It's that time of year when you look back in fright at how fast it's gone again and how little has changed - apart from another dicky knee perhaps or that the telly's volume is now always on 'high'.
Having come such a long way down the track, it needs a lot of looking back to make sense of it all - if you can see through all the triviality.
We've all come a long way which makes what's left so much shorter. Don't bother to lean forward to see what's coming. Enjoy the moment and this Christmas as if it were your last - one day it will be!
From all of us at Riverbend, Padma, little Rover, the rainbow lorikeets on the verandah, the possum in his penthouse, the ducks by the pond, George the Goanna and the many water dragons in the shed, even the mice in the attic and, of course, yours truly: have yourself a very Merry Christmas!
