I know of none better.

For the fourth year I am making the same resolution.  I know of none better.

Happy 2018, everyone!

So what did happen?

I said in my last post An Allotment Year that things didn't go as planned but that doesn't mean that I did nothing. I just didn't do what I had planned to do.  And thank you to the people who commented and encouraged me to think again.

Thank you to the kind ladies who commented on the contacts I have had with them this year.  I think one thing which has been good about 2017 is my friendships.  I value friendship and am prepared to put a fair bit of effort into letter writing, e mailing etc.  I have met two bloggy friends "in real life" and my face to face friendships have been good too. 

For family life I rely on my cousins but I organised a family picnic and I have kept very good contact with such cousins as I still have.  I have deepened my friendship with some of my cousins.

I finished  my "informal" vicaring of five parishes which was sad but I soon found other places which needed me!

  

I published my Kindle book, "Teabreak in the archangels' restroom".

I've been cardmaking, been to Trefoil Guild, Women's Institute, U3A.  I have had lunch with friends several times and have entertained people here too,

The year wasn't as planned but maybe it's been good.  I feel happy with my life and maybe I don't need to achieve.  I am reminded of an old meditation.

I asked for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for,

but everything that I hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;

I am among all men, most richly blessed.

An Allotment Year

I remember my Mother speaking of someone as an allotment man.  She wasn't talking about vegetable gardening.  She meant that there was a lot meant - but not a lot done.  And 2017 has been an allotment year for me.

The trouble is that life has got in the way.  This woman proposes but God disposes (to misquote Thomas a Kempis).  There has been a lot of work done on the house because the house needed a lot of work to be done.  Changes have been made in the garden.

And Jack hasn't been because he's still got a gammy knee!  I'm not going to list all the changes in the house and garden because I'm teasing Jack by not letting him know.  I've managed to find a good gardener/handyman but Jack is also my friend.

My car is assessed to be beyond economic repair through no fault of my own.  I have to find some extra money to buy a new car.  And the nearest suitably adapted second hand car that I have been able to find is nearly a hundred miles away.

I've decluttered quite a bit, but there's still a long way to go.

I've managed to track all my expenditure for most of the year (quite an achievement for me) so I hope I can make better financial decisions next year.

I've increased my daily step count but only very slightly and I've been swimming a few times.

I've struggled to think of many achievements.  Truly an allotment year.

So this is Christmas

Having spent most of December blogging about Christmas past, today I'm right up to date - Christmas 2017.

Christmas 2017 was like most Christmases - not as planned.  I started off by doing the eulogy at a friend's funeral on December 20th and then got stuck in to pre Christmas visiting.  I'd done most of my food shopping well before Christmas (mostly on-line) so apart from nipping into the Co-op for bread I could stay out of the shops.  I felt as though I had planned well.

23rd December the telephone line went down so no phone calls over Christmas.  My apologies if I usually phone you.  Broadband became iffy and as BT also supplies my TV service that was also difficult

I got the first warning of "not as planned"about ten days before Christmas.  Could I take a Midnight Mass?  I thought I'd given that up when I retired as these days I like my sleep so don't make myself available but a church still needing a priest that close to Christmas wasn't going to find one easily.  The chap they had booked had to back out so I stepped into the breach.  Not in bed until gone 1 am Christmas morning.

Christmas Day started with a nine o'clock service which was as planned but when I got home I was shattered so I thought I'd have a short snooze.  Next thing I knew it was 4 pm - I'd slept over five hours!  I really didn't feel well so rather than the turkey dinner I had planned I had cheese, biscuits and orange juice,  The only festive bit was the cranberries in the cheese!  Back to bed by 8 pm and I slept until 7 am.  Definitely not as planned.  

Boxing Day started off with me feeling equally woolly but by mid afternoon I perked up a little and decided to have the piece of turkey I had planned and it was delicious.  I then felt well enough to open  few presents before another early night.

Yesterday I felt a little better but the weather was lousy - no snow here but plenty of rain.  I still haven't been to see Auntie Hettie and I won't be going today.

And yet Christmas has been good - or at least the part of it when I was awake was good!  I have enjoyed my memories of Christmas past and I have had a peaceful Christmas 2017.

I've started to plan for Christmas 2018.  Which won't go as planned.

Christmas memories 12. So that was Christmas

By 27th December my Father was back at work.  He was a manager on our local steelworks and steelmaking can't have a temporary stop or the furnaces would be damaged.  Sometimes he even went in for a few hours on Christmas Day but his assistant manager was a bachelor and generously allowed Daddy to have the lion's share of time off during the two day break.  It wasn't until 1974 that New Year's Day became a holiday in England with the modern "tradition" of a break from around 23rd December until 2nd January.  Steelworks still don't stop but as many workers as possible get as many days off as possible.  

The Christmas tree also stayed up until 5th January and we didn't go back to school until the new year either so Christmas was still with us.  There was never the excessive waste of food which there is today and the post-Christmas leftovers were particularly delicious.  

Several people have mentioned how sociable Christmas was and they are right but Mother would never neglect an opportunity to teach us how to behave.  The dreaded task to be done before New Year was writing thank you letters and it was best to get them out of the way as quickly as possible if only to get Mummy off my back.  There were toys to be played with  but not while there were letters to be written.  Christmas was a time of learning how to behave, whether it was sitting quietly whilst elderly people were visited, giving a farewell kiss to all and sundry, or handing around nuts or fruit before being allowed to take anything.  

Compared to the excesses of today the fifties were austere but they were still magical.  Just a few years earlier Britain had been at war and life had been very hard and people had learnt to make the best of everything, a skill which mothers continued to use. I hope that in fifty or sixty years time today's children will also be able to put on their rose coloured spectacles and tell their stories.

