Tag Archives: Christmas

A Christmas Festival

Posted on by
Reply

Here we are halfway through the Festive Season once again.  Blink and it’s over.

Last year this time I was still in hospital struggling with my cancer treatment, knowing I would in all likelyhood get through it but nevertheless felt as though my life was at an end and I would never realise my dreams and get to that Bucket list.

I spent a lot of time thinking about life and what my priorities were.  Thinking about those who are important to me and regretting petty squabbles with those I hold dear to my heart.

I still haven’t realised any of my dreams or tackled that Bucket list but that is another topic for discussion.

I no longer hold grudges as life is too short.  It is not worth carrying hurt with you.

I ended my marriage quite a few years ago and I remember the first Christmas after.  Sad I was not with my Children, but I had made a decision which I have no regrets about.  I didn’t want to put my Children in a position where they would have to chose one parent over the other or them feeling guilty about not being with the other parent.  It was not a choice I wanted them to make.  So I stepped back and gladly let their Dad have Christmas.

The reality is that we do not need “Christmas” in order to have a good time with our children.  I still do Christmas with my Children but just not on the 25th December and we usually try to celebrate “MY” Christmas on the 5th December which is when the Dutch celebrate theirs.  My boyfriend is Dutch and it was one way of bringing our two families and traditions together in my new life too.

There are many broken families out there where only one parent shares in the joy of this festive season.  And many single parents are left at home alone, heart broken.

I am blessed to have very dear friends who I now spend Christmas with and consider them all part of my extended family.  We celebrate with many different family traditions, great food, great wine and great conversation.

Each year I get to have my own Christmas Festival starting with Christmas with my Children in early December and culminating with Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner with very close friends whose friendship I value most.

From someone who is truly blessed, I wish you all a Blessed Christmas too and hope all your dreams and wishes are realised in the coming year.

Merry Christmas all!

Image result for christmas dinner

Kommin Krismis

Posted on by
4

I have been blogging for around 6 months now.  It is not something that comes naturally to me – I am a very private / reserved person and it is difficult putting my thoughts and life down in a public forum.  But I do find it somewhat therapeutic and have found that it is a huge stress reliever.  One of the most difficult things about blogging, is finding things to blog about.  So I do a huge amount of research and reading of other peoples blog’s – to get general ideas, tips and tricks etc.

One of the blogs I read often and thoroughly enjoy is by a woman who lives in Cape Town – she blogs about her life and dealing with 3 children – A typical “Mom’s” blog.  She is very entertaining though so please have a look at her blog: http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/

Anyway – in her recent posts – she has told us about how she spends Christmas – instead of the traditional Christmas lunch – they have what is called Kommin Krismis (or Common Christmas for those who are not familiar with the South African Dialect).

She describes this as being a get together of family and friends on Christmas day – but with a twist.  Kommin Krismas consists of a bring your own braai.  They use paper plates, plasticwear, paper cups, wine in a box etc (not a turkey in sight).  They all dress up as commoners – complete with tramp stamps, curlers in hair, men in sweaty, sleevless vests etc.  Gifts are cheap and chearful and they have made a pact to use their gifts for at least 3 months before throwing them away.

I am posting 2 links below – the first link is her telling us about what they are going to do and describing Kommin Krismis.  The second link is her telling us about the day – with pics.

This is not something my family would appreciate, but I thought it a novel idea…


Kommin Krismis

Posted on by
Reply

I have been blogging for around 6 months now.  It is not something that comes naturally to me – I am a very private / reserved person and it is difficult putting my thoughts and life down in a public forum.  But I do find it somewhat therapeutic and have found that it is a huge stress reliever.  One of the most difficult things about blogging, is finding things to blog about.  So I do a huge amount of research and reading of other peoples blog’s – to get general ideas, tips and tricks etc.

One of the blogs I read often and thoroughly enjoy is by a woman who lives in Cape Town – she blogs about her life and dealing with 3 children – A typical “Mom’s” blog.  She is very entertaining though so please have a look at her blog: http://reluctantmom.wordpress.com/

Anyway – in her recent posts – she has told us about how she spends Christmas – instead of the traditional Christmas lunch – they have what is called Kommin Krismis (or Common Christmas for those who are not familiar with the South African Dialect).

She describes this as being a get together of family and friends on Christmas day – but with a twist.  Kommin Krismas consists of a bring your own braai.  They use paper plates, plasticwear, paper cups, wine in a box etc (not a turkey in sight).  They all dress up as commoners – complete with tramp stamps, curlers in hair, men in sweaty, sleevless vests etc.  Gifts are cheap and chearful and they have made a pact to use their gifts for at least 3 months before throwing them away.

