THE anticipation and excitement of Christmas has well and truly taken over my home. The countdown meter has now moved into hours and minutes as my boys prepare for the arrival of Santa Claus.
Christmas is usually associated with joy and happiness, the coming together of family and friends and spending time with loved ones.
But as we prepare to exchange gifts, feast to excess and enjoy each other's company, one story has plucked at my heart strings.
As we celebrated my youngest son's fifth birthday this week, I read about how the final wishes of another little five-year-old were fulfilled.
In a story widely reported across the world over the past week, a terminally ill boy's wish to meet Santa came true. But sadly his wish was fulfilled as he died in the arms of Father Christmas.
Eric Schmitt-Matzen, who looks every bit like Santa with his white curled moustache and beard, told of his heartbreaking experience of cradling the little boy in his final moments.
He had received a call from a nurse at a hospital in the American city of Knoxville pleading for him to pay a visit to a sick little boy and was told the child was "more concerned about missing Christmas, than dying".
Within 15 minutes Schmitt-Matzen was at the child's side and described how after arriving into the room, he asked the boy: "What's this I hear you're going to be missing Christmas this year?".
Despite his tender age, the boy told him he heard he was going to die.
"Well, you're not going to miss Christmas, the elves already had your present, we knew you wanted this for a long time," Schmitt-Matzen told him before giving him a present that had been handed to him as he arrived to see the boy.
He then told the child: "When you get up those pearly gates, you just tell them you're Santa's number one elf".
Schmitt-Matzen said the child perked up and said, "I am?", before his special guest replied: "You sure are, I'm sure they'll let you right in".
The boy then gave him a tight hug and Schmitt-Matzen said: "he just looked at me and said, Santa, can you help me?" and "that's when he passed", dying in his arms.
I'm not sharing the story to break your heart, I'm not sharing it to make you cry. But I'm sharing it to remind of you of how important it is to not only enjoy the magic of Christmas, but the magic we have of being here today.
When you hear of a such a tragic but poignant story such as this, you realise that every day is precious, even the hard ones.
It should make us understand how blessed we are to be here at Christmas, how lucky we are to be sharing it with others and how lucky we are to be alive.
While many of us have our own struggles to bear, none of us know how many Christmases we will have ahead of us, how many times we will get to decorate the tree with our children or how many Christmas mornings we will watch them open their presents.
I have often been told to cherish the time I have with my boys, especially at Christmas, and after hearing of this particular story, that message has been reinforced.
I have seen the magic of Christmas written all over their faces in the last few weeks and know that over the coming days, that magic will reach epic proportions - and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.
The magic of Christmas is that we are here, we can make memories and we can make each other's lives a little bit better as we go along.
Merry Christmas everyone.
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Competition
I have two books up for grabs this week - Rules for my Son and Rules for my Daughter.
Written by Walker Lamond, both books are collections of traditional, humourous and fatherly advice for young boys or girls.
From the sartorial to the practical, the books contain rules, photographs and accompanying quotations for becoming a good man or alternatively in the other book, a confident and industrious young woman.
Reviews of the books include one from the Wall Street Journal, which said: 'this may be one book that actually has changed my life'.
I have two copies of each book to give away to two lucky winners. To be in with a chance to win, simply email your name, address and telephone number - along with the answer to the question below - to competitions@irishnews.com
Closing date for entries is Tuesday December 27 at noon.
(Q) What is the name the author of the two books, Rules for my Son and Rules for my Daughter?
Normal Irish News Rules Apply
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What's Hot!
Charity single - Belfast musician Brian McAteer has penned a Christmas track to raise cash for the city's homeless. Proceeds of downloads of 'Christmas is Comin Around', which features the vocals of Banbridge singer Caitlin Cousins, will be donated to the outreach charity The Welcome Organisation. To download the song, please visit www.cdbaby.com/cd/fiveleavesleftfeaturingc
Carol - If you're name is Carol, then today could be your lucky day. To celebrate the festive season, P&O Ferries is giving anyone with this name the chance to win free return ferry travel between Larne and Cairnryan. Any Carol's out there can apply to win via P&O Ferries’ Twitter by tweeting #carolstravels tagging @poferries and indicating if they’d like to travel from Larne or Cairnryan. Two winners will be chosen at random, one from Scotland and one from Northern Ireland.
What's Not!
Unusual - Sir Mick Jagger has reportedly named his newborn son Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger. It is the 73-year-old's eighth child with the other seven children aged from 17 to 46.
Crisis - Loose Women star Coleen Nolan has vowed to fight to save her marriage after admitting it's in crisis. Nolan said she felt she has lost the connection she once shared with her musician husband Ray Fensome.
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Competition winner
The winner of last week's SSE Winter Skate is Caroline Brennan from Belfast.
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Easy Peasy Recipe
This week's Easy Peasy Recipe is Swiss Roll with Fig and Mascarpone Cream, courtesy of McKinney's Sugar.
You will need:
Cake base
3 eggs
125g McKinney’s Granulated Sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
120g plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
peel of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Mascarpone cream
350ml whipping cream
250g mascarpone
3 tbsp McKinney’s Icing Sugar
6 tbsp fig jam
To make:
Preheat the oven to 250°C and line a baking sheet with greased baking parchment.
Whisk eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla extract until white and fluffy.
Combine the flour and baking powder and carefully fold in the mixture. Spread out evenly on the baking parchment.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 5 minutes. Sprinkle the Swiss roll with sugar, turn it upside down onto a sheet of baking parchment and carefully remove the parchment.
For the mascarpone cream: whisk the cream lightly and mix with the mascarpone cheese.
Sieve in icing sugar into the mixture and carefully fold in the fig jam.
Spread the cream over the swiss roll base and roll up. Store in a cool place and serve sprinkle with icing sugar and add berries of your choice.
Do you have an Easy Peasy recipe you would like to share?
Are you the queen of quiches, magnificent at muffins or can you turn out some nice scones?
If so, then we want to hear from you.
You can send your name, address, contact number and recipe (plus photo if possible) to:Easy Peasy Recipes,
Suzanne McGonagle,
Irish News
113-117 Donegall Street,
Belfast,
BT1 2GE
or
s.mcgonagle@irishnews.com
