Christmas
And So This was Christmas
On January 7, 2023 by Speranza
My favourite day of the holiday season is now officially December 27.
This is a wonderful day. Upon awakening there is the luxurious feeling of no responsibility whatsoever, plenty of sumptuous leftovers waiting to be re-heated for dinner and the knowledge that I may be able to actually enjoy a movie or book entirely, without getting lost in planning whatever needs to happen the next day. I can also cobble together seasonal snacks such as turkey and stuffing smeared onto a buttered croissant and cranberry sauce spooned into leftover cream before I disappear to the bath. With a marzipan chocolate!
By December 27th, I will have shrugged off the shackles of extensive to-do’s such as picking up one more stocking item, remembering to defrost something vital, replenishing potatoes because I forgot when buying everything else, stopping to buy pet food (again) and then being flooded with shame because dinner has become a desperate afterthought once more …
Anyone for fish sticks?
British Stuff . Christmas . Friendship . Introspection
‘Tis Better to Give than to Receive
On December 13, 2021 by Speranza
A number of Christmases ago, an elderly friend of mine that I have known for many years invited me in for a snifter of Baileys’ Irish cream. As I was shedding my coat and stamping the snow off my boots at the door, she was already ranting about the price of cheese, the rudeness of that woman at the bank and the tardiness of a new letter-carrier who also had the audacity to cut across her lawn. In December. If you are imagining a sweet-natured, gentle older lady please stop now. This person once literally chased one of those conserving-energy types with a clipboard up to the corner of the street, shouting the F word and advising him not to come back.
And, I remain very confident that he did not.
Christmas . Frasier and Niles . Uncategorized
Merry Christmas 2017: Analysis
On December 31, 2017 by Speranza
Niles asked for a “whizzer stick” this year (my own bastardizational term for an immersion blender) but in the few days since Christmas (which feel like as many years) I have felt as though someone has lowered one into my emotional core. I don’t know if I am the only one who needs to just sit and stare at the wall after Christmas but after ten solid days of cooking, cleaning, fretting and trying to pretend I don’t feel like hiding in a closet with some (decent) gin, my tranquility resources are, (in keeping with the season) in the red.
Anxiety . Christmas . Divorce . Grey Divorce . The General
Christmas Past and Present
On January 7, 2016 by Speranza
I was really rattled this Christmas when I suddenly realized that I could scale back the baking considerably. I was also more suspicious than relieved. The need for a pyramid of mincemeat tarts, hamper-sized bags of potato chips and a massive raft of San Pellegrino usually associated with the weeks leading up to the holidays would just not be required this year; worse still, even though I have had neither of my boys living at home for more than a year now, I have somehow been unconsciously assuming that the situation was temporary and that soon everything would revert to its Normal State.
Whatever that is.
Christmas is a bit tricky too because there’s no one at home and then everyone returns home for a day or two, here and there, maybe dropping in for a dinner just long enough to reignite all the same maternal brain-patterns as before: sock donuts may be left tucked into the couch, fancy Christmas hand towels are hung up with the pattern on the inside or not hung up at all and why doesn’t someone text if they won’t be back till 3:30am when they are staying over …
Anxiety . Being A Mum . Christmas . Nostalgia
Merry Christmas and no, I don’t know where the effing scissors are!
On December 29, 2014 by Speranza
Please excuse the tardiness of this festive post.
It’s Christmas Eve – I had to work today and I have also been up late every night this week just trying to get the absolute minimum done to cobble a decent Christmas together: groceries bought, a real tree purchased and decorated and yes, alright, assemble the super-high maintenance stockings that my older boys will still delight at, anticipating an equal balance of the usual and the unexpected; marzipan from the German store (traditional) but then perhaps a gift certificate for a high end restaurant tucked in deeper still . Like most people, there are a few “must have” traditions that I like to get done in order to feel calmer but honestly, I am not a crazy person about all this. No one here has been carving roses from butter for the table or stringing dried cranberries around the cat basket. I merely try to strike a good balance and still do fun things for myself and the people around me.
Despite that – I somehow ended up weeping yesterday.