All Christmassed Out! The End.

'In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say 'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the wall!'

~(Dave Barry)


Hee hee! I like that quote.

So here we are, Christmas is officially OVER. Sean and Chas just went out to get something scanned at the Stationery Shop and printers were on sale so cheap that they figured they might as well buy one. We now have several printers and scanners, sprinkled over the Western Hemisphere. It's just as well, I'm sure shipping one here from Trinidad would have cost more than buying one, too.

I have half a mind to GO SHOPPING IN THE SALES, but I won't, because, as another good quote says:

"Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money!"

(~Anonymous)

That is a wise one. Take note!

We're in the grips of post-Christmas tiredness. Margo, my elderly grandmother up the street, is also tired after the London Christmas Extravaganza, and when I went today to take some groceries she was positively grouchy, fault-finding and cross, which is unusual. I stayed for a cup of tea and think I cheered her up a bit. I'll have to go tomorrow as well, and make sure nothing's amiss. Margo has had a cough, and I think the doctor should listen to her chest. When I suggested this Margo was even crosser and said she'd SEEN the doctor, last week, so there. Sigh.

From time to time, we get super-creative and decide that normal Christmas Cracker hats are TOO BORING for the likes of us, so we make out own with plenty of gold, feathers, rhinestones and anything else we can locate. Note gorgeous paper flower! They are wonderful hats! The trick is to make them so that they can be rolled up and stuffed into a cracker. You can write your own fortunes and jokes too, and insult your relatives!

The view from the train window on our way to London. The lines were frozen, so we had to take a bus part of the way, and almost missed the Pantomime! The snow made us all sigh. If we'd had time, we would have jumped off the train and rolled in the snow for sure.

And there was NO snow left in London! Just the occasional snowheap in the shade, which the boys dismantled and stuffed down each other's shirts.

Christmas Day was wonderful. Thank you my great family! Margo made a short speech, several other people made long ones. The food was wonderful. The company, loving. The gifts, extremely thoughtful. To think that I was worried about Christmas, and thought we would all be sad and lonely without our loved ones! Well some of our faraway loved ones came to the frozen North, and our nearer loved ones banded together and made Christmas. That's family!