I have intended visiting this project often, but got distracted as is my way!
Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my Christmas, and I will try to attend to this project more frequently. My 'trouble' is I journal on paper, so forget to come to the blog.
As only a mother will understand, not having ones children near for Christmas morning is harsh. This year all 3 were away from me. I console myself with the fact that they are adults and have lives of their own, and it is time for me to start my life. But still........
Our Christmas has been a busy time getting there and deliciously quiet on the arrival.
We started our hall rental and catering just in time for a few Christmas parties, so we were really busy the week before Christmas week. we cooked too many turkeys to want to cook another for ourselves AND we had sufficient turkey meat (and stock) in the freezer left over from the functions, so we just heated up more of that. We did do fresh everything else, but that was a no brainer!
Last Christmas we invited our minister from church to have Christmas dinner with us as he is from the States and has no family here. This year he asked if an invitation was being offered again. We took that as a compliment of last years time (I was working all last Christmas Day so hardly was involved in the home life) and were happy to have him this year. Last year he brought his Christmas Pudding, and offered to bring one this year. Having tasted last years one, there is no option - he had to come! Further to that we asked him to bring anyone else he knew who would be home alone for Christmas, so he brought Mary. I also knew Janina could be home alone, so I left her a note on her door inviting her to come. She was ecstatic because she REALLY needed a social outing! So our Christmas dinner moved from 2 people to 5. I loved it, I feel this is what Christmas is about - giving and sharing.
As we live in a small community we don't have the large numbers of folks who have a lonely Christmas, but I would like to think we could be here for those who do. So maybe 5 around the table will become more next time - or maybe, instead, we have family - or of course, both!
This year we had the dining room and living room to use for Christmas. It was in a state of renovation last year. This year our kitchen is there, but is still functioning. Our plan is to get that resolved this year. So we had Christmas dinner in the dining room, not the kitchen as we did last year. Our table only sits 6 max, and we only have 4 chairs for it, so I used a stool. If we have more than 6 to dinner we use the barn, as we do for our functions. As the barn was decorated for Christmas, we didn't put any decorations up in the house. I just put candle lamps and our Christmas cards, so it felt quite festive.
Here are some pictures of our Christmas in the Barn.
