Posted on 32 Comments

Christmas is over and the goose got very fat!

Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Did I/we/me and mine have a wonderful, joyous, celebratory Christmas and New Year celebration. Thankful I am. Grateful I am. Stuffed-to-the-gills I am. And oh-so-glad it comes just once a year!!

Truth be told, the month of December is utter madness in our home. Has been ever since my beautiful daughter decided to pop into the world two days before my birthday (Dec 5 – which also happens to be a national, Dutch Christmas Day of sorts as well). 22 years later we’re still trying to work out a way of making the month a little less… manic.

Of course it’s all good fun and there are huge globs of happiness thrown in, with both of us wallowing to our hearts’ content in what we’ve dubbed our ‘birth week’ (steadfastly refusing to acknowledge anything Christmassy until we’ve exhausted ourselves and everyone around us with birthday-making jollities). We decorate tables for early morning delights, hang up themed stringers and balloons, wrap gifts in glistening paper and do everything possible to make the days special. It’s a thrill (and hubby almost faints with relief when it’s over). But by then Christmas is gasping for a look in so I shift gears – fast – to catch up.

Lists I’ve compiled over the years with recipes (traditional, iced Christmas cake: check! Mince meat filling for pies: check!); addresses for REAL cards (I can’t stand e-ones – must get the ones for abroad into the post before 8 Dec!!) and gift ideas are yanked out of boxes covered in dust. Ribbons, gift wrap paper and pretty bows are hauled out of drawers. Candles (red of course!) – lots of them – bought in in BULK. Not to mention a thorough review of the table cloth, Christmas dinner service and glasses to see if anything’s missing or cracked and last year’s wreath for the door…

Geez. I’m even running out of breath writing this! And that’s before I started buying actual gifts – both for my own family and the extended one in Ireland. Plus surprise, small treats for those who’ll join our table over the holidays. A huge bone for the dog – wrapped tightly so he can join the merriment on Christmas Day and have his moment of ‘unwrapping’. Mulled wine and snacks for after Christmas Eve midnight mass (or was it before??!).

And exhale…

This year, because I was hugely thankful to be out of a wheelchair (knee problems a year ago), I kept reminding myself how lucky I was to be able to shop repeatedly in mega-filled streets and over-stuffed stores. Smiled as I hobbled slowly around the stores, mouthing “on my own two legs” to my mirrored reflection when my feet began to shriek in protest. I do believe I may have fooled myself quite well.

But it all came together in the end. The tree went up, glorious and golden. The turkey fitted into the oven, the ham baked divinely. We ate, we drank, we made very merry and revelled in the joy of doing so together.

Roll on next year. Who knows, maybe I’ll have grown wings by then…

Happy New Year, everyone.

image of woman with filled shopping trolley
Bread for the stuffing… where can I find goose fat… oh look the red wine’s on special offer…

32 thoughts on “Christmas is over and the goose got very fat!

  1. I’m with on the “real” cards! E-cards just don’t have the “specialness.”

    1. They don’t, and I love the look of real cards around our house… What can u do with a screen image? I also like to read back all our cards when everything else has been taken down. Just works for me.

  2. I ran out of breath reading this 🙂 Happy New Year to you too!

  3. Sounds like you had a great, if busy December. Wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year, Gerie!

    1. Thanks Sally, same to you! Yes, I did, but it was really lovely too. And great to be a bit mobile again!

  4. Our month of December is much the same! Manic, exhausting, but so much fun! After it is over, we look back and realize there were many things on the “to-do” list that we didn’t get around to, many things on the “to-bake” list that didn’t get made, but next year … there’s always next year! Love your blog, by the way!

    1. Haha, thanks a lot! Yes I know what you mean, no matter how much we do there are always bits we don’t get to, but indeed, there is always next year! Welcome aboard!

  5. I love the picture with the filled shopping card. 😉 Imagine me going to do the Christmas grocery shopping, after having carefully drafted a loooong list at home – and finding myself at the supermarket without my list! So I told myself: You can do it. Just concentrate, picture what you want to cook, and then just get what you need to do so. …. Yes. When I was almost finished, my phone rang. Husband was on the line, asking very sweetly: “Should I read your shopping list to you? Found it on the kitchen table.” I thankfully helped him work through my terrible handwriting – and in the end it turned out I had only forgotten about 5 things! I was quite proud of myself. 🙂

    1. Haha, oh yes I have done that too!! And also then just mentale went through the meals in my mind… As you did, haha. Does mean I end up mumbling out loud some of the time so people tend to give me funny glances but hey, who cares?

    2. Sorry, hit ‘send’ by accident while trying to correct typos from language autocorrect, as I write in either Dutch or English. I hope it is clear enough… Thx for the comments, really nice to hear your thoughts.

