Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve 2010
I started our Christmas Eve activities not knowing what the day would bring.
Our plan was to deliver a Christmas cyclamen plant to some neighbours, old friends and family.
There were not very many - it could have been a very short day.
But, it was ten hours after we started out this morning that we finally returned home - and still had some Christmas cyclamen plants!
The people we visited were mostly at home and invited us in.
We have enjoyed cups of tea and chat with all sorts of people.
We have been with our neighbours, Rose, Frieda and Isobel and delivered a plant at the house of our neighbours Colin and Lisa.
We were a couple of hours with Rose. We tried to explain to Frieda about the easiest way for her to control her heating. I used Isobel's computer to find her an accurate conversion of a Gas Mark temperature to a centigrade oven temperature.
We popped into home for a half hour - another cup of tea and a little something.
Then we went to see Den and Ru - Mr and Mrs Sayers as they were known when Bill was young and growing up in the house next door.
They are now in their 80s.
We don't see them very often really.
Another cup of tea was enjoyed.
As we left we were able to chat with the family who have very recently moved in at No 14 - Bill's old home. There are 5 children in the family and it was lovely to see a large gathering of children at the front door - almost like the old days when a family with 10 children were the occupants of the house.
It was by this time close to 5 o'clock - we could see that there would not be enough hours in the day for all that was planned.
We decided to go and see Bill's brother Michael and his wife, Bev.
We were admirably entertained and we chatted for ages.
I spoke with Bill and mentioned that perhaps we would abandon ideas of cooking anything this evening.
At this point, Bev suggested that we stayed together and get a Chinese take away.
So off went brother, Michael and our nephew, Michael to join the queue of others with similar ideas.
Wine was opened.
It was a lovely evening - spontaneous and good.
I know it helped Bev unwind.
We actually came home with more than we took out.
Young Michael is a dab hand at finding things in the work's skip. Bev was keen to get rid of an unneeded office chair.
Other things he has "found" have been kept.
Now we have the office chair - and it might fit in front of Bill's computer.
If it is not suitable I am sure we can find a good home for it.
We also have cat food - their cats refused to eat one sort they had bought. Harry has tucked in very well to his first meal of it.
I reckon this has been a good Christmas Eve.
It is has felt fun and friendly and we have felt at ease being ourselves.
It feels so much better for me to be able to throw myself into Christmas present and ignore all the pulls of Christmases past.
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.
I hope that tomorrow and subsequent days feel good, peaceful and contented.
Our plan was to deliver a Christmas cyclamen plant to some neighbours, old friends and family.
There were not very many - it could have been a very short day.
But, it was ten hours after we started out this morning that we finally returned home - and still had some Christmas cyclamen plants!
The people we visited were mostly at home and invited us in.
We have enjoyed cups of tea and chat with all sorts of people.
We have been with our neighbours, Rose, Frieda and Isobel and delivered a plant at the house of our neighbours Colin and Lisa.
We were a couple of hours with Rose. We tried to explain to Frieda about the easiest way for her to control her heating. I used Isobel's computer to find her an accurate conversion of a Gas Mark temperature to a centigrade oven temperature.
We popped into home for a half hour - another cup of tea and a little something.
Then we went to see Den and Ru - Mr and Mrs Sayers as they were known when Bill was young and growing up in the house next door.
They are now in their 80s.
We don't see them very often really.
Another cup of tea was enjoyed.
As we left we were able to chat with the family who have very recently moved in at No 14 - Bill's old home. There are 5 children in the family and it was lovely to see a large gathering of children at the front door - almost like the old days when a family with 10 children were the occupants of the house.
It was by this time close to 5 o'clock - we could see that there would not be enough hours in the day for all that was planned.
We decided to go and see Bill's brother Michael and his wife, Bev.
We were admirably entertained and we chatted for ages.
I spoke with Bill and mentioned that perhaps we would abandon ideas of cooking anything this evening.
At this point, Bev suggested that we stayed together and get a Chinese take away.
So off went brother, Michael and our nephew, Michael to join the queue of others with similar ideas.
Wine was opened.
It was a lovely evening - spontaneous and good.
I know it helped Bev unwind.
We actually came home with more than we took out.
Young Michael is a dab hand at finding things in the work's skip. Bev was keen to get rid of an unneeded office chair.
Other things he has "found" have been kept.
Now we have the office chair - and it might fit in front of Bill's computer.
If it is not suitable I am sure we can find a good home for it.
We also have cat food - their cats refused to eat one sort they had bought. Harry has tucked in very well to his first meal of it.
I reckon this has been a good Christmas Eve.
It is has felt fun and friendly and we have felt at ease being ourselves.
It feels so much better for me to be able to throw myself into Christmas present and ignore all the pulls of Christmases past.
Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.
I hope that tomorrow and subsequent days feel good, peaceful and contented.
