Happy Holidays to all my Tarot Friends around the World, 

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I trust you are all enjoying the festive season and not overindulging too much. Here in Ireland, the stores and streets have been their usual crazy self with people dashing and rushing from shop to shop, weighed down with bags and bags of presents and special treats. The Irish go mad at this time of the year and all caution is thrown to the wind. Children have been wild with excitement for the last couple of weeks but I have also seen the tears and tantrums when it all became too much. Stress creeps in regardless of how happy and joyful we all appear to be, so I do hope that most of you are getting to sit down today, for a couple of hours at least. It would be a shame to miss the whole thing because you were too busy or too shattered.

This time of year is very difficult for many people for it brings painful memories of loved ones gone and times past. I lost my 11-year-old son at this time of year in 2007 and I have found the last few weeks, and especially yesterday, quite awful to get through. I became quite lost in sorrow and grief, and worried how I would cope. Today, is not as bad as I expected so hopefully I am beginning to come out of my mournful self. I think it was seeing all the shoppers and listening in on their excited chatter about what they were buying and when the tree was going up. I watched the wonder and awe on the faces of the little children as they headed in to visit Santa in shopping centers as my heart twisted and lurched with my loss. Where was my son? So many memories and all those special times I took for granted. I saw my son in their faces, crazy with excitement, wanting everything he laid eyes on. I thought  of his long lists for poor Santa which he normally started compiling from sometime in early October. My frenzied rush to shops to make sure a certain toy or game hadn’t run out. The hiding of gifts in attics and in neighbours’ homes. All gone now. Of course he would be nearly 19 years old, long past Santa stage, and probably looking for Xbox games, new phone or the latest tablet, clothes, or maybe just money. He might have a girlfriend, or two, college friends and possibly a car. Yes, all gone now and we will never know. All that is left are memories and ghosts of Christmas past.

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I just thought I would share  a little of the Irish Holiday Season with you in the following videos so you can see for yourself how important family are at this time of the year.

This one is not from The Holiday period but reflects the type of entertainment we Irish lay on for home comers and visitors at our National Airport in Dublin.

And of course Christmas would not be Christmas without our Shane McGowan and The Pogues with their Christmas song ‘Fariytale of New York’.

Happy Holidays to one and All from Ireland,

Nollaig Shona, (Happy Christmas in Irish)

Vivien (Your Tarot Teacher)