This Christmas I will be.......
Hi everyone, This time last year I asked you all to post some Xmas tips and we put some of these tips in an article and sent it to women newly diagnosed with a link to the online conversation https:...
Forum Discussion
Ah Christmas, I love the whole shebang. Normally there is the tree, the decorations and Christmas lights. However not this year. I think that age, weariness, fatigue and an inability to get these lungs of mine working properly has contributed.
My "Husband and I" enjoy a quiet Christmas - just the two of us. Christmas food though is much to the fore and usually we cook for twenty even though there is just we two. This year we have scaled the food down somewhat, but not the traditional Christmas Pudding which is an event in itself.
The fruit is soaked in sherry and stirred daily from the beginning of November and then the pudding is steamed for six hours in early December. Ah, this year it turned out lovely. And the best outcome, the bottom did not fall off, and did not require jamming back on in the hope that no one will notice unlike last year!
From now until Christmas Day a cap full of sherry will be lovingly poured over to marinate. Opening the back verandah fridge requires one to hold their breath to avoid being overcome by the fumes.
Now, acquiring a bottle of sherry in our Kimberley town is an art in itself, because of our alcohol restrictions fortified wines are not permitted under our Alcohol Accord". Whiskey, brandy, rum all allowed - but not sherry!
So, you sidle up to your friendly bottle shop owner muttering the password " it's Christmas Pudding Time", to which there is a reply of " I guess you are going to need one of these" and out from under the counter comes a brown paper bag containing the requisite fortified wine. Cash changes hands and you leave, innocently clutching the brown paper bag. Many a time I have been tempted to find a park bench on the way home, but the pudding requires its marinating.
On the day, said pudding will be decorated with plastic holly to look authentic and then set alight with brandy (after plastic decorations are removed, not like one year!)
I like the weeks leading up to Christmas, the build up of the wet season, the afternoon thunderstorms, the Christmas lights competition that usually is drowned out by the thunderstorms, the touring of town to view the lights competition in the rain, the quietness of the town when all the government employees leave to escape the heat and when the NGO's leave to return to their southern capital cities after having "saved" us all year.
Yay.
My "Husband and I" enjoy a quiet Christmas - just the two of us. Christmas food though is much to the fore and usually we cook for twenty even though there is just we two. This year we have scaled the food down somewhat, but not the traditional Christmas Pudding which is an event in itself.
The fruit is soaked in sherry and stirred daily from the beginning of November and then the pudding is steamed for six hours in early December. Ah, this year it turned out lovely. And the best outcome, the bottom did not fall off, and did not require jamming back on in the hope that no one will notice unlike last year!
From now until Christmas Day a cap full of sherry will be lovingly poured over to marinate. Opening the back verandah fridge requires one to hold their breath to avoid being overcome by the fumes.
Now, acquiring a bottle of sherry in our Kimberley town is an art in itself, because of our alcohol restrictions fortified wines are not permitted under our Alcohol Accord". Whiskey, brandy, rum all allowed - but not sherry!
So, you sidle up to your friendly bottle shop owner muttering the password " it's Christmas Pudding Time", to which there is a reply of " I guess you are going to need one of these" and out from under the counter comes a brown paper bag containing the requisite fortified wine. Cash changes hands and you leave, innocently clutching the brown paper bag. Many a time I have been tempted to find a park bench on the way home, but the pudding requires its marinating.
On the day, said pudding will be decorated with plastic holly to look authentic and then set alight with brandy (after plastic decorations are removed, not like one year!)
I like the weeks leading up to Christmas, the build up of the wet season, the afternoon thunderstorms, the Christmas lights competition that usually is drowned out by the thunderstorms, the touring of town to view the lights competition in the rain, the quietness of the town when all the government employees leave to escape the heat and when the NGO's leave to return to their southern capital cities after having "saved" us all year.
Yay.