Christmas Memories
I've been feeling a little nostalgic of late. I think that it is mostly to do with my Dad having died and my thoughts turning to times where we were a happy family unit, but of course I don't know that this is the reason, it could just be that I'm getting older and therefore more nostalgic!
When Flyfour and I got married, we choose to combine our Christmas traditions and of course we have created a few of our own, as we've gone on because I'm a magpie when it comes to traditions! The combing of traditions did mean that there were a few traditions that we didn't include and it seems to me that most of those traditions were mine, I'm sure that Flyfour probably thinks the same for his own family Christmas tradtions, but the only one he has complained about is that I won't let him eat his selection box for breakfast!
This year I wanted to get a few of my old family traditions back.
When I was young, we would open our stockings in the morning together as a family and then get dressed, have breakfast (more on that in a minute) and if we were lucky have a breakfast table gift before spending the day watching our family getting more and more merry (yes, I mean drunk!), snacking on nibbles whilst my Dad coked the Christmas dinner and friends from all over town came to visit.
It wasn't until the table had been cleared from our 3pmish lunch that we were even allowed to consider opening our tree gifts. This meant it was normally around 5pm that we sat down with after dinner drinks (yes more alcohol), Coffees and Hot Chocolates before we unwrapped our gifts.
And it was perfect.
The story goes that many years ago, my Paternal Grandfather told my Grandmother that with the huge Christmas meal they were expecting to eat later in the day, it was only right that they had a small light breakfast of sliced Christmas Ham and quartered tomatoes.
I'm sure, in later years this was much to the disgust of my hungover Uncle and Father (the pub was only a five minute walk from their home, so of course Christmas Eve was spent in the pub) but it is one of the things that I always look back on as being special.
Well, that and the gifts.
I guess what I really wanted was my childhood back.
I know that can never happen, I'm not smart enough to create a whole back to the future type time machine, nor am I damaged enough to have a Christmas Angel send me back to my childhood to work on a few issues in the future.
So I'll content myself with looking at pictures, watching videos from my childhood and teasing the children that we won't be opening our gifts much before 5pm... It's the small things that make me happy!
When Flyfour and I got married, we choose to combine our Christmas traditions and of course we have created a few of our own, as we've gone on because I'm a magpie when it comes to traditions! The combing of traditions did mean that there were a few traditions that we didn't include and it seems to me that most of those traditions were mine, I'm sure that Flyfour probably thinks the same for his own family Christmas tradtions, but the only one he has complained about is that I won't let him eat his selection box for breakfast!
This year I wanted to get a few of my old family traditions back.
I wanted us to open our presents after our Christmas Lunch.
When I was young, we would open our stockings in the morning together as a family and then get dressed, have breakfast (more on that in a minute) and if we were lucky have a breakfast table gift before spending the day watching our family getting more and more merry (yes, I mean drunk!), snacking on nibbles whilst my Dad coked the Christmas dinner and friends from all over town came to visit.
It wasn't until the table had been cleared from our 3pmish lunch that we were even allowed to consider opening our tree gifts. This meant it was normally around 5pm that we sat down with after dinner drinks (yes more alcohol), Coffees and Hot Chocolates before we unwrapped our gifts.
And it was perfect.
I wanted to have Ham and Tomatoes for breakfast.
The story goes that many years ago, my Paternal Grandfather told my Grandmother that with the huge Christmas meal they were expecting to eat later in the day, it was only right that they had a small light breakfast of sliced Christmas Ham and quartered tomatoes.
I'm sure, in later years this was much to the disgust of my hungover Uncle and Father (the pub was only a five minute walk from their home, so of course Christmas Eve was spent in the pub) but it is one of the things that I always look back on as being special.
Well, that and the gifts.
I guess what I really wanted was my childhood back.
I know that can never happen, I'm not smart enough to create a whole back to the future type time machine, nor am I damaged enough to have a Christmas Angel send me back to my childhood to work on a few issues in the future.
So I'll content myself with looking at pictures, watching videos from my childhood and teasing the children that we won't be opening our gifts much before 5pm... It's the small things that make me happy!