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Blogs by Vena McGrath
Tuesday 23 December 2008 - 1754 hours 12/22/2008 10:47:09 PM
Christmas comes but once a year ... shame really because I could do with a nice long holiday probably 4 times a year :) So, this is Christmas ,,, well close to it anyhow. Tomorrow is the big 'get it all together' day ready for feasting and over indulging in whatever we can find to over indulge in. I've hopefully just about got it all now and only need the last minute things tomorrow, such as bread sticks, fruit for a platter and ice cream (if I buy ice cream too early it would no doubt have disappeared by Christmas Day).
We haven't bothered about the 'big' Christmas feast for the last few years, opting for a barbecue instead. The weather can be mean and nasty and terribly hot or it can be wet and coolish. Hard to know really what to do. But I made the decision this year that we would do the big dinner with chicken, turkey, ham, lamb and baked veges with gravy. Oh and greens too of course. Then there's the Christmas pudding and custard and cream and ice-cream and fruit salad and the fruit platter. The weather forecast is for 27c with sun/showers.
Mid morning through lunch my intention is that everyone pigs out on the ‘rubbish’ foods, finger food and salad and then while most of them laze around having a few drinks or napping the couple of workers will get busy with dinner preparation. Ah well, it’s only once a year!
I did the tradition thing on Sunday and made a bowl of rum balls. I can't imagine not making them for Christmas, as I seem to have been doing it for many years now. I didn't make so many this time, because if I do they hang around in the fridge for weeks and wink at me every time I open the fridge door (I can't resist them).
I make my rum balls out of weetbix (12)crushed, with cocoa (2 tablespoons), raisins (a handful), condensed milk (a can) and of course a copious and almost lethal dose of rum. Rolling them into balls is very messy but then again I get to bite the mix off my fingers and hands as there's no way I want to waste that ummmmm rum :) After rolling them I toss them in coconut and this year I used shredded. I think they look very dignified so I'll probably use shredded from now on. I have resisted the temptation to attack them so far and hope that I make it to the bowl on Thursday before the crew eat them all. They will keep in the fridge for weeks (if they survive that long).
My home has been a disaster area for weeks as my son decided to tile almost totally the floors of the living areas. Of course that meant for a couple of days the kitchen was in the loungeroom and washing up was in the laundry. Then came the other rooms, all disaster areas for a couple of days each. It’s almost over but he doesn’t have enough tiles to finish the job. However what is done is fine as the other section of hall still has carpet. I am always happy to go up to my bedroom to carpet as I find the tiles tiring. But it was my son’s turn to have his way with changes and I have to adapt accordingly.
I managed to put the Christmas tree up and decorate it so at least it’s there for a few weeks. The tree seems to set the scene for the big day and although there aren’t a lot of presents under it, what are there hopefully will bring smiles to my loved ones. Giving is always so much better than receiving or so it seems to me.
I miss the years when my three darlings would rifle through the presents under the tree and make their separate piles where they would sit and rip paper happily for as long as it took to get to the bottom of the pile. We didn’t have a lot of money but I used to buy little things when I could during the year and secret them away until wrapping up time. I think the fact that there were so many parcels for each of the kids that the fact they mightn’t have contained expensive treasures didn’t really matter. It was a case of quantity not quality.
This year there is just one gift each but I know that at least two of those gifts are exactly what the two recipients wanted to buy for themselves. My eldest son is hard to buy for so I happened upon this massage pillow thing that goes on a chair. Apparently it has speakers so while getting massaged and using his computer he can play his music through the speakers or can use it as the sound system for his interactive games (he is 40). Something he probably would never have thought of buying and I hope he is interested enough in it to give it a go.
I bought my daughter a satellite navigation device for her car as she has often said she wished she had one when she has to take her daughter to soccer games in strange locations. I bought one myself not long ago and when my work relocated to a suburb and area I knew little about I used it for a week to direct me to and from work. The stress it saved me was huge and I am really happy that I took the plunge and bought the unit.
When I was with my youngest son a few months ago I took my digital camera along and took a lot of pics of our dogs together at the beach and romping by the lake and swimming in the lake. I showed him the pics on the monitor of the camera and he was impressed. However, he said that he had been thinking about buying a video camera, one of the new small size ones that are around now. So that’s what I bought for him. As you can probably imagine I’m excited for the moments when I get to watch them open their surprises.
I bought my grand-daughter a Britney Spears perfume pack that my daughter said she would love and I also found this treasure of a cute handbag in an antique shop that I adore so I hope she does too. One thing is for sure, none of her friends will have one the same. Maybe that’s not a good thing; peer pressure and all that. Ah well never mind tis done now.
There are gifts under the tree for my darling golden Shaye, my son’s Labrador Lizzie and my daughter’s little muttley Benny. Can’t forget the pets. Hmmmm I have forgotten my moggie Jasmine but I’m sure she will be happy just to get some bits and pieces of baked meat as her gift. After all she is about 17 years old and toys aren’t of any interest to her at all. She reminds me of my mother when she was in the nursing home suffering from dementia. Mum would sit and continually look at her watch and if she did speak it was always that she was wondering where her dinner or lunch was. Jasmine spends a lot of her waking hours sitting near her food bowl, mewing at us one by one making out she is starving and hasn’t been fed. Foxy lady! I could even swear she often says ‘mum’ when I'm passing by her.
The 6 cats I feed outside (3 were dumped here last year as young cats and the female has had a litter of 3) have already had baubles off the tree to play with. Jasmine lives inside because she is too old to leave to the elements and other cats. I’ve had one adult male desexed and now the mother cat has been desexed so there won’t be any more kittens. The other male adult can’t be made friends with at all and he only shows up for food. He is forever fighting and always has lumps of skin torn off his face and elsewhere. Nothing I can do about it though because I can’t get near him; he even hisses at me when I am putting food out so as his reward for biting the hand that feeds him he has to wait to eat until the other 5 are finished eating before I let him near the food. In other words he gets the dregs as he richly deserves.
How did I get from Christmas to cats? Oh yes, gifts under the tree.
I wish all of my blog readers a truly happy and safe Christmas and the same for the New Year. May all your wishes come true and may your days be blessed with many loved ones enriching your life as you can in turn enrich their lives with your love. Let’s hope 2009 will be brighter than it’s forecast to be and if we all shine from within we can help that happen.
