Category Archives: Christmas

Today is the first of a few days off.  Yesterday and Monday too were stat holidays but the next few days are simply off.  Buisness gets real slow between the two holidays so we generally just close.  We would rather be home than waiting for patients who forget to come; we would rather be sleeping in ourselves than waiting for patients who do not come because they slept in.

Yesterday I sat soaking in the tub for over an hour using some of the wonderful stuff my staff gave me.  I haven’t done that for a long long time.  And all my family got to eat was leftovers and some cook it yourself pizza. 

I began reading one of the books I got a while back to read for my personal interest project for my class.  My project is on women and spirituality so I am reading a couple of the early women mystics and some of the deeply spiritual women writers of this and the past century.   On my wish list to read are works by Theresa of Avila, Marie de l’Incarnation, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Sue Monk Kidd and Joan Chittister.  If I had more time I would read some of the other early women mystics too.  But I seriously think I need to read and take the time to think about what these women wrote and no try to read everything just now.  Reading the ancient writings of these women mystics takes awhile.  The style of writing is so different that it sometimes gets in the way of grasping the understanding of the message.  Therefore I need to stop and think about the essence of what they are saying and what God wants me to here from them as well. 

I want to hear from these women some of what it means to be a woman created in the image of God.  I have been following the discussions over at Jesus Creed for the past few months as well and have learned a lot from those discussions – some good and some of the oppressive sort of stuff we women have lived with for ages.  Some of what I am reading now deals with these attitudes and I will share some of this in later posts.

One of the best things about being on vacation for me is a lot of time to read – guilt free time off.

I have been running full steam all day.  I think we are going to make it.  Presents are wrapped – mostly.  It always seems to be about now that I realize that one of the kids has no requests and I have no clue as to what they want.  Cold hard cash always seems to work. 

Anyway it is just about too late to do anything different.  I am about worn out.  My feet are killing me and I am too tired to use the foot soak stuff my front staff gave me.

And this is supposed to be fun?  This is celebrating? 

I think I need a good sleep.  Please God, keep Leo from snoring tonight – well, keep him breathing though.  Oh, you know what I mean God.  Keep us both in the safety of your hand and give us good rest.  We do want to be in a celebrating spirit for the day we remember your birth.

What more can one say.  I lost a very beautiful handpainted ornament that was a gift from a staff member and a couple other handmade things as well. 

Stupid tree stand.

Getting ready for an event as momentous as Christmas takes a lot of effort.  I think it would be nice to go to someone else’s place for a Christmas sometime – less work getting my house ready – but then I would miss having all the kids home.  So, I guess my place is going to be the gathering place for mnay more years to come. 

Today, being the day when I have to get most everything doen, began early.  I got up early and then fell asleep reading.  The second time I woke up I did really have to get going.  Headed out to do the last minuste shopping. 

Did it ever snow during the night!  I parked in Leo’s spot inside the garage and was sure glad.  I did not have to shovel my vehicle out from a snowbank and with the 4 wheel drive was able to back out of the driveway through a couple of snowdrifts.  With the snow and the relatively early hour it was still quiet downtown. 

Most of my day was spent shopping.  But I think I am set – mostly – for gifts. 

The pork was cooking overnight and when I got back from shopping it had cooled – ready to chop up for the tourtiere.  Nine pies ready.  Milk and eggs in the fridge for the rice pudding.  Ham, turkey and even frozen cabbage rolls.  We won’t starve.  Even if we are about 20 around the table.

We even got the tree up.  It isn’t decorated yet but it stands upright in a lot of water.  By tomorrow the branches should be spread out ready to go.  I am hoping the kids will get the urge to put the lights on.

Tomorrow will be another full day with the annual Christms Pizza party at church.  Fun and games for all.

And that about does it for today.

Today is Santa Lucia Day in Sweden.  I guess it kicks off the 2 week period before Christmas. 

Today I was able to get up to Birdie’s before work.  Leo and I were the first ones to arrive actually – both of us having to be at work around 7:30.  The Lucia maiden sang to us and we enjoyed some good coffee and buns.

My mother was Swedish so this part of my heritage should be celebrated but it is not something we did when I was growing up.  There were other things my mom did that were very Swedish – Jullotta service early Christmas morning, lutefisk and pickled herring,(not very pleasant IMHO), spritz cookies, potato sausage and spiced beef roll. 

