Christmas came and went II (the real thing)

How much can you write about christmas? Guess it was busy.

So, we went on chrissy eve (after church, and the packing of the entire car, cos we couldn't do that on saturday could we, including all mum/neville/em/thom's presents- our car looked like santa's sleigh) and all stayed in a holiday house (me and pete, sister katy and partner, mum and neville and little bro and sis). And sister mim and nephews were there in the daytime/s.
The cooler weather was nice cos it meant our chrissy dinner was a bit more climate-appropriate. In the afternoon, I kept moving to the quieter end of the house, but there wasn't really one. Hence I kept moving.

Boxing day we had birthday celebrations for the one sister at a park. All went back to the house and 4 of the adults holed up in corners with their christmas present books. We left around 8 or 9pm, minus my oven mitts, as I later discovered.

THEN (oh no, I'm not done yet....), Wednesday we had a 'rest' day ('rest' day meaning i got to sleep in past 8am, wash all the clothes again, water the garden, unpack the presents and repack the suitcases).

Thursday we drove down to my dad's, in south gippsland. Seeing as I am still digital-camera-less, here's a photo that was taken last year, from dad's back house yard fence, looking at what is some of their land (down to just past the bottom of the hill, and off to the left). they have about 25 acres.



So that was very peaceful and pleasant. Dad was back at work the days we were there, but we didn't leave until saturday (last) night. Got home not long before midnight;)

He now has two clydesdales (named Bonnie and Jay), to add to their two dogs (Bobbie and Muffy) and their 6 calves (5 little black angus cross bull calves and a jersey heifer calf called lily-beth). And a crimson rosella and two umm turtle doves? That I am serious about, although there's no partridge in a pear tree. Last time we went they had a galah called spud but he is flying free with his galah kind nowadays.

We did a lot of gardening and yesterday dad was in there picking up some stuff and he grabbed hold of a tiger snake. I was standing near him and saw him pick it up and fling it down again. Lucky it was half asleep. I ran in one direction. Sharon ran in the other. I threw him a big stick, Sharon threw him a shovel. Lucky it didn't know which direction to run either. I think the being airborne bit confused it as well. he hacked at it and chopped off it's head and we all stood around for the next half hour a bit dazed.

After we recovered from that, and loaded up the ute and trailer with a bunch of rubbish, we went to...dah dah dah daaaahh... The Tip. I confess we did. I remember going when I was a kid. Not since. I made pete go a couple of times in sydney/nsw and dump some stuff, but that was at weird sanitized? regimented nazi versions of the tip where they make you pay your weeks grocery bill to get rid of a few bags of rubbish, and looking around at junk is strictly forbidden.

This may make me sound like a weirdo feral to some people, and perhaps confuse others, but oh well.
This occasion was just as i remembered it from my fond childhood experiences, although slightly more regimented. Although dad was friends with the (tip officials, for lack of a better word) and so we could discreetly fossick to our hearts content. 'Tip-ratting' is what we used to call it. The object is to find things you either want/need for something, or can sell to someone else who wants or needs it. I think there is a grand continuum that goes op-shop, clearance sale, tip. The stuff from some should be at the other and the stuff from the others could be at the first two. (Depending on your level of bother, general cleverness and depression-era mentality. And people really shouldn't put rubbish in op-shops. Just throw it out. Ask Neville) Can't be bothered explaining my continuum any less cryptically. (It's an hour to next year and I feel like I should have gone to bed before. Looks like I might actually stay up and see it in this year.)

So, as I was saying. The tip. We were there so long (an hour?) and there was no shade except under the car and in some blackberry bushes, so I got very sunburnt. I had a hat on so my face didn't. This morning in church people kept commenting and I must have said 20 times 'yes i'm sunburnt, it wasn't intentional' and when they asked how i would reply 'i was in the middle of nowhere and there was no shade, except under the car in the gravel, or in a blackberry bush' and my mum wondered why i was so evasive to everyone until i told her i was at the tip. I couldn't be bothered explaining 20 times that I was at the tip, cos i would have had to explain being at the tip to most of them as well. A bit too much on a sunday morning at church. And i was singing up the front too. Except for the sunburn, I probably didn't look like i'd been at the tip. (Did i tor??? ;) )

Pete is watching some old dick tracy mystery movie.

Some of my little green tomatoes, when I got home from holidays, had been blown off their plants by the wind and were lying around the vegie patch, and one had gone so far that it was lying way on top of a pumpkin-vine-leaf, and i only saw it when I stood up.

I think this post is far too long and if i forgot anything it sure can wait.

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....

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night

That about sums today up. Too tired to think properly so Merry Christmas til whichever week I get back on here! (going away to various relatives for a bit) and hope we all come back smiling :)