A
funny thing happened on the way to my blog-spot....
By
the middle of December I had plotted my course for Christmasville, with what I thought
was sufficient time to successfully achieve all my preparations. However, on the journey, I encountered a
couple of extra junctions on the round-about—like the Burg of unfinished sewing
projects, and the German-inspired Gingerbread Town.
Lots of messy
fun had to be scheduled, as icing sugar flew up from the mixer in super-fine
powdering snow, dusting the work-top and everything on it with a film of sticky
whiteness. Most of the houses were
ordered constructed and decorated, so I used literally pounds of icing sugar
(powdered sugar), dozens of eggs and perhaps a tablespoon of cream of tartar in
mixing royal icing to “glue” the houses together and put on the sweets. However, two friends wanted to have a go of
decorating the houses themselves.
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| "Mrs. Cardlady" |
Thursday, 20th December 2012—Mrs.
Cardlady came for a wonderful time of chatter and construction. By way of coaching, I assembled a house along
side of Mrs. Cardlady. We ran into a bit
of trouble when her house began to come apart.
We managed to rescue the house, amidst some creative thinking and extra
gingerbread. Mrs. Cardlady and I became
firm friends during the afternoon.
She
had brought several bags of Allsorts liquorish, as this was one of her
favourite sweets. (By the way, liquorish
and gingerbread go together very well!) Being a bubbly, chatty, extravert, Mrs.
Cardlady told me about taking an “embroidery class” that was more of a
3-dimensional design class.
One of her
assignments was to design and create a pair of house slippers. Her first thought was a pair of pink,
high-heeled boudoir slippers; but once home, inspiration hit by way of the
Allsorts. I’ve seen said slippers and
here is a photograph of them. Mrs.
Cardlady lives literally just down the block and her husband, “The Mothman”
came and carried their gingerbread creation home for her.
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| "Reba" at work. |
Saturday, 22nd December—“Dr.
Surry” brought her youngest daughter, “Reba” on the Saturday before
Christmas. “Reba” is 11 years old and a
very articulate young lady. Spending the
day with “Dr. Surry” and “Reba” turned into a surprise for me. We finished the gingerbread houses, and
suddenly I was invited along to watch a film at the cinema (movie at the theatre)
with them; Tinker Bell—Secret of the
Wings. The animation, artwork
and colours in the film were striking, refreshing. While the story might have been predictable,
it wasn’t trite or boring. They also
bought a Chinese take-away for my dinner.
I was truly blessed that afternoon.
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| "Grandy, Ally & Nanna" |
Monday, 24th December—“The
Maverick” and I went over to “Floss & Harry’s” for a couple of hours—delivering
their Christmas presents. Sharing
Christmas with a child in the picture has a certain degree of delight in
it. But, to share it with your own child
and grandchild is truly a time to be cherished and revelled in. Christmas 2012 was “Ally’s” first
Christmas. She was fascinated with the lights. And Mummy had her dressed up in red, awaiting
Santa.
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| "Baby Ally." "Daddy--Harry" and "Mummy--Floss" |
With our other three children
in Southern England, we had made plans to share Christmas dinner with “The
Aussie Family”--“TechPhile” and “Sandgroper—and their two lovely children”. Christmas day was sunny, with a stiff chill—almost
cold but one could get by with a fleece instead of a heavy coat. “The Maverick” and I went to church for
Christmas service and then returned home to wait for “Sandgroper” to come
collect us. Their home is about four
miles from us. The phone rang, and “TechPhile”
informed us that a taxi was on its way—one of the car tires had gone flat in
route.
The taxi arrived and “The
Maverick” and I climbed in. We were
about three-quarters of the way to our destination when I saw “Sandgroper” walking
towards home. Without either “The
Maverick” or I asking him, the driver found a place to turn around and pick up “Sandgroper.” The Lord was certainly looking out for all of
us! The driver was a bit confused when “Sandgroper”
went to pay him instead of “The Maverick.”
Christmas was a disappointing
day for “TechPhile” because he was ill with the flu. He did manage to come down and say hello, but
that was all. Spending the day in bed when
one is ill is an unhappy way to spend Christmas. But the children enjoyed opening their
gifts. We had a lovely turkey dinner.
As a general
rule, it is always polite to turn on the mobile phone off during a meal. “The Maverick’s” phone rang during the mail
course. Though he was scheduled to have
Boxing Day off, an allocator had rung, asking John to work. I was not happy about the situation; but I
also knew he’d get paid a shift bonus for working on a bank holiday. I was also a bit disappointed that he
immediately said yes, without asking me how I felt. Oh well...
After the meal, “The Maverick” and “Sandgroper”
walked back to the car, where he changed the tire and they came back.
In the evening, “Sandgroper”
brought “The Maverick” and me home. We
finally opened our gifts.
I don’t remember Boxing Day—except
that John had an early shift, and he got home early afternoon. I think we probably sat on the couch and
watched films on television.
The last two gingerbread
houses were done in January—as that was when they were ordered for. Right now I don’t know if I will do it again
next year or not.
John worked New Year’s Eve
and New Year’s Day. Neither of us stayed
up to greet the New Year.
I’ve also been busy with two
weekly sewing classes, and working on next Christmas’s gifts. I have a list of things I want to make and
have one ready to tick off. Wish I could
show you...but then it won’t be a surprise.
So that’s me pretty much
caught up.
Serving Jesus, Author of our
faith,
“Lady Helene”
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