I spent the past hour composing a blog post in my head, logged on and saw that my sister
(who, very sadly, couldn’t make it home to my parents for Christmas due to the bad weather)
had written so beautifully about the magic of our childhood Christmas’- something which we, as parents, try to re-create every year (and wonder at the incredible effort and work that our parents undertook in order to create that)…
And with each passing year, it becomes clearer that the most wonderful ones are the ones that we actually do very little- but spend time with friends and family.
Today, our plans went a bit awry. The Small Girl was a little unwell this morning, then the weather dictated that we couldn’t go far, so a day spent visiting was out of the question.
As such, the many cakes and biscuits and pies that I usually spent Christmas Eve morning making didn’t have to be made, and instead we spent the morning reading to the little ones and wrapping presents
(Which, when I absolved myself from the guilt that I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do, made the day all the sweeter)
This evening, wonderful friends of ours came to share Christmas Eve supper (possibly the nicest fish pie ever) and spend a few hours laughing and talking about Christmas past and present.
It reminded me of when I was small, spending the weeks before Christmas excitedly talking about The Big Day with my cousin Deirdre: the excitement and the pure magic of being a child.
And now we are almost ready for the big day ahead; our children, in their Christmas Pyjamas have readied a table of food and drink for Santa and his reindeers,
our candle is lighting in the window (a tradition to welcome travellers and the Baby Jesus into our home on this eve), and in our manger, the Christ Child has been born:
(we had a little Nativity play which starred the Angel Gabriel, played by our little girl who had the Angel flying manically around and then wouldn’t leave the inn…)
Very soon, all will be quiet here, I’ve brussels sprouts and carrots to ready, last minute presents to wrap…
This Advent blogging has been a wonderful pilgrimage (one which I didn’t honestly think I would complete). Thank you for joining me as we made the journey to this evening!
A blessed and joyful Christmas, from our house to yours X
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Oh, it all looks lovely! I’m not a fan of fish pies, but that one looks delicious!
I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, bunker down in that house and don’t stir from it till you have to. The main thing is, Santa Claus got through with his goodies 🙂
Talk to you soon, xxx