  6. Sounds manic – but bloody perfect 😁

    1. Haha… Indeed! Manic but wonderful too. And I wouldn’t want to change a thing!

  7. Ah I love your writing style! This made me chuckle. I miss Christmas…..only 11 months to go!

    Tania @ http://www.thegammonkitchen.wordpress.com

    1. Haha, thanks a lot!! Yes I truly love Christmas and all the crazy stuff, why not go a bit mad, it’s worth it in the end, haha!! 🎅🏼🎁👯💥🎅🎄

  8. Sounds like you have about as much fun as we have here on the little island! My good lady seems to do quite a few of the same things… including the real cards to foreign shores by the 8th! 😉

    1. Haha, that’s funny!! Good to know we share similar little habits when the heat is on! 🙂

  9. This really made me smile – and I can identify all too well with the state of mania in December. As for traditional cards, mince pies etcetera, I can’t imagine anything else. Nor would we be without a six foot spruce. It’s February now, but Christmas seems only like yesterday. How time flies. 🙂

    1. Doesn’t it just? Thanks for the nice comments. Good to know we are not the only ‘loonies’ out there, but still I wouldn’t want to change a thing even if we were. And you just gotta love Christmas, right? 🙂

      1. Absolutely! I’m the biggest kid of all when it comes to December. 🙂

  10. I’m sooo glad you and yours had such a wonderful, happy holiday time, sweetie! I have really, really missed you and your great posts due to some recent medical issues. I’m like you too in that I like sending and receiving real holiday cards but it seems like that tradition is on the wane with the younger generation here in America. They prefer sending e-cards etc. I know you are very busy but I hope we stay in contact, sweetie. XXX OOO!

    1. Hi Jeanie,how lovely to hear from you again! I was afraid it was a medical issue with you, I hope you are doing ok again now? I never received your personal email so maybe try again to me at : nirodaigh@gmail.com (proper catch up! :)).

      I have posted a lot less this past month or so, indeed am picking up the pace with other things as recovery progresses (Spanish lesson in an hour, haha). I will still post but less frequently as I also start work again next week, but let’s stay in touch! Thanks for lovely comment, as always.
      Ciao for now,
      Gerie

      1. My bursitis in my thigh is slooowly improving; the cortisone shot helped a lot…until it wore off lol! I will be getting my right knee replaced in mid-May so that should hopefully take care of all of right leg problems. I loved taking Spanish classes in college; the rhythms of the language reminded me of music and it seemed like such a logically organized language, very unlike our hodge-podge English which has borrowed so many words from other languages. I’m glad you are starting work again, but I’m sad you won’t be able to post as much because you are such a wonderfully gifted and funny writer! I did send you an email a few months ago and it was not sent back as being undeliverable but I will try it again 😀 Lots of love to you and yours, sweetie!

        1. Gosh, a new knee? That is quite a big operation but it will certainly increase your mobility a lot, please make sure you have a good physiotherapist helping from day one!! Likely I will need one myself at some point, for now the experimental op I had seems to have helped although I still cannot walk up a stairs easily. It is more a question of hobbling, haha! Thank you for the lovely compliment, I have hugely enjoyed writing blog posts and building contact with lovely individuals such as yourself. A gift. I will recheck gmail account I did look before but perhaps too late, couldn’t find it. 🙁

          1. I had the left knee replaced in 2011 and it does take about a year to fully recuperate. Bay Regional Med Center gets you up and out of bed on the 2nd day to attend twice-daily physical therapy classes with the other knee and hip replacement patients. Then a medical equipment place brought a leg-strengthening machine that looks medieval, lol, to my apartment the very day I was discharged from the hospital (after 4 days as a patient). I used that machine for at least 6 weeks 3-4 times a day. Home nurses also came very day for 2 weeks to do wound care until the stitches are removed by them and then they come 2-3 times a week until 6 weeks after the surgery to check on me and my knee. I also attended physical therapy 3 times a week after I was released from the hospital for 5 weeks and I cannot drive for 6 weeks. That was the roughest part because my daughter had to drive me to physical therapy, for bill paying and groceries, etc. I LOVE to drive and I love being independent so that was the hard part for me lol! So since I’ve already done the knee replacement rodeo, lol, I already know what to expect but yeah, you are right, it is a major operation and the recuperation process is quite lengthy and rough to maintain but oh my, is it worth it!

          2. Wow Genie, good for you! I had no idea, but that sounds like excellent care! My poor sister had one knee replaced two years ago, she had the operation done privately (went well) but after that absolutely NO after care! So it went very wrong and she ended up having to get another minor op plus a special injection etc to repair new damage. Which is why I wanted to alert you, but I see – no need!! Haha.

          3. Oh your poor sister got awful care! What a lot of unnecessary pain and misery she went through because she didn’t get the proper treatments afterwards! I would have been worse off too if I had not diligently used that leg machine or gone to physical therapy but the fact that none of those things were even offered to your sister to begin with is horrible! Thank you for the alert, sweetie, I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

          4. I haven’t re-sent you another e-mail yet but perhaps the first one I sent is still there somewhere in your gmail account files. I will let you know when I have re-sent you another e-mail 😀 I’ve been spending a lot of time with my granddaughters lately; in fact Evvie spent the night last night and I just returned from taking her home. But I will do that e-mail asap 🙂

          5. Hi, great. Please resend whenever u have time and yes, let me know so I can look asap. I foolishly made the mistake when setting up my blog of having a mail sent to that address of every update from blogs I follow and there are so many now, it’s impossible to find anything back! Aargh… 🙁 On the up side, lovely that you are enjoying time with your grandchildren, how special.

          6. Will let you know asap sweetie. I romped too much with Evvie yesterday so I will be on the computer for a very limited time today because I have to ice up and rest up quite a few sore body parts now lol!

          7. Oh sure, no problem and no rush. Lovely to be in touch again anyway. I am starting work again this coming week (yikes), so will also have less blogging time but we will stay in touch, no matter what!! Rest well, take care of yourself. Glad you had fun yesterday. 🙂

          8. You have fun too at work! I’m so glad we’re in touch again because I have missed you so much, Gerie! Take good good care of you and yours, sweetie! 😀

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