Pre-Christmas Ramblings

Unlike all previous years, I got all my Christmas cards posted a whole ELEVEN DAYS before Christmas. But just like previous years, I handmade the cards, which took me around 3 weeks – longer than ever before. I finished earlier than usual because, now that I no longer go ‘out’ to work, I have (in theory) an extra 10 hours a day at my disposal.

This time I decided I would not make all my Christmas cards ever again. Oh, I’ll probably make SOME cards, but not for ALL the people on my Christmas list. Some people, I am sure, don’t really care. You know – the ones you don’t hear from all year and who don’t even add a NOTE to the cards. More than half of the people on my list, I’m glad to say, DO care, and they write interesting accounts of what has happened to them during the year. I love getting the Christmas mail and find myself eagerly waiting for the sound of the postman’s motorcycle. When I was a child the postman rode a bicycle and blew his whistle when he put the mail in the box.

So from now on, there’ll be a First Class list, and a Second Class list. I’m not sure if that’s in keeping with the Christmas spirit, but it will mean that I’ll be more relaxed when Christmas Day arrives and people around me will be happier.

To tell you the truth, I AM more relaxed this year. Must be those extra 10 hours a day – although I haven’t actually noticed that I have any spare moments. I even sent all the overseas parcels in good time. I should have written ‘don’t open till Christmas’ on them, because I KNOW at least one person has opened the parcel already.

Having time on my hands, I made a Christmas cake this evening. I haven’t done that for years … my husband usually makes it, but this year he bought (yes BOUGHT) one. It was a very nice, fruit-full one, with Irish whiskey in it (quite a bit I’d say) – and we’ve eaten it already. My mother would never have let us do that. She wouldn’t let us cut the Christmas cake till after midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I’m not going to let anyone eat MY Christmas cake till Christmas Eve either. I’m on a ‘back to family traditions’ binge (perhaps I’ll even make my mother’s recipe for coconut ice).

It’s going to require a lot of discipline on my part because the cake should be scrumptious. Chock-a-block with fruit, plus extra dates and nuts and preserved ginger and glacé cherries – all pre-soaked in a heady mix of apple juice, sherry and Irish whiskey. I thought the mix would be interesting and anyway, I just couldn’t bring myself to use ALL of the remaining half bottle of Jameson’s … though I did consider using Rebel Yell instead (there’s an almost full bottle in the back of the cupboard. Nobody will drink it.), but then I’d have to lie about it because Rebel Yell just doesn’t sound appropriate for a Christmas cake, does it?

The cake is halfway through cooking, and it smells marvellous, if I say so myself. When it’s cooked I’ll drizzle it with lemon icing and pile more glacé fruit and nuts on top. I think I’ll then have to lock it up till Christmas.

Still on the Christmas theme, here’s a very nice story:

http://www.vitalsmarts.com/KerryingOn/Default.aspx

(I bet that doesn’t work the first time … or the second, or third, if my past record is anything to go on. Perhaps I should put a link in every post until I remember the formula. Or lots of links, like Chris.)

NOT on the Christmas theme: Someone sent me one of those Powerpoint presentations, this one supposedly with the Dalai Lama’s 2004 message (although I’m pretty sure I received the same one in 2003). One of his good pieces of advice was to make sure that each year we did at least one thing we’d never done before. I felt pretty pleased with myself when I read that, because just 2 days ago I ironed a 1000 page book. I’ve certainly never done that before. I bet none of you out there has ever ironed a book either.

In truth, I didn’t iron all one thousand of the pages … only around 400, after which my wrist was killing me, so I then tried blow-drying the rest. I’ve ended up with intriguingly irregularly wavy pages. If I’d been making an ‘altered book’ I’d have been pleased with the textural effect. Oh well, at least none of the pages will stick together.

Just in case anyone wants to know why it was necessary to iron or blow dry the book: There was a flash storm while Colin and I were out in the morning. When we got home, we found that our son had (uncharacteristically) thoughtfully moved all the stuff off the table on the verandah. But alas, he hadn’t noticed that there were books over near the side windows. Normally this wouldn’t have mattered because the rain NEVER comes from that direction. It did this time though. Normally that wouldn’t have mattered either because we NEVER have those windows open. But this particular morning my husband had one of those mystifyingly destructive urges and decided to open the windows. The rain simply poured in and the books were standing in water when I rescued them.

Two just had their covers wet, but the third, which was on the bottom, had water seeping in on all the edges. If we’d come back any later it would have been irrecoverable, and that would have been a shame because it’s one of my favourite books. Expensive too.

Sometimes you can be lucky.

And if YOU are lucky (hem hem), I’ll ply you with more of these ramblings during the next week, in between Christmassy behaviour.

Or I might not … I’m open to bribes.