‘Tis the season to be dancing

What a week it’s been!

Long before the Christmas countdown begins, I promise myself this year will be different, there will be no unsmooth moves as we manoeuver the celebrations. No, this year, I tell myself, I will do the dance of the sugarplum fairy – lightfooted, lighthearted and nimble.

However, what started out as a lovely shoppers’ foxtrot became, this weekend, a mad cha-cha with other customers, through the local stores, seeking inspiration for that one special someone.

I guess the frantic rhythm – one step forward and two steps back - creeps up on me: all things Christmas are a welcome diversion from the darkness that descends on us in this northern hemisphere. Let me catch my breath!

Monday, we did a lovely round dance of a Christmas party with the regulars at my workplace. Things went according to plan (the choreography was simple and elegant), except Santa’s usual spot out of the crowd was unavailable, so he wasn’t able to have his usual quiet chat with the children. They were just as awed to view him at close quarters and shuffle tentative dos-a-dos around his chair. The brave ones perched on his knee and had a photo snapped.

The pace picked up again just as the party was ending, when the book order came in. Oh, I was glad to see it arrive (the orderers and I had been hoping for it for days – seasonal presents, you know!) But what a frenetic scramble of a contra dance that became as we matched the books with the order slips, rechecked and rematched. The initial steps of this dance are best done as a solo and adagio. ‘Tis also the season of many treats, and I managed to squeeze out a little time Tuesday to roll dough for my Christmas specialty. It is true some minutes are longer than others, especially late at night when Santa’s helpers should be sleeping. Still, I managed to polka through the baking process and turn out some respectable cheese straws. Let me just rest my eyes for a bit!

Wednesday morning, some special sales started. I had been searching the flyers and knew

exactly what I wanted, but to be certain of getting one of the “limited quantities” meant getting up early and waltzing off at o’dark hundred. The thing about a waltz is, it doesn’t feel energetic when you start, but if the tune goes on for a long time, it can take your breath away just as well as a merengue. You don’t mind if I just sit here a moment, do you?

Two more days, an exam, an organizational installation and three more parties later, I remembered just in time I had signed on to help out at a local performance in the evening.

Maybe you could say I partnered with friends to make a quadrille out of all this.

All in all, not truly the dance of the sugarplum fairy after all!