Best and Worst: Pre-Christmas Edition.

Have you bought all your Christmas gifts? Wrapped them lovingly and with perfect corners and smooth sticky tape, then tucked them under a beautifully decorated tree?

Have you stocked the fridge full of amazing produce, all ready to be transformed into a lunch of magnificent proportions? Have you written YOUR list and checked it twice?

Yeah, neither have we.

But DON’T PANIC JUST YET. There are still a few more days till Christmas, those generous retailers are opening their doors (and palms) all through the day and night. And tomorrow is the weekend. There’s still lots and lots of time.

And even if there isn’t, and we really should be freaking out and losing our sh*t right now – why don’t we just… not? Instead, grab a cup of tea and a minced pie or piece of deliciously Christmas-y cake and pull up a chair. Let’s reflect on the week that was….

Here in the Mamamia Offices our BEST is yet to come. Tonight what’s left of the Editorial Team (we’re not counting those who’ve already dashed off to lie on beaches and drink fancy beverages out of coconuts) is heading to the Domain to sing some carols. We are very well prepared for this, having been practising our caroling to the delight of the rest of the Mamamia staff VERY LOUDLY for several weeks.

Our worst? In a week when we’re surrounded by kids at every shopping mall who are waiting to meet Santa and tell him what they’d like and playing in the street because school is out for the summer – it’s impossible not to think of the tragedy in Connecticut last weekend.

We covered the story on Mamamia as it unfolded and also, as the calls for stricter gun control and improved mental health care investment, grew strongly in the aftermath of the shooting (which you can read about here and here and here). Our thoughts remain with the families and friends of the victims, while we hope desperately that the United States is able to take some action that will prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.

What’s been happening in your world?