Sunday, December 23, 2012

An early Chrissy, but a great one.

 G'day. This was our Christmas day that was celebrated on Saturday just gone. Only immediate family this year due to the hasty change of days. My son and his partner really excelled themselves with all that they managed to pull together at such sort notice and their house looked just stunning.

I baked the ham on the Friday night. The smell throughout my home was mouth watering. The glaze was one I hadn't tried before and I can assure you it is now a family favourite.

The last picture is of the gorgeous urn and cherubs that stands in my son's kitchen area. I just love it and keep telling him that if he gets tired of it, I will look after it for him. So far there has been no luck on that happening. As you can see from the clock, he loves Paris as I do. Three weeks tomorrow and we will be flying out. Look out Penny, we're nearly on our way !!!

Hubby is cooking us Christmas tea tomorrow night. Though I have asked him not to go to too much trouble because I will be having a lunch at work with the residents of the nursing home and the other staff that are on duty. Another day of over eating. I can see it all now. But I can assure you all, that I will enjoy every minute of it.

Merry Christmas, have a great day. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
Take care.
Liz...









Friday, December 21, 2012

Merry Christmas

G'day. I have been a bit quiet on the blog front of late and am ashamed to say that I haven't kept up with reading all the blogs that I follow. Time to do everything my friends, has been against me. My place of paid employment has taken up more time than would be usual. Some weeks have seen me working six days. Trying to cram as much as possible into one free day is not easy.

It's now 6.05am here in my beautiful part of Oz. I have been awake for some time, with thoughts and plans for the day swirling around in my head. Our Christmas  lunch plans have now changed somewhat. Because I am working both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, we were going to have our big traditional lunch at my son's home on the Monday, Christmas Eve, but, alas that has now been changed and after hasty re-arrangements, lunch will be held today, Saturday. Due to staff shortages, I am now working Sunday through to Thursday. I could of course say no, but for some reason, that is not a word that comes easily to me. I have a strong commitment to my job, a job that I love. Before agreeing to work, I did talk to my son and daughter and they were both happy to change our day and so hubby and I are heading down to Keysborough where my son lives, for a grand Christmas feast. As my daughter said to me, it doesn't matter what day we celebrate, the main thing is we celebrate it together. How lovely is that.

The picture of the angel was taken in my son's backyard, shortly after he moved in. The area behind  and around the statue is now all garden, with lots of roses in it. He too, is a rose lover.

Well, it's only three weeks or so now till son and I fly to France. How quickly the time has gone since we first started arranging this adventure. We are now getting very excited. I am looking forward greatly to meeting my blog friend Penny who lives in France. Penny and I participated in a craft swap some time ago and have kept in touch. Penny's son lives in Paris and she has kindly arranged to visit him while we are there, so we can meet for the first time. How fabulous.

 My only concern is that we might not be prepared for the cold, which I have been warned about by a good friend, who just happens to be French and lives not far from me. Oh well, I am sure we will be just fine and will love every minute of it, cold or not. I will have lots of pictures to share when we return.

It's now time for me to start getting a few things done here, we will be leaving in a couple of hours to go to my son's. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may the New Year be a safe and extremely happy one for you. I have greatly appreciated the comments that have been left on my blog, over the last year. I think of you all as my friends and I wish you nothing but good health and happiness.

Take care. Liz...

Monday, December 3, 2012

Wonderful memories of years past.

G'day. Last week I went with a friend into the city of Melbourne. It's our capital city here in the state of Victoria where I live and every year one of the largest retailers, Myers, have their Christmas window display on. I haven't  seen the display now for many years, but when I was a child, my mother would take me in by train so that we could see this beautiful sight. It was a tradition that my mother stuck to and we continued to go up until the time that she got too sick to go anymore. We would always take the train, even when I had my car license, she didn't like to break the tradition and plus the fact that she really did like the train trip as I also did. We would have lunch in the city and make a real day of it. When I married and had children of my own, in we would all go, year after year. But, sadly time marched on, my mother who was a heavy smoker all her life came down with cancer and passed away 32 years ago. I continued the tradition and would take my two children to see the display, by train of course. But as happens, kids grow up, gazing in Christmas windows is replaced by boyfriends and girlfriends and other exciting things to do, though they would still humour me and continue to come for many years, even when they were adults themselves.  Before I knew it, Christmas would come and go, taking the windows with it. Oh well, we will go next year, I would say to myself, but next year would come and go also. It has been a very long time since my very grown children and I have seen a Myers Christmas window together.

The day I went in with my friend, I made a point of having a quick look at the windows, sadly time was against us as my friend had to be home by late afternoon and we had to hurry to catch our train and I only took my camera so that I could get another memory card for it, as I needed one that will hold many photos for my trip to France in January. I quickly pushed kids and adults out of the way, just to snatch these couple of pics. Not very good ones, I admit, but better than nothing!!

As I gazed wistfully at the windows, I was transported back to another time. A time that was happy and joyful, as a child, a teenager and then as an adult. A day spent with my precious mum, enjoying each others company, enjoying the day out, enjoying the train ride. Enjoying the Myers Christmas windows. Take care. Liz...