Festive Season

Originally posted 14 December 2007

As the year grows steadily to a close our thoughts are with those who are no longer with us as well as those who are far away. Its strange how this time of the year focus’s our minds on the past rather than the present. We all have our own way of celebrating Christmas as well as the end of the calendar year. For example we will have our son Michael and daughter Mariel joins us for dinner on Christmas day. My wife Marilou will prepare the various ingredients for the Christmas dinner in advance so as to reduce the stress and hassle of doing everything at once. Our dinner consists of three courses. We will have a starter of either soup or various cold cuts of meat with a salad. This will be followed by roast turkey, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, peas with stuffing and cranberry jelly and of course gravy. The third course is our traditional Christmas pudding consisting of a mixed fruit dumpling laced with brandy smeared in fresh double cream. During the meal we usually consume a bottle of red and white wine. Dinner is normally preceded with the pulling of Christmas crackers containing jokes, gifts and paper hats to wear and precluded with two hours sleep on the sofa whilst pretending to watching television. If I may take you back to earlier in the morning when we arise we as a family normally gather round the Christmas tree in our living room and open our gifts with ooh’s and aah’s a plenty as well as lots of laughter. Breakfast is usually a light affair not to spoil our appetite for the dinner ahead. What I have described will be mirror imaged in millions of households all over the world at different times on the 25th December due to the time zones we live in. The traditional fare will also vary depending on the part of the world we live and the culture we belong to and of course what we can afford. Let us not forget those both young and old who will have nothing special to eat at this very special time of the year. If we can help someone by giving a little of what we have lets do so I’m sure it’s what our Lord would want in remembrance of this very important time in the year. Let’s all look forward to a better and more prosperous 2008 and not forget that however bad at times during the year we may feel, there is someone somewhere worse of than us.
To one and all who may read this blog I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. God bless you whoever you are and wherever you may be.