The best Christmas in ages

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Now I look back I don't know why we didn't do it more often, but one year we had Dad over at our place in Cronulla for Christmas. Wendy and Emily loved him and he loved them, and even though we found an easier life in Perth than we would have had in Sydney at the time it was a shame they didn't get to see him more than a few more times.

But if we'd stayed in Sydney longer we probably would have done it regularly. He got to drink as much a he wanted (a lot) and not worry about driving, he got to have Christmas morning with a little kid again, and apart from Jim's grandkids when he lived over in Randwick I don't think he'd had one of those since David and I grew up.

I don't remember many of the specifics apart from how happy he was to be there, but I remember two. We were playing music while we did something with decorations or the Christmas Tree or something and The Macarena came on, so we were all dancing around the lounge room doing it, Frank included. He didn't know the dance at all and he did a shocking job, and us trying to teach him only made it funnier to do (and watch), and he was having as much fun as everyone.

The other is that Wendy and I had bought a trampoline for Emily for Xmas, and when she was young enough to still think Santa Claus bought stuff, that meant we had to wait until she was in bed and asleep – occasionally tricky with a six year old but especially so on Christmas Eve night when they want to stay up and see Santa arrive.

I don't think we took it outside and set it up, but I distinctly remember carrying long steel poles and the rolled up elasticated mat into the hallway to make it look like Santa had left it there for her. Ever tried to carry a dozen or so 10cm diameter fortified steel tubes, all about four metres long (and curved) anywhere in complete silence, let alone indoors down the hallway of a household at 10pm on December 24th with a kid sleeping in a bedroom on the other side of the wall?

Then, as now, it reminded me of an older story I told on this blog, where Frank, Les Neilson and either Ken or Bob Clements (I can't remember which) tried and somehow succeeded in building a swing set one Christmas Eve in the Gabo Place backyard after we were in bed, in a state of such drunkenness it was a wonder they could stand up, let alone build children's' playground equipment.


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