We've Just Taken Down The Christmas Decorations

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 6th JANUARY 2007

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We've just taken down the Christmas decorations. I say 'we', but actually my mother did all the work. She phoned me last night to ask me whether I wanted a hand with taking them down. I said No. She said she'd be up at around 9. She was here at a quarter to.

I made her and myself a cup of tea. We sat in the kitchen and drank it in silence. Then she said she'd start with the tree. I stayed in the kitchen, staring at the window.

Every now and then, she popped her head into the kitchen to say something like, "Where do you store the crib?" or "Do you want me to leave the tree round the front or the back?" or "Do you think this tinsel's worth keeping for another year?"

Two hours later, after she'd put the hoover away in its cupboard, she came into the kitchen again, made us another cup of tea, drank hers and said she'd better be off.

I was determined not to say Thank you, not to say anything, in fact. I hadn't asked her to put the decorations up, but she had. And I hadn't asked her to take them down either.

At this particular moment in time, I feel so much utter hatred for her.

Will these feelings ever pass?