 

Fortunately I don't get to stare at it for long as now my son comes down. I stare at the glittering Christmas tree and all the little sparkly angels to gather strength.

'Mum ... before you ask ... I ate all the chocolates, I'm sorry I didn't leave any for the girls. I'm telling you because I don't want you to shout at them on day 1 of this year when I am the one who did wrong.'

The Christmas tree is twinkling in the background, like it's winking at me.

Miss Organiser herself, although she has so much to organise for real these days, then tells me:

'Mum! You were right ... I've just realised. Can you run through that with me again, please ...'

Now I need to sit down. Again I could reply 'told you so' but it doesn't feel right. And it might upset this new year order which, in all honesty, I am beginning to like very much indeed. Especially as I now find myself on my own. They have all disappeared quietly and left me to listen to my favorite radio programme.  That's when suddenly it dawns on me: hey! This is going to be my year, the year of all my whims and my tantrums and my totally unrealistic demands! I am rapidly and with so much ease letting this persona of mine express itself fully. I close the radio show and put some music on full blast and dance my way over to the fridge (Miss Organiser-style). Next I open it wide and stare inside it for a bit only to close it with a bang and a 'there's never anything good to eat in this house' the way my son does expect I open it again and pick at the small amount of foie gras left-over from the réveillon. I take a look at the door compartment and gran the Champagne bottle, lift it and take a big gulp, straight from the bottle. It feels so good I go to the music and turn it up louder. 

Then I go to the fire and play around with it to get lots of flames to lit up the room (pyromaniac-baby style) then settle with the rest of the Champagne in a beer glass (hubby-on-holiday-mode style) and start flicking though rubbish TV. At the same time I contemplate the year ahead of me and - Maths-Head style - draw charts and lists (to pin on the fridge for my husband to see), itineraries for TGA (regular readers will get the ref, casual readers can ask in the comments 😉).

2021 is definitely looking good! I wonder how long I can keep this new persona out in the open ...