Well the big 'C' has been and gone and, whilst I am nothing if not delighted at its passing, I have to say it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Admittedly, the weather over the whole period was atrocious so that added extra worries about family travelling home on public transport etc and the disruption to mail deliveries resulted in some Xmas pressies turning into December 29th pressies!
For the first time in years we didn't go out for Xmas dinner but had it at home with a close friend and her son and a neighbour joining us. None of us could face going to the hotel we had previously visited....the absence of Mum/Granny would have been too difficult for us all to cope with...whereas having it for the first time in this new house with some new company added to the mix created a different feel and a new memory of Xmas for us.
Instead of having a proper sit down dinner with one course following on from another, we paced ourselves and spaced the courses out over the day starting with prawn cocktail at lunchtime, soup about 3pm, main about 6pm and trifle/xmas pudding about half 8. All preceded, accompanied and followed by the odd vino or 3 I should add ;-)
Doing it this way it was less stressful I found and the serving up and the washing up were far more manageable :-) Natalie was a brilliant help and Yasmin and Candace ....well.... they just sat and ate and looked Christmassy!
My poor Dad was rescued from oestrogen overload by the presence of neighbour George and they sat in the sitting room happily sipping sherry (Dad) and coffee (George) and watching 'Still Game' dvds back to back :-) Natalie poured George a 'Natalie' measure of whisky about half 8 and the poor man heroically managed to stagger along the road to his flat at 11pm!
To the gifts...well I was delighted with my Kindle (how did they guess that was what I wanted?!) and very surprised with my snazzy lime green Ipod Shuffle....I had other lovely presents too....obviously I have been a very GOOD girl this year! ;-) Everyone else loved their presents too and Dad especially liked his copy of 'White Christmas', his sweeties and minature of Laphroaig :-)
As for Hogmanay/New Year...well I completely opted out of that this year....maybe with a year's distance hopefully I will feel differently next December 31st :-)
So to sum up....bah humbug is still my default status, however, to be fair, the whole shebang wasn't too shabby at all....but I still would prefer the same company with slightly different food sitting out in the garden enjoying a holiday period with pressies in......MAY!!!!
Well, my reaction to my 1st christmas after my dad died was to flee the country with my children in tow!! Matthew would have come as well, but had to work!!
ReplyDeleteAdmitidly, we did have the day at home, but went off to Disney for a few days after and it gave us new memories. To be fair, i had to do somethiong that was totally different to what we'd done before and the christmas times between my mum dying and my dad dying made me NOT want to turn into the martyr my mum was anad run around after everyone else!!
We know the guilty parties!!!
I like the idea of pacing yourself with the food during the day - you enjoy it more i think and can go back and pick. And i'm glad your dad had someone there for him in the absence of Peter!!!
you don't forget the old memories Linda - you just start to make different ones. And that's good. What we enjpoyed when younger isn't always right for now.
It wasn't quite \May and we didn't get out in the garden, but i hope we brought some cheer and a few pressies in october!!!
The first Christmas after my late hubby died was pure hell to be honest, and a day I just wanted to be over. He loved Christmas and all that went with it and I have never managed to reignite that enthusiasm for my kids I'm ashamed to say.However each year the pattern changes, as I'm sure it does in many households. Simn joined us for the first time and that added another dimension in that it brought another persons views and history. Can't say it is a festival that I will ever feel enthusiastic about, it has become so commercialised, and New Year celebrations will never match those of my youth ;-). Glad yours was ok though Linda...it gets easier each year, I promise. ((( hugs)))
ReplyDeleteMy first christmas without my mum turned out to be one of the best I had with Holly and Jack. The reason being was that the 4-5 years before that christmas had been held at my house, with all the family there and me missing most of it cos I was busy cooking and being the hostess.
ReplyDeleteThat first christmas all my brothers and sisters opted to do their own thing and although I missed my mum so so much, it was the most chilled christmas I had ever had and I got to see all of the kids prezzies and spend time hanging out with them. I even took down Holly's portable tv so that she could play her new Lord of the Rings game all day. We even stayed in our jammies all day and as that was the last christmas that Jack ever walked, the memory of that time is so precious
It was bittersweet really.
Oops! Forgot to say, glad you got through it and it wasn't too horrendous. Bring on the spring eh XXX
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