In case you've missed all my blog posts for the last 5 days, I shared tales of my first Christmas of marriage- do go back and read them first!
And so it endeth! I have had an extraordinary amount of fun thinking up these posts, writing, publishing and eliciting your reactions. Thank YOU all for being such lively participants, but especially, Louise, Greenthumb, Pink-haired Princess, Lisa, Fat Dormouse, M.K, Tracy, Katie and Nicole who have been with me virtually every day
When I originally wrote these posts in 2013, on day 6, I wrote an extra post. One stating that sadly, these posts were fiction, not a real reflection of what CBC actually bought me for Christmas. Originally, I wasn't going to reveal the fact that my accounts were an exercise in Creative writing till the end but everyone was so excited and effusive in the few days, that I was worried they'd be really cross with me 'tricking' them that I revealed all in day 6 but asked for them to continue with me for the remaining journey.
Here's the remainder of my final post of explanation.
I suppose that explanations are necessary. Well, actually, the whole thing does actually have a foundation in real-life events. For the first Christmas that CBC (did you notice I didn't refer to him as CBC throughout the whole process? This was part of the narrative spin to keep it in fiction) and I were going out, we spent Christmas with our respective families from around the 21st of December and sent each other a text message each day saying, "On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me..." and sent a fictional item that we thought the other would enjoy such as 4 owls a hooting. I believe that I started it off but CBC soon caught on and reciprocated, always each of us trying to be the first one to send it each day. It was ridiculously fun and I always held that in my mind as a fun way to mark the twelve days of Christmas.
The subsequent 3 Christmases of our 'courtship' were spent together so there was no need to send text messages though I did actually send CBC a card I had made the second year timed to arrive on the twelth day of Christmas in which I recycled all the robins from my Christmas cards that year and what serendipity that I should have twelve in total! I stuck them to the card and wrote an accompanying message stating, On the twelth day of Christmas, your true love sends to you: twelve jolly robins...
This year however, I reread John Julian Norwich's 'Twelve Days of Christmas' (available here from the Bookpeople) which I had bought for CBC the second Christmas. If you haven't read it, do! It's a delightful account, illustrated by Quentin Blake written in the form of letters in which Emily writes letters to her true-love who sends her the items in the original tale. She starts of delighted and gushing but by the end, has issued a restraining order and takes legal action as the presents start getting out of control. It has me laughing every time, especially with Quentin Blakes' witty illustrations.
As I read it this year, I thought to myself, how much fun it would be to create a modern day interpretation of the carol and how better to transmit it than via my blog, with a post each day. I pondered in which form to write it- letter, diary, 1st person or 3rd person, newspaper report, list and decided that it would be fun to imagine what my new husband MIGHT have bought for me had he decided to do this. What would suit his personality and likes, what would he buy for me, what would I like, what was in the realms of believability? In addition, I have been feeling recently, that I wanted a little more creativity in terms of my writing on this blog (particularly as CBC keeps saying I have too many outfits on here- which is true) and a serialised story would be a fun and motivational way for me to achieve this.
I put my idea to my Mum, reading her the 1st day of Christmas account that I had written. She cackled when I mentioned 'roast partridge in pear sauce' and said it was a good idea which made me certain that yes, I should write it like it was happening. To be honest with you, I did think that people would think it was too far-fetched a tale to believe, so I was confounded when I had such lovely reactions to the story upon publishing the first few days. Then I had a sudden attack of conscience worrying that a) lovely people who were commenting so kindly were going to hate me at the end of the process and may never return to my blog again, b) I would disappoint people and they might not trust my writing in the future (I do have frequent cases of paranoia it seems!) c) When commenters said they were telling their families, husbands etc, I genuinely didn't want to shatter the romantic illusions and then have said spouses say, "Seee, it's not true!" and d) in a sense, when you write an account based on real life, it can start to feel real and I was feeling the romance of it, like all of you and e) I wondered how bringing forward the denouement (if this word is appropriate in this case) would affect the dialogue we had going on here in the comments. Would people stop reading? Would their comments change? Would it bring in a new consciousness?
In writing the account, I had to choose which order I wanted to write the tale as there are many variations on the order, particularly in the latter stages of the accumulation. In the end, I decided to go with the latest edition which was Austin's 1909 publication in which the order was: A partridge in a pear tree.
2 turtle doves
3 french hens
4 Calling Birds
5 Gold Rings
6 Geese-a-Laying
7 Swans-a-Swimming
8 Maids-a-Milking
9 Ladies Dancing
10 Lords-a-Leaping
11 Pipers Piping
12 Drummers Drumming
EXCEPT that I had to swap the last two days round in order to fit with the 12 track CD and it would make more sense for a gig to happen on a Saturday, rather than a Sunday.
When researching the order, I was amused to discover that in some versions there are some little known variations such as bells a-ringing, hares a running, badgers a baiting, Colly birds (actually translates as Blackbirds which we know I love), squabs a swimming, cocks a crowing (can you think of a more unromantic present?!)*
The days I MOST enjoyed writing were obviously, maids a milking- this is definitely how it would have occured, had it happened- I am clumsy and appalling at following sets of instructions that are demonstrated in one go!
The 5 gold rings was genuinely based on someone's ring or wishlist in either November or December- I was SURE someone had a set of gold stacking rings in their post- so if that was you, please tell me, as it was your post I based that on.
The porcelain hens are based on my much-beloved Chicken mouth jug which I inherited from my deceased Grandmother/Mamgu. She loved hens and I have always had an affection for china hens!
I think that the Calling-birds would definitely make a good band name for a Andrews sister set up- anyone want to form it with me?
The 12 drummers drumming was based on the Swiss percussion player we saw on our honeymoon at the Lucerne festival and CBC IS keen that we go and see him should he ever come to Britain. His name is Martin Graubinger and his super ensemble is called 'Percussion Planet'.
I had most trouble OBVIOUSLY with '10 Lords a-leaping'- I mean- aside from a dance troupe or going to Parliament and getting myself arrested, what else could I have said? Any contributions gratefully received!
I was also dissatisfied with my 9 ladies dancing- yes we really do love contemporary dance and I found a genuine course offered at the place I wrote about (though only for 4 weeks and didn't specify ladies only) originally, but I felt that perhaps it was a little unbelievable and tenuous
On day 7, the day after the big confession, I actually HAD ordered the two swans jumper I described from ASOS. I saw it and decided I could own one true item from the tale! I still own that 2 swans jumper!
Regardless of all this, I have had the most fun with my blog than I have had in a long time and wonder if perhaps I could do a little more creative writing! Speaking of which, did you notice that this was in my tags from the very beginning. I wondered if anyone eagle-eyed had noticed it?
Conclusion: SO CBC is not as romantic as we would all have liked to have believed, BUT when I was sharing with him,what I was doing, he said to me that he had contemplated doing the twelve days of Christmas with my presents but wasn't sure how he could keep it up. He then said that perhaps we could try it next year, buying each other twelve days worth of littler presents. I agreed, with alacrity, that this would be a marvellous idea So the narrative has had a romantic revelation AND an outcome. And next year, I can tell a truthful tale of the twelve days of Christmas which we can all share in!
I read the Wikipedia entry on the Twelve days of Christmas
Tomorrow, I will share what CBC, REALLY bought me!
Linking up with the lovely Claire Justine's Creative Mondays with my card and creative writing!
