Christmas came and went

Now that I am back from our annual wanderings, I can record this year's official christmas report. For posterity and all. Now that it's New Year's Eve. And I am not going to bother doing anything else this new years eve. Just go to bed when I feel like it, possibly rather early :)

This would have had to have been the most rushed christmas i can remember. Although this year I actually did my christmas shopping before they sold out of everything in the shops. I finished the wrapping on Christmas Eve eve (unless you count the present i bought on christmas eve and wrapped at the destination). The christmas eve eve saturday was also when we put up the christmas tree. So we had not quite a day to properly enjoy it, because we left on sunday (but I haven't put the tree away yet and am in no hurry either:)).

There's always a moment when it 'really' feels like christmas. You know? This year it was when we'd started wrapping the presents (the week before), and we had this neat, pretty little pile of christmas presents sitting in a corner of the loungeroom. And I looked at them and thought 'oh, how nice, it's christmas isn't it?'

One of my favourite pre-christmas moments was the annual Rotary fruit and vegie market. I have not participated in this marvellous occasion for many years. Since we moved back here. Last year I think I was working.

My mum and I organised to get there at 6:45, to check everything out before they start selling at 7am. They block off part of the street, and this year they moved it from the traditional place, to behind the main street, so we drove around frantically wondering where it had gone. I had a fleeting panic that they'd cancelled it. (Which would have been interesting seeing as that's where we get all our christmas season fruit and veg supplies.) And when we found it, they wouldn't even let us near until 7am. Shoulda known. So we got a coffee at the bakery and were 5 minutes late instead.

We couldn't carry all our stuff so I had the job of minding the crates and bags, while my sister and mum shuttled them back and forth (the wheelbarrow wouldn't fit in mum's car, and we didn't want to wheel it all the way back to her place. Would have had a trail of mangoes and nectarines through the streets. And sore legs...). Besides, I don't think all our stuff would even have fit in a wheelbarrow.

It would have looked interesting from the main street. There were people with wheelbarrows coming from all directions. I don't know what would have looked stranger. The people speeding with their empty barrows or the ones tottering along full of fruit and vegies. I mean, we may live in the country, but you don't get a lot of people pushing their wheelbarrows down the main street.

While I was minding, a total stranger senior italian lady asked me to look after her vegies and then kept coming back with more supplies for me to mind. She later returned with another complete stranger (to both of us), having borrowed their wheelbarrow to push them in. I don't know what their arrangement was for getting it back. A man with a sense of humour came and asked me if I was setting up a shop, and then later 'i think they'll go quicker with the prices on'. Then another lady asked me to mind her vegetables. It was all very community minded. I can't wait til next year already. I actually have so many bananas i can't choose which way to use them.
We had to use the combined might of our three fridges to accommodate it all. And half the fruit just got stored in our fruit bowls.

On the friday night we had our church 'christmas party'. Because it rained it all went indoors, including the bbq smoke (well it just blew in). We had an animal show involving a crocodile and snakes and a giant cockroach and the like. I got to hold one of the pythons later. Does that mean I'm a big kid or just strange?

I made wonderful christmas food creations (mini chocolate christmas puddings and rumballs) and we did our choir thing for the final time. I had to do all the food on wednesday night, thursday night and friday morning ( i asked the boss if i could come in an hour late to work). How ridiculous. Well you only do it once a year....