Christmas reflection

I’m never doing it again. I’m never going to the fruit and vegetable market before Christmas. We always buy heaps of stone fruit because it’s cheap, then muggins Carmel spends days finding creative ways to use it before it goes off.

This year (for a change) we arrived early. This was not a good idea. For one thing we got there at 8.30, only to find the gates didn’t open till 9. Early is also when the Asian restaurateurs arrive and boy-oh-boy are they a tough lot! We were lucky to escape with our lives. We hurriedly bought boxes of cherries, plums, nectarines and strawberries and made our getaway.

All of the fruit lovely but there’s only so much three people can eat, even on a health binge.

Colin and Jeremy blithely went about non-fruit-related business while I poached plums and nectarines, pulped and froze strawberries, made chutney and juices and smoothies and assembled fruit platters to give away to friends and family (who weren’t especially grateful because they had lots of fruit too).

By Christmas I was exhausted.

So I’m not doing it next year. So there. (Would someone please remind me if I forget.)

Someone said recently that Christmas wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the women. Well next year it will have to manage without the help of this woman. I may decide not to write the Christmas newsletter or make the Christmas cards too.

For all that, Christmas was rather nice this year. Better than I expected, because 2007 has been an absolutely awful year for our family.

We decided to attend the Children’s Liturgy on Christmas Eve, rather than the adults’ one. I think Christmas needs children. They let us in even though we weren’t accompanied by a child. Actually, we arrived an hour early because a friend misinformed us about the starting time. But it was OK because we were able to relax and listen to the superb choir practising. We also got the best seat in the house.

It was a wonderful ceremony… splendid music, and a magical storyteller related the legend of the Christmas Spider. He got a standing ovation.

Christmas Day dawned cool and overcast. Showers threatened, but we went ahead with our plans to have a picnic feast by the river. In Brisbane we’re just grateful if it’s not suffocatingly hot. I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Aussie Christmas barbeque