Christmas

Yes, it is February. Yes, Christmas has come and gone. And what a wonderful Christmas it was. We were busy, yet I had lots of time to relax. A lot of people dropped by, yet we had ample time to visit family and friends. It wasn’t completely drama free – but what Christmas is?

I got home on the Friday before Christmas. Early the next day the first item on the agenda was our yearly meat pie marathon. I presented Mom with the matching aprons I purchased especially for the occasion. This of course resulted in a few raised eyebrows and comments from the men, but we forged on giggling in our matching apparel. We are never sure how many pies we will make as we simply go until we run out of meat. This year, we reached our largest yield ever: 17 pies. Here are 15 and ¼ - and a sultana cake that we threw in for good measure.

Crafts have seemed to work their way into my Christmas the past two years. Last year it was making buttons. This year it concerned dried Scottish Heather and seashells.  Mom produced the heather, seashells and a shadow box Christmas Eve and said “We need to put this together for Karen.” I then vaguely recalled Mom mentioning she was making this part of Karen’s Christmas gift. I thought Mom had a plan. We she told me she didn’t, I recall feeling a small surge of panic upon the discovery that this was to be a collaborative effort. We proceeded to make a tremendous mess. There was Heather e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. The end product though, turned out quite well if I do say so myself.

Every year we try and some different tree themes and some different decorations. I have wanted to have a gingerbread man themed tree for the past few years. We attempted making a few last year with disastrous results. This year, Mom made and decorated 25 little men, most of which were happy, with the exception of one little fella. Ah, my Mother and her sense of humour.

We also added a little memory of our Scottish trip to the tree:

Mom always does such a great job of picking out a perfect size tree. After many years of having Dad arrive home with a tree the size of the house, Mom now makes a point of always joining him on that annual trek to MacGillvary’s tree farm. What is with men and big tress? Seeing as this is a family friendly blog, I will not go there.

In front of the tree is the most precious of gifts – a family heirloom. The table was purchased by my great-grandmother Josephine (MacAulay) Steele with money she made growing and selling strawberries. This table, along with a few press back chairs and a rocker were placed in her parlour in the “eastern place” on what is now Steele’s Lane. The table ended up in her daughter’s (my grandmother) living room for many years and finally used by my Uncle as a bedside table. Too big for my Uncle’s current room, My Mom had it refinished and gave it to me. It now resides in our living room and I will treasure it forever. I hope Josephine is happy to see it cleaned up and well cared for again.

My Mother always does such a great job decorating with pine. It was incorporated into several arrangements around the house, as well as on top of the mantle.

This Christmas holiday we had an additional family get together to mark a special milestone. My sister-in-law organized a small gathering to celebrate her Dad and our Dad’s 75^th birthdays. It was just family and a few friends with some food, drink and cake of course. The one screw up was made by me. When I got the cakes, I asked for one to say “Happy Birthday Warren” and the other to say “Happy Birthday Bob.” And I obviously wasn’t paying close enough attention as when I got home, I laughed when I saw the cakes. Need I say more:

The Mahar sisters

All in all, I had a wonderful holiday at home. My Mom put so much effort into making it wonderful for all of us. Christmas this year reminded me how blessed I am. And I hope it was a wonderful holiday season for you all as well.