Christmas Memories 11. Boxing Day

Although Christmas wasn't the long period from about 23rd December to 3rd January which it is today, Boxing Day was important when I was a child.  Christmas Day was for family - Mother's family at lunchtime, Father's for tea - but Boxing Day was for visiting their friends.

It was the custom when I was a child to address our parents close friends as Auntie or Uncle.  My Mother was a member of a group called The Coffee Girls or simply, Les Girls.  She was a Coffee Girl until she died aged 89.  This group of about eight  women and their husbands formed the basis of their social life and one of them, my Auntie Marnie, had a lunchtime party every Boxing Day.  She invited all Les Girls and their families and it was a wonderful party.  It was an excuse for wearing newly acquired clothes but for me it was also an opportunity to top up my piggy bank.  I had quite a sweet voice when I was little and I was always invited to sing a couple of carols for which I would be richly paid.

After we left this party we would visit various elderly friends, most of whom had no younger family to visit them.  It is only as an adult that I have understood that we brought our childhood excitement with us and were probably a Christmas highlight for them.  Even now I am planning my visits to a few older friends for later this week and as I write this I have realised that I am carrying on that childhood tradition and honouring my parents understanding that there are those for whom visits by others are one of the most important Christmas gifts they receive.

Then we would be off home to start writing thank you letters.  

Christmas Memories 10. The Great Day

We always woke early on Christmas Day and checked if Santa had been.  We would have left a pillowcase outside our bedroom doors and, being a tidy chap, Santa would have left our presents in there.

We always got a main present from our parents.  My earliest recollection is of a till and toy money but I had a train set one year and Bayko set another year.  Bayko would give elfin safety an enormous headache these days as it involved pushing steel rods into a bakelite base and then sliding bricks on to the rods.  Looking back, those rods could have been lethal!  There were other smaller presents as well from family and friends but the the phrase "stocking filler" had still to enter our language.

During the morning we would play with our new toys until our maternal grandparents arrived.  One year though we had a truly white Christmas, with snow falling on Christmas Eve and I preferred to play outside.  A bit of on-line checking suggests that this may have been 1956 when I would have been five.  My grandparents would arrive with my aunt and, after she married, my aunt's family and there would be another round of gift swapping.  Lunch (for ten people) was always delicious and always turkey.  The selection of vegetables was much smaller than today but no-one would go hungry.  Mother would then bring in the home-made pudding, always exciting as she would flame it with brandy.  

After the washing up had been done we would wait for a telephone call from my Mother's younger brother who lived some distance away and was the only one of their children my grandparents would not see at Christmas.  My grandparents didn't have a phone so this call from Uncle Eric was very important to them.  After that we settled down to watch The Queen's Speech and then my grandparents would be off to their elder son and my parents would have a much needed snooze.

At about five o'clock the door bell would sound and that meant that my father's brothers and sisters had arrived with their families and my paternal grandparents.  Tea would be served.  I think there would have been about fifteen for tea and the noise was immense as my cousins and I updated each other about our new treasures.  

My recollection is that alcohol flowed pretty freely all day (these is pre drink driving laws) and so the family would eventually settle down to play Newmarket, a card game which involved some mild gambling so it was great fun.  Mother kept a penny jar and she supplied penny stakes all round.  My grandmother seemed very jolly to us children but considering the amount of cherry brandy she would have consumed that wasn't surprising.  

Christmas Day was a day for families and fun.  We had plenty of both.

Christmas Memories 9. Just one more sleep

Christmas Eve was a time of frantic activity in our house.  It had to be - food shopping and preparation had to be done as close to The Day as possible when few households had a fridge.

The most important shop to go to was the butcher and here we had to queue.    Our butcher would have the whole order ready and there was a fast track for mums who had been prudent enough to order the turkey, ham, sausages and bacon in advance so that he could prepare the order but it was still a queue.  Then off to the baker to collect bread.  Mother usually made her own but at Christmas time  became more precious and this cheat was considered acceptable. 

Vegetables would be fetched in from the garden where possible.  Father grew Brussels sprouts, carrots and parsnips but chestnuts would have been bought a few day earlier so they could be cooked and skinned on Christmas Eve ready to have with the sprouts.

This Christmas Eve shopping would be done by Father as Mother was busy in the kitchen.  She would be baking mince pies, cakes, and cheese straws and, once the sausage-meat arrived from the butcher, she could make sausage rolls.  The Christmas pudding would be brought down from the top shelf ready for the morrow and the precious new jars of chutneys and pickles brought in from the store.  Milk would be infused and breadcrumbs prepared for bread sauce and once the turkey (complete with giblets) arrived, she would make giblet stock ready for the gravy.  The potatoes would be peeled ready and best crockery sorted so the dinner table could be laid easily after Christmas Day breakfast.

We didn't help much in the kitchen so Father's job was to keep us busy.  Shopping was a good activity and the decorations could be tweaked.  We also had parcels to wrap but I doubt if our the things we gave were much of a surprise as we were much too excited to keep secrets.  Pillow cases were sorted for Santa to leave parcels in and frantic final letters to the great man were written.  

There was always some sort of a service for children on Christmas Eve afternoon.  Few adults came and it was regarded as a method for getting children out of the way.  Meals were a little basic (beans on toast, sandwiches) as cooking efforts were being concentrated on the meals for Christmas Day.  

My sister was nine years older than me and she was allowed to have a party for her friends before they all went off to Midnight Mass.  I think my parents must have been near-saints to have allowed this!  However, each year when I found my filled pillowcase near my bed it always had a note from Santa pinned to it.  Santa had writing very much like my sister's boyfriend.