Max is singing “ALL I WANT for Christmas is my TWO FRONT TEETH, my TWO FRONT TEETH, my TWO FRONT TEETH!” Every chance he gets. Okay, we’re all encouraging him. It’s so cute. AND!!! To his speechless (and toothless) delight, the tooth fairy left him money and *GASP* A CANDY CANE!
All is well here. Sales are rotten, but with a little downsizing and a lot of fudge I’ve managed not to feel too broke or guilty. Lots of people are not getting a present, but they will be okay with that and some have said “Oh I am SO relieved you brought that up… you’re right, let’s not do presents.” I’m not the only broke one out there.
It could be frustrating, because I tend to count on being rich with great sales for Christmas. But you know what? We are all having a great holiday here. The kids have had buddies over, and have played nonstop. I have been blitzing through the house throwing away MOUNTAINS of stuff and giving away boxes of books. Need books? Come over. Quick before Sharon takes them all and needs new bookshelves!
Christmas carols play non-stop, and the nights and mornings have been COLD…. Though some of you would say 16 Centigrade is positively hot. It’s good snuggling weather.
Some Christmases ago, in who knows what year, we realized that we were going to have a HORDE of family and friends visiting Mum and Dad on Christmas Day. My sister was coming, as well as many friends, Aunties and Uncles of importance. We planned a Christmas Extravaganza for that day which has never been beaten yet.
The thing that I remember most clearly though was the crackers. My sister Ailis brought the snaps, the long bits that explode when you pull them, in her luggage. This was in the days when carrying minor explosives in your suitcase was not such a big deal! We made hats with paper, feathers, diamantes, sequins, glitter. THOSE HATS! In my memory sits Lord Sligo in a magnificent crown, at the head of the table. Every single person had a unique hat and they all came out of a cracker! Ailis and I not only constructed those hats to be magnificent things of glory, but made them roll up and squeeze into crackers. But that’s not all! There were fortunes in every cracker, which Mum chose from the sayings of Osho, and printed out on slips of paper. No politically correct silly jokes, these were deep musings. And lastly, I had bought tiny musical instruments as well. Little shakers, whistles, clackety-things, tooters and squeakers. We fit them in too, rolled up in the amazing hats. So that in the intervals between speeches and rebuttals (and rebuttals of rebuttals) there was much noisy merrymaking mixed up with the actual music of random instruments. We are a musical lot. And the family make speeches (and rebuttals!) of grandiose verbiousness (how you like that word?). The crackers themselves were beautiful of course. They took us ages to make, and were a tiny bit fatter than the average cracker, but they snapped perfectly when pulled and made such gorgeous centerpieces.
One day, we’ll do it again. But not this year!
If I had the time, I would call this post a draft and re-write it so that it flow a little better. But I need to finish painting the bathroom . It’s nearly done!
All is well here. Sales are rotten, but with a little downsizing and a lot of fudge I’ve managed not to feel too broke or guilty. Lots of people are not getting a present, but they will be okay with that and some have said “Oh I am SO relieved you brought that up… you’re right, let’s not do presents.” I’m not the only broke one out there.
It could be frustrating, because I tend to count on being rich with great sales for Christmas. But you know what? We are all having a great holiday here. The kids have had buddies over, and have played nonstop. I have been blitzing through the house throwing away MOUNTAINS of stuff and giving away boxes of books. Need books? Come over. Quick before Sharon takes them all and needs new bookshelves!
Christmas carols play non-stop, and the nights and mornings have been COLD…. Though some of you would say 16 Centigrade is positively hot. It’s good snuggling weather.
Some Christmases ago, in who knows what year, we realized that we were going to have a HORDE of family and friends visiting Mum and Dad on Christmas Day. My sister was coming, as well as many friends, Aunties and Uncles of importance. We planned a Christmas Extravaganza for that day which has never been beaten yet.
The thing that I remember most clearly though was the crackers. My sister Ailis brought the snaps, the long bits that explode when you pull them, in her luggage. This was in the days when carrying minor explosives in your suitcase was not such a big deal! We made hats with paper, feathers, diamantes, sequins, glitter. THOSE HATS! In my memory sits Lord Sligo in a magnificent crown, at the head of the table. Every single person had a unique hat and they all came out of a cracker! Ailis and I not only constructed those hats to be magnificent things of glory, but made them roll up and squeeze into crackers. But that’s not all! There were fortunes in every cracker, which Mum chose from the sayings of Osho, and printed out on slips of paper. No politically correct silly jokes, these were deep musings. And lastly, I had bought tiny musical instruments as well. Little shakers, whistles, clackety-things, tooters and squeakers. We fit them in too, rolled up in the amazing hats. So that in the intervals between speeches and rebuttals (and rebuttals of rebuttals) there was much noisy merrymaking mixed up with the actual music of random instruments. We are a musical lot. And the family make speeches (and rebuttals!) of grandiose verbiousness (how you like that word?). The crackers themselves were beautiful of course. They took us ages to make, and were a tiny bit fatter than the average cracker, but they snapped perfectly when pulled and made such gorgeous centerpieces.
One day, we’ll do it again. But not this year!
If I had the time, I would call this post a draft and re-write it so that it flow a little better. But I need to finish painting the bathroom . It’s nearly done!
Comments
We, too, are lovers of Christmas crackers! Although ours (unfortunately) have extremely hard mathematical puzzles inside them. I think until I black out, and then my brother solves mine for me. In about two seconds flat.
Happy painting! What colour???
xoxoxoxo CGF