As a child, spending time at my Grandmother Minnie’s farmhouse east of Athens was something I always looked forward to. Christmas Day was even more special because all the aunts, uncles and cousins were there, too. No matter how horrendous the weather or long the journey, everyone always made it. Without fail, the Petawawa faction was always last to arrive, leaving the rest of us chomping at the bit so that Christmas could begin!
You have to picture the scene – nine kids, six parents, Minnie and my Uncle Winston cheek and jowl in the two rooms downstairs and without benefit of indoor plumbing until 1970. Dishes were washed and rinsed in two large galvanized washtubs that were hauled up onto the table and filled with hot water from the kettle on the woodstove and cold from the buckets on the counter brought over from the well on the other side of the road. And if you had to go, it was either make the long trek to the outhouse or use the thunder-mug upstairs in Minnie’s room or the one on the stairs.
My love of reading began during those Christmases at Minnie’s. My cousin from Toronto gave me a book every year from the time I turned ten.
1970 was the last year for family Christmas at Minnie’s and the first with indoor plumbing. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but to us it was. With how commercial the holidays have become, I long for those simpler times.
I still have most of those books (I think I only ever parted with one – a book of fairy tales).
What are some of your favourite Christmas memories?
I’d share the wordpress helper monkeys stats for my blog here for 2014 but since I went most of the unable to connect to Jetpack, it hardly seems worthwhile. Besides, I have some other things I’d rather share about this past year and not the cheesy thing that Facebook puts together.
So, here we go! Fasten your seatbelts, we’re ready for takeoff!
April, Easter to be exact, my husband and I spent 10 days in beautiful, romantic Paris.
Don and me at the Arc de Triomphe“Able” and me at the TrocadéroDon at the Trocadéro
Then in September, another romantic destination was on the cards – Niagara Falls, Ontario. Okay, there are the tatty, touristy places but overall, it’s a lovely place.
Horseshoe (Canadian) falls at night
While we were here, we decided to take a horse-drawn carriage ride. We’d seem them on previous trips and have always wanted to do it…
sitting in the carriage before our ride
… so we did.
Our horse and carriage
We even did a wine tour while we were in the region and came home with at least 4 bottles of wine – including a couple icewines!
Don and me wearing our silly hats before our wine tour – photo by Grape and Wine tours
Before the year was out, we spent a week in Quebec City. It was close enough to Christmas that the decorations were in the process of being put up. In hindsight, second week of December might be a better time to visit this beautiful city so that the baubles and lights and everything are in place.
And again, we did a horse-drawn carriage ride. Our driver, Philippe, was amazing and made the ride extremely fun.
in front of the Chateau FrontenacMe at the tree with a cannon ball in its roots
No trip to Quebec City would be complete without a short drive further east to see my ‘haunted’ house which is between Quebec City and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.
The “haunted” house
Sadly it’s more run down since the last time I was down in this part of Canada but it’s beautiful nonetheless. And doesn’t being in a state of disrepair add to the mystery and the possibility of it being home to ghosts?
And when we weren’t gallivanting here, there and everywhere, I managed to write over 74,000 words in one of my works in progress (the first draft of the sequel to my debut novel)! While it was with my beta readers, I plotted and started another project and have some cracking ideas for even more writing projects.
So before I get all sappy and sentimental, I’ll finish this post with a little Auld Lang Syne.
SHOULD auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
Chorus.—For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a
weary fit,
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
We twa hae paidl’d in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
And there’s a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
For auld, &c.
Robert Burns
What will you do to see out 2014 and see in 2015? Any traditions you take part in?
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree… where for art thou? Oh wait, that’s a cross between the Christmas carol and Romeo and Juliet.
I couldn’t bring myself to put up our regular tree and since I’m such a nut when it comes to nutcrackers, I thought I would do something different this year. I had to go shopping the other night for a gift bag for our Christmas Gift exchange at work and as I thought more about that, I came up with a brilliant idea. Well not all that brilliant. Not until I got into the store. So what started out as a gift bag, became a full-fledged shopping spree. I got a small LED lighted tree (not of the artificial evergreen variety), a new tree skirt, a couple of new stockings (our old ones were getting pretty dilapidated), and three (yup THREE) new nutcrackers. One about 36″-40″ tall, and two about 18″ tall.
Missing from this picture (perhaps out partying or whatever it is that nutcrackers do when they’re together, or maybe just mad because I brought new ones into the fold and are staging a protest) from last year’s photo (see below) are the small ones on the rocking horses, the small one in green on the left, my kilted one wearing the tartan tam and the one in red beside him. Or they could be in the bottom of one of the totes. The lighting in the basement under the stairs isn’t the best and I didn’t have my glasses on.
In addition to our Secret Santa Gift exchange Friday, we decided to liven it up and wear our ugly Christmas sweaters or jumpers to my friends across the pond. Seeing how I don’t own a Christmas sweater (ugly or otherwise), I had to think up something. So this is what I came up with…
I had bought two strings of battery-operated LED lights recently for illuminating my Eiffel Tower statues so threaded them through the sweater then took a couple of pairs of tacky Christmas earrings and affixed them in strategic locations. I topped the ensemble off with my Santa hat.
What did I get in the gift exchange? Well, a cordial set and a really cute stuffed polar bear. What can I say, I’m a sucker for stuffed animals.
What do you think of breaking with tradition and doing something different?
My Scottish roots and writing by Melanie Robertson-King
