Where is the Christmas cheer??

Ahhhh Christmas!
It's just around the corner, literally, around the corner from my house and your house at any shopping centre. Decorations are up, the crowds are swelling as everyone racks their brains to pick the perfect gift and of course, Santa, who is perched on his chair listening to the requests for every kind of toy under the sun from excited, nervous and sometimes slightly scared little children.
We are moving house right after Christmas this year, so we didnt get a tree. But being an eternal 12 year old, i still had to put up some decorations. The fruit bowl is now a bauble bowl and tinsel is hung from the blinds.
This weekend the local Carols were held. I told A.J about them last week and reminded him daily. Unfortunately, like most males, he has selective hearing and memory and "forgot" about the carols being on Saturday and invited two of our friends over for dinner. We compromised and our friends came with us to the carols. Unfortunately, the carols were a two bit effort with Santa being the biggest let down. He was a twenty something someone who clearly thought he would "totally own" being Santa but got caught like a deer in headlights and lost his brain when he got on stage. He was meant to sing the Aussie version of Jingle Bells but obviously had not rehearsed as he couldnt remember the words and started singing from halfway through a verse, Until "Solo" his Bonds singlet, boardies, thongs, Santa hat wearing, guitar wielding friend mentioned it would be good to maybe sing the song from the start. Then when he sung the wrong words, instead of just continuing like a true performer would, he said and I quote "oops, that was the wrong words" and continued singing. Then, floundering on stage and having already sung the same verse twice as he didnt know anymore (and with the lyrics of the songs being displayed on the big screens around the lake having to be skipped through quickly to find what this Santa was singing), he quickly decided he "must be off has he has many other communities to visit before Christmas. He was then asked by the host where he was off to now and again i quote was "off to Uzbekistan, its just below Russia"
You know its the children I feel sorrow for. Luckily my little girl is only 8months old and not old enough to know who Santa is and whats going.
The finale was actually a wonderful fireworks show which helped to bring back some credibility but unfortunately what happened next was to leave a bad taste that no amount of free icecream or christmas pudding could sweeten.
Our friends had followed us in their car on the way to the carols and had lost us ahead of them with lots of traffice gettting inbetween us. So they just tturned down a street near the carols and parked next to a vacant lot where there were other cars parked. As soon as the fireworks had finished we packed up and headed to our cars. We were parked further away so accpected our friends to be back at our house before us.
 But when we had already been home for a good 10 minutes with no sign of them, A.J called to see where they were.
Their car window had been smashed and Jaz's wallet gone. Obviously upset.
Who is going to noticed glass being smashed when there are fireworks going off? A brazen grab for some cash. Obviously a crime of opportunity as they had not bothered to look anywhere else, as there was $40 in  coins in the centre console and heaps of cd's on the sun visors.

I felt awful, a little responsible, as it was my idea to go to the carols and I really pushed it even when no one else was very keen.
Ofcourse they dont think that way at all, and thats why we are friends. They hold no grudges and just get on with it, and we took a garbage bag and dust pan and broom to sweep up the glass from inside the car and a torch to help search the area for the wallet. No luck finding the wallet.

But if I can offer a tip, no matter where you are, even if its at a "family event", hide personal items really well in your car or take them with you, even if you wont need them, and dont leave things like house keys or pin numbers in your wallet.

I hope everyone else has a better experience at whatever Christmas functions and events they attend this year and even if there are soem hiccups, you keep the Christmas cheer by remembering others have it worse off than you, and good freinds will always be good friends, no matter what time of the year.

Ciao ciao xox