People sing Christmas songs. Personally, I am a fan. I believe this can explain all the elements of the festive season. Then let’s do it.
Do you wish it was Christmas every day? I enjoy this time of year. I love choosing good gifts. I went to school and nursery in my Christmas costume, and my post-retirement gut girth gave an authenticity to my performance that had been lacking in previous years.
Despite all this, my answer is clearly no. Imagine the scene at the Marler house on Boxing Day evening. The gift has been opened. I made a gymnastics high beam for my older daughter. I went there once and fell out. I built a unicorn scooter for my youngest daughter, and I was smart enough to realize that if I tried to do the same, no one would have a unicorn scooter that wouldn’t fall off.
But it’s mostly a quiet night. The kids drank a lot of sugar and went to bed. Some of them are sleeping, which means they can’t hear strange noises coming from their parents in the lounge. Wait, what’s going on here? Is Mom kissing Santa Claus? No, she’s helping him throw the Christmas tree out the window. That’s what’s happening now.
We finished everything. The decorations were back in their boxes, the lights were out, and the tree was heading out to the patio. Since the tree was really a ropey tree and had been drilled (full disclosure, I said this with the help of Daisy), everything was fine, except that I ended up dropping every single needle in the armory onto the living room floor. A charming new Christmas tradition was born the next morning where the whole family got down on their hands and knees and picked thousands of dead pine needles from the carpet.
Conclusion: It’s okay to have just one day of Christmas. Every day Christmas will be everyone with the physique of a prop who gets into debt, cries, and doesn’t make it to the gym before the first Christmas lights are even turned on. If I look in the full-length mirror now, I can see a melted garbage can staring back at me, and that’s not a good thing. great. Last Christmas. Huge song. Mixed memories for me: I was preparing for the big game against Gloucester at Twickenham with my Harlequins teammates. It’s definitely a different vibe from George Michael.
Joe Marler embraces the festive spirit as he talks about his family’s Christmas traditions.
The former England star candidly admitted that retirement came at the right time in his life.
He spoke of the chaotic joy of Christmas in the Marler household with their four children.
Did I give you my heart? Only partially. The Big Game is a beautiful tradition. Twickenham is different from usual and that’s not a bad thing. But I didn’t want to spend more time with Joe Launchbury and Danny Care than with my non-rugby family, so I booked an Airbnb in south-west London to get everyone together.
It was only a partial success. I know there won’t be much sympathy for professional rugby players over the Christmas period. Sure, you miss out on special days with the people who matter most to you, but you get paid to play sports and you get paid enough to make many other days special.
I still felt tempted to take medication. I admit it’s a bit Scrooge-esque. Maybe retirement has come at the right time. The same goes for East17’s ‘Stay Another Day’. Not playing this Christmas means I’ve been watching more rugby than ever before, not only Leicester Tigers games but also games where Dan Cole can play.
But it never occurred to me that I wanted to stay another day, week, or month. Instead, I enjoyed watching. I enjoy coming up with ideas about how we can make our sport better. I may put together a future Mail Sport column on this topic. Watch this space.
Let’s move on to the big problem. Do they know it’s Christmas? This is a huge question to me, and one that I don’t think anyone has ever satisfactorily answered.
First things first. Who exactly are we defining as ‘them’? If you take the spirit of the original Band Aid single and assume it’s Ethiopian, it is to me. Not only because of the efforts of Sir Bob Geldof and the rest of the crew, but also because of the long tradition of Christian thought. In that part of East Africa.
Besides that, there are about 8.5 billion people on our planet. How many people know it’s Christmas? Now it gets more difficult. People of other faiths also know about Christmas, even if they do not celebrate it. I heard that in Japan they celebrate the day by going out and buying a big bucket of KFC. This is the kind of idea that anyone in the front row can get their head around.
But what about isolated tribes in parts of the world less affected by the seasonal consumerism craze? Of course, a Christian missionary may have brought the message to this distant country. But do they really know Christmas like we do? Are they decorating their front door with icicle lights purchased from the nearest home store department store? Are you building a unicorn scooter? Shooting trees out your living room window?
The 34-year-old began his career in November after 15 years as a professional.
It’s a difficult task, and something I’d like to think about more. But I can tell you one group that knows for sure that it’s Christmas. All the fat cats at the RFU pocketed huge bonuses this year, told their players we’re all in this together during Covid and then decided to keep them around for Christmas. Pay it off yourself and cut back. Christmas doesn’t have to come every day. It already is.
To Dean Martin. Deano made his position clear. He wanted it to snow. I am with him. One condition is that it snows properly. This garbage half snow half rain nonsense that stays for half a day and then turns into brown mud is not nonsense. I want proper eyes. This means you cannot leave the house. The kind that makes you knock down branches and eat canned mandarin slices for breakfast.
This year I was given the travel opportunity of a lifetime thanks to a lovely woman named Amy from travel agency Aurora Zone. The idea was to take the kids to Lapland just before the big day. It was truly amazing. The depth of the snow! The sound of feet crushing through it! The sound of my children laughing as they watched the poor reindeer on the front of my sled trying to keep us going up the slightest incline!
But this world of ours doesn’t stand still for anyone, so before we raise a glass to each other, we have a few thoughts. What are your rugby highlights of the year? The easy way is to present Fin Baxter with his first cap in front of his father in the changing room at Eden Park. As I pass the hat, I am also passing the baton to my club team-mate and long-term successor in England. Now that is a beautiful thing.
I hope we all celebrate all that Antoine Dupont has accomplished this year. Everything he touched turned to gold. Who is this monster? I love everything about him.
And here are some wishes for the upcoming year of rugby. I hope England attack the Six Nations with the same gusto they had when they beat Ireland at Twickenham last March. I want to consistently show the adventure, not just the aftermath of defeat. And I hope the British and Irish Lions tour is everything the coronavirus-enforced 2021 series wasn’t. I want to go back to the sea of ​​red in the stands. I want noise, passion, and drama. I want the series to go to a third Test decider and for us to win! Does this sound like a deal?