I tend to do the things that are simplest and take the least effort.  I’m afraid that my kids get a bit cheated out of some of the special things I could do.  But I will make the tourtiere from my husbands French Canadian heritage.

This morning I ate a mandarin orange.  When I was little, these were called fondly “Japanese oranges” since they literally came from Japan.  Then we only could buy them at Christmas time.  A box of these mandarins were a special treat and were meted out one at a time by my mother.  There was always one in our Santa stocking.

Now, I begin to buy the early boxes of these mandarins from China early – as early as they begin to be sold in boxes in the stores.  But they are no longer the huge treat they once were.  One can buy them almost any time of the year – or a similar type of orange.  I still love them but I doubt they will create for my children the memories that I still associate with them.  Still, I love them.

They feel good to me as I eat them! “Christmas is coming soon,” they say to me. A good reminder of good things to come.

We had our Christmas gathering of friends last evening.  We still have food left over – funny how that works.  But all the spicy shrimp, stuffed mushrooms and miniature quiche’s are gone.  Michelle, my daughter-in-law spent a good chunk of time in the kitchen with me yesterday afternoon doing the crab stuffed mushrooms – and they were good. 

We had an interesting group of people with us.  And yes we did have a mix of languages, mostly French and English but there were also a couple from the Philippines(originally) who could have thrown in some Spanish and one from Holland who could have carried on a conversation in Dutch.  And some Lingala was thrown into the mix.  Then there was our Muslim friend who speaks Bengali.  He recounted the times when he has been asked if he is bilingual on job interviews and how those of limited language abilities seem to discount the fact that many people are bilingual – just the languages are not always just French and English.

Our younger kids also invited some of their friends and they seemed to have a good time too.  It mostly takes food to pull off that I think.

I do not think that I am really a gifted hostess.  I stress out too much about it all ahead of time.  And it takes a lot of energy to pull off a night of visiting with a house full of people in the three languages I can converse in. But it always turns out to be fun when I get right into it and last night was a lot of fun. 

Now, four more days of relaxation before the holidays are over.

Christmas Eve approaches.  All my children and grandchildren will be under my roof as well as my Step-mom, Sharon and my Aunt Florence.  That is only 15, not that many!

And I think everyone is bringing something so it doesn’t end up being that much work.  It is not a high stress day for me once I get the food under control.  My kids have all seen my house au naturel  so I don’t have to put on a show for them, even though I will have the house pretty clean I hope. 

Today I accomplished a lot of things I needed or wanted to do.  Outside lights finally fixed.  Cookies all baked.  Wrapping mostly done.

There are still a few last minute groceries to pick up – make sure we have enough milk and bread and of course ketchup.  Ketchup is one of those staple foods in my house – even on Christmas – for the tourtiere.

I think the rest of the week we will eat left overs.  That is one of my favorite forms of turkey. 

The only other big event is a bit of an open house on Wednesday.  We’ll have some friends and acquaintances over, some colleagues of Leo’s, some friends from out of town a way, and some friends from church.  Bring your best French for the occasion since that is the language of preference for some of our guests.  But English will do if you are linguistically challenged.  If you are in town, come on over around 7 pm. 

I am sitting here listening to CBC2 as suggested by Randall.  I wish I could sit here in the light from the candles and tree lights and the quiet and just sit and read for hours.  I wish no one would bother me about anything today – no dinner to prepare, no demands on me to do anything.  And I wish I didn’t feel so tired.  There seems to be a bit of a flu bug going through our house and although I am thankful I am not feeling really sick, I do feel wiped out.

But there is tourtiere to make and since the meat is cooking now, I guess I can’t avoid that.  And we have our church Christmas party this afternoon.  I have to organize the ordering of pizzas for that so if I do not wish to be in everyone’s bad books, I’d better get that done!

Soooo… as they say “No rest for the wicked.”

My sister and her husband are here from Calgary so last night we all got together (those of us feeling well and at home) at Sharon’s and nibbled on munchies and visited.  It is always good to see my sister. 

We all went up to the graves of my parents and grandparents as well – put a couple of Christmas wreaths on them.  I guess Dad always did that at Christmas time with Sharon as they remembered my mom and grandparents.  The rabbits had been running across the cemetery grounds and had a path across his grave.  I think he would have liked that. He would always point out animal tracks to us when we went skiing or for winter walks at the farm.