Epiphany

8th Jan 2019

Well, Christmas is over and the decorations - tree , cards, wall hangings have been taken down. All gone except for the crib. The crib will stay until 2nd Feb.

Epiphany 

The Feast of the Epiphany 6th January- we were at our daughter's - was a wonderful  celebration .
Mass first thing, coffee and biscuits in the hall after, where Peter and I had a strange conversation with an interesting  chap we hadn't met before who is a musician, who converted to Catholicism eight years ago. He told us his conversion story which started way back in an evangelical upbringing. He spent many years searching for the more authenticity,  moving from one domination to the next, until he ended up in the Catholic church, which he now says is his home.
"What can I do to help, " I take my coat off and follow  my daughter into the kitchen, where she is already surrounded by bowls, mixers, weighing scales and everything needed to make cheesecake.
" Could you take that bowl there. There's red onions and tomatoes in the fridge . You can slice them all up and put them in there." And so I did, adding some balsamic viniger to taste.
After that we spent about three hours getting the food ready for the party later. For most of that time I kept my head down and washed up , and washed up , keeping the area clean so Em and some of the girls could just get on.
In between times different children came in and helped themselves to something to eat, after all it would be a long time till the party.
The long table is decorated with a Christmas table cloth and candles with a place even for the baby Jesus. It looks just perfect.
We take a moment to have a coffee, but not for long as the first visitor arrives and now the table in the kitchen is strewn with everything needed to make beautiful kings crowns, with glittery jewels to stick on .
They are dressed in kings robes to play their role . Happy children.
Finally everyone is here and I am swaddled in the comfortable chatter and buzz that is my lovely family - children, grandchildren, niece, great niece and nephew, and sister-in-law. We drink what looks like pink champagne and catch up on stories. A blessed time, which passes all too quickly.
The food ?- amazing , of course. But the company is the main thing.
When people start to leave I get sad.
Later hubby and I take ourselves out to our camper, which is parked up on the drive and go to bed. We are both emotional and teary eyed at what a great family we have.

Twelfth Night

7th Dec 2018

We always try to celebrate the twelve days of Christmas finishing on the feast of the Epiphany - 6th Jan.
Here's a little memory of sorts from around that time:


Twelfth Night  
                                                                                                                     

“Careful Rob, they’ll break,” Mary takes the golden bauble from him and gently places it in its box.

“Actually, do these ones.” She passes him a small, carrier bag with a picture of snowmen on and puts a pile of soft, felt decorations in front of him.  He works happily, his little hands pushing hard down into the bag to make sure they go in. Big sister, seven and little brother, eighteen months are good friends and are helping take the tree down, it being the seventh of January. The activity won’t hold Rob’s attention for long. Later on, when he’s seven, he’ll be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a relief to me as I thought I was just a bad mother.

 I hear the others in the dining room, playing the new Manopoly game. That’ll keep them busy for while.  It’s our annual gift for the family, to mark Twelfth Night, our mini Christmas that ends our festivities.  This year, 1991, I’m glad to be putting everything away. If I don’t see another turkey till forever, that’ll be too soon and the puddings and cakes all gone – good.  With all that and looking after my mother in law, who is ill and living with us, I am looking forward to some “ordinary” time.

“Mum, where do these ones go?”  she holds up a red bell.

“In here,” I hand her the appropriate box.  

“Ninished,” some of the contents fall into my lap as Rob throws the bag at me and runs off to join the others.

I take the felt Christmas tree, put it to my face and remember that day in December, two years ago, when we sat at the dining room table – Kate seven, Mary five, Liz three and Joanna one and sitting in the high chair and spread before us, scissors, felt, glue , sequins , needles and cotton, card and crayons.  Jim, seventeen and Emma, sixteen were out, as usual, their friends being much more important to them, than their family. That day we’d just heard hat their nan had a tumor on the brain and with the prospect of taking responsibility for her long term (no idea how long) care, I was glad of the distractions of being creative with the little ones.

“I can do it myself, mum,” Kate grabbed scissors and green felt and started cutting.

“Look, I’ll just draw the shape for you,” she was fiercely independent, still is. She cut as close as she could to my line.  I cut Mary’s Christmas tree shapes, one green and red white.

“Here, sew the sequins on like this,” after showing them how, Kate takes a sequin and threaded needle and gets on with it. Mary pulls the needle through as I sew with her. In between times I cut shapes out of card for Liz and Jo to colour.

When a green and a red Christmas tree have enough sequins sewn onto them I put them together and button stitch around the edge to finish them off. Kate sews round hers with red cotton.

I sit pondering, the felt tree in my hand, wet with my tears.  

The twelfth Night

5th Jan 2018

Happy Christmas all . Nice to be able to still say it...

The Epiphany

Not everyone will agree with me but I take today as the twelfth day of Christmas and therefore as tonight the twelfth night and the Eve of the Epiphany.
Some people think that tomorrow is the twelfth day.
It all depends from which day you start the counting. If Christmas day is day one or if day one is the first day after 25th.
Anyway, I , along with some others begin on the day itself , which makes today, 5th Jan, the twelfth day .
And tomorrow will be the celebration of the coming of the Wise Men to visit Jesus , Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem and end the Christmas season , although I keep the crib up until 2nd 0f Feb which is the Feast of the Presentation - the last time the babe is mentioned in the Gospels.

Creeping into 2017

17th Jan 2017

That is officially the first time I have written 2017 in my blog. I know, I know, it's already the 17th day of January, so where was I, especially when I promised to be more active with my posts.

I have no excuse. Life has been busy as the Christmas holidays always are. We try to see all the children in the twelve days and by the the time the Feast of the Epiphany comes round we're pretty much exhausted and need to recharge our batteries. And then comes my birthday less than a week later and, of course, I want to have another chance of getting some of my brood together again ( seventeen this time) for a celebration . So, that having just happened last weekend I am crawling back to my words, albeit a little slowly. Not that I've left them behind altogether. I am still keeping my journal - almost daily. But I've been so tired that's all I've been able to cope with .

So I am just creeping into this New Year, on my knees, very slowly . What are my goals, what do I hope to have done by the time 2018 ( ouch, that was painful...) comes around? I looked back at the dreams I had for the year 2016 and most of them have not materialised, but they are the same ones for this year. One of them is to get an anthology of my poems printed/published . This is quite achievable if I am willing to do the work. So, maybe this is the year that will happen.

There are a few other things I'd like to achieve - Running 5k , swimming the crawl ....and more that I'll keep to myself for now. And I'm looking forward to the better weather to be able to go out running and walking more.

What would you like to achieve in 2017???  Share your dreams with the rest of us.