I am posting 2 links below – the first link is her telling us about what they are going to do and describing Kommin Krismis.  The second link is her telling us about the day – with pics.

This is not something my family would appreciate, but I thought it a novel idea…


‘Twas the week before Christmas

Posted on by
4

Well Christmas is finally over. Missed Son no 2 terribly this year. This is my first year where I have not had the pleasure of having all 4 of my sons with me. I could ramble on about empty-nest syndrome but I will leave that for another post.

Summary of this week’s events as follows:

  • Monday – did nothing – sat on the couch and watched TV.
  • Tuesday – went to see Mission Impossible and then went out for lunch.
  • Wednesday – Went last minute Christmas shopping at Sandton City and had brunch with Son no 1’s wife and her mother.
  • Thursday – Decided to have a braai – purchased a Lamb pack a week earlier which stated the contents as Lamb “Chops” – upon defrosting, there were around 5 chops and the rest was stewing meat – so very annoyed with Pick ‘n Pay (our local Supermarket) – I hate being lied to! Should have taken it back and complained but just did not have the energy. 
  • Friday – Went out early and had breakfast at Wimpy. Bought dog food and went to the pharmacy for Hubby’s chronic medication.
  • Saturday – Hubby woke me up early. I made some tea and went back to sleep on the couch for awhile. Then got up, cleaned the house and washed clothes etc. (I like to wake up to a clean house on Christmas morning).

And finally it was Christmas morning…

Got up early, had tea with Hubby and then had a bath. Now that the kids are older – there is no mad rush to get up at the crack of dawn anymore – the kids would rather sleep in.

Woke Son no 3 and 4 up. Son no 1 and his wife arrived at around 7am. Made more tea and we all sat and opened presents. I must admit that we are not very religious and we celebrate Christmas for the sake of having one day where we spoil each other rotten.

It is getting more and more difficult to buy presents each year as our Sons have grown up. There are no more toys and Lego under the tree, no more stockings to fill the night before. These have been replaced with expensive gadgets and computers. This year we decided to buy one gift only for Son’s no 3 and 4 – we bought them each an iPad. I purchased these early to avoid the Christmas rush so it ended up with us buying more gifts as time went on. The iPads were exactly what they wanted so they were extremely happy. I got some “bling” from Swarovsky so I too was very happy.

I then started to prepare Christmas lunch. This year there was only 6 of us to cater for – this is the smallest Christmas lunch we have had for many many years. There is usually my 4 Sons, my mother-in-law, Son no 1’s wife, Son no 2’s girlfriend, and Hubby’s sister and her family and occasionally a few friends. This year however was different – mother-in-law is in Cape Town with Hubby’s sisters (Joburg based sister moved down to Cape Town this year), Son no 2 now lives in Dubai and him and his girlfriend are no longer together. So this year it was just Hubby and I, 3 of our Sons and Son no 1’s wife.

Still prepared the usual Turkey, Ham, Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Potatoes, Gravy, Chipolata Sausages, Bacon, Brussel Sprouts and Pumpkin. As you can guess – we ate far too much and and we now have loads of leftovers.

Spent the rest of the day watching “Ridiculousness” – the kids loved this and we spent the rest of the day laughing at other peoples mishaps.

Finally the day was over. And just like that we are almost at the end of the year.

I hope you all had the privilege of spending Christmas with family and friends too.

‘Twas the week before Christmas

Posted on by
Reply

Well Christmas is finally over. Missed Son no 2 terribly this year. This is my first year where I have not had the pleasure of having all 4 of my sons with me. I could ramble on about empty-nest syndrome but I will leave that for another post.

Summary of this week’s events as follows:

  • Monday – did nothing – sat on the couch and watched TV.
  • Tuesday – went to see Mission Impossible and then went out for lunch.
  • Wednesday – Went last minute Christmas shopping at Sandton City and had brunch with Son no 1’s wife and her mother.
  • Thursday – Decided to have a braai – purchased a Lamb pack a week earlier which stated the contents as Lamb “Chops” – upon defrosting, there were around 5 chops and the rest was stewing meat – so very annoyed with Pick ‘n Pay (our local Supermarket) – I hate being lied to! Should have taken it back and complained but just did not have the energy. 
  • Friday – Went out early and had breakfast at Wimpy. Bought dog food and went to the pharmacy for Hubby’s chronic medication.
  • Saturday – Hubby woke me up early. I made some tea and went back to sleep on the couch for awhile. Then got up, cleaned the house and washed clothes etc. (I like to wake up to a clean house on Christmas morning).

