Good things to eat. On Christmas Eve, our traditional time of celebration: oysters, salty and buxom, like Jane Russell; salmon terrine; olives and pepperberries and artichokes. And on Christmas Day: beef cooked blue; potato salad with gherkins; crisp salad; good bread.
Good things to drink. Bay of Fires Pinot Noir Chardonnay; raspberry syrup in soda water and the bubbly.
Good things to see. A Christmas tree looking just the way I've always wanted one to look - sparkly and modest and maybe even elegant (maybe); my girls reveling in time with Meema and Grandad.
Good time. No work (no thought of work), no deadlines, no lists, no email. Hours in the garden, tidying and replenishing. Waking up yesterday and then again today with absolutely nothing planned, nothing expected of the day. Napping when I want to, feeling my body clock tick-tock back into its own proper time and feeling so much better for it. Remembering the way the hours drip slowly by when there's no push and no pull, just the lazy currents of time at home with my family.
But the spirit of Christmas? Two huge lollipops in the Christmas stockings - all artificial, teeth rotting, mood disordering joy for my girls. There's been a lot of talk about hand made Christmas on the blogs I read but in our house, the ship's well and truly sailed on that idea.
8 comments:
I am always attracted to the idea of a hand-made Christmas, and then am put off by the sheer amount of work involved. I enjoy making things on a whim, but not so much making great piles of things with a very firm deadline for having everything completed and wrapped. Looking at that photo, I now feel a burning desire to eat a lollipop as big as my head.
Kris, I love this post--it's so evocative of a beautiful, true Christmas--the antithesis of all the Christmas-commercial crap....
(The lollipops are fantastic.)
Hi Kris,
Glad to hear you had a wonderful Christmas.
Those lollipops are whoppers!!! I bet the kids were sticky up their armpits!
Lol, at the Jane Russell oysters, I can just picture them.
Rasberry syrup and soda water sounds so divine. Like red cordial for grown-ups.
Shell.
Loved the sound of your Christmas.
Your children look wonderful, with their lollipops.
Wicked lollipops!
So pleased you had a lovely Christmas.
xx
Yes - I highly recommend lollipops for adults as well as kids - we vultures waited until the girls were asleep for sneaky nibbles.
Raspberry syrup + soda water is divine - not too sweet and because it's not cordial I feel marginally more sophisticated about drinking it
Kris
Your Christmas fare sounds perfect for Australia. 'Scuse my ignorance, but what is beef cooked blue?
What a beautiful description of your Christmas Day. Lovely.
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