And finally it was Christmas morning…

Got up early, had tea with Hubby and then had a bath. Now that the kids are older – there is no mad rush to get up at the crack of dawn anymore – the kids would rather sleep in.

Woke Son no 3 and 4 up. Son no 1 and his wife arrived at around 7am. Made more tea and we all sat and opened presents. I must admit that we are not very religious and we celebrate Christmas for the sake of having one day where we spoil each other rotten.

It is getting more and more difficult to buy presents each year as our Sons have grown up. There are no more toys and Lego under the tree, no more stockings to fill the night before. These have been replaced with expensive gadgets and computers. This year we decided to buy one gift only for Son’s no 3 and 4 – we bought them each an iPad. I purchased these early to avoid the Christmas rush so it ended up with us buying more gifts as time went on. The iPads were exactly what they wanted so they were extremely happy. I got some “bling” from Swarovsky so I too was very happy.

I then started to prepare Christmas lunch. This year there was only 6 of us to cater for – this is the smallest Christmas lunch we have had for many many years. There is usually my 4 Sons, my mother-in-law, Son no 1’s wife, Son no 2’s girlfriend, and Hubby’s sister and her family and occasionally a few friends. This year however was different – mother-in-law is in Cape Town with Hubby’s sisters (Joburg based sister moved down to Cape Town this year), Son no 2 now lives in Dubai and him and his girlfriend are no longer together. So this year it was just Hubby and I, 3 of our Sons and Son no 1’s wife.

Still prepared the usual Turkey, Ham, Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Potatoes, Gravy, Chipolata Sausages, Bacon, Brussel Sprouts and Pumpkin. As you can guess – we ate far too much and and we now have loads of leftovers.

Spent the rest of the day watching “Ridiculousness” – the kids loved this and we spent the rest of the day laughing at other peoples mishaps.

Finally the day was over. And just like that we are almost at the end of the year.

I hope you all had the privilege of spending Christmas with family and friends too.

Jingle Bells

Posted on by
2

Well It’s almost Christmas.  And how do I know that – well….  

We live down a panhandle and the chap who normally delivers our weekly local newspaper has lowered himself to walk down the driveway and actually deliver the paper to my gate and not leave it at the top of the drive-way to get blown all over the place.  He is sucking up for his annual bonus!
Now each year we have a conversation with him about delivering the paper to the right place and each year he promises to walk down the driveway.  But we all know he will only do this in the months of November, December and January.
Son no 2 has his last official day of classes tomorrow.  He is then on study leave and then starts writing exams for 2 weeks.  Son no 3 writes all his exams in 1 week – all 10 subjects.  He finishes his exams on the 18th of November.  God only knows what the kids are supposed to do at school between the 18th November and the 9th of December when schools close for the year.  We have to put up with demotivated children who don’t want to go to school because they are so bored.  The teachers do find things for them to do such as school plays, sports events etc, but once they have written exams, they switch off and want to go on holiday.  For them the year is done.
It is going to be a strange Christmas this year.  I am normally surrounded by my 4 sons.  But this year I will have Son no 2 in Dubai and Son no 1 is working for a company who does not get time off over the Christmas season.  I am looking forward to the time off but I know I will miss my sons terribly.
Skyping just isn’t the same thing!

Jingle Bells

Posted on by
Reply

Well It’s almost Christmas.  And how do I know that – well….  

We live down a panhandle and the chap who normally delivers our weekly local newspaper has lowered himself to walk down the driveway and actually deliver the paper to my gate and not leave it at the top of the drive-way to get blown all over the place.  He is sucking up for his annual bonus!
Now each year we have a conversation with him about delivering the paper to the right place and each year he promises to walk down the driveway.  But we all know he will only do this in the months of November, December and January.
Son no 2 has his last official day of classes tomorrow.  He is then on study leave and then starts writing exams for 2 weeks.  Son no 3 writes all his exams in 1 week – all 10 subjects.  He finishes his exams on the 18th of November.  God only knows what the kids are supposed to do at school between the 18th November and the 9th of December when schools close for the year.  We have to put up with demotivated children who don’t want to go to school because they are so bored.  The teachers do find things for them to do such as school plays, sports events etc, but once they have written exams, they switch off and want to go on holiday.  For them the year is done.
It is going to be a strange Christmas this year.  I am normally surrounded by my 4 sons.  But this year I will have Son no 2 in Dubai and Son no 1 is working for a company who does not get time off over the Christmas season.  I am looking forward to the time off but I know I will miss my sons terribly.
Skyping just isn’t the same thing!