Itisi

I found this over at Pete’s, and thought it looked like fun. OK, I couldn’t think of anything to post LOL

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? – Wrapping paper, taking something out of a bag just isn’t the same as unwrapping it. Having said that, putting the things into the bags probably doesn’t take as long as wrapping.

2. Real tree or artificial? – I prefer a real one, but we have gone for the fake variety due to the needle problem.

3. When do you put up the tree? – Today, December 14th!

4. When do you take the tree down? - January 5th

5. Do you like eggnog? – I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t sound like something I would enjoy.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? – I can’t remember anything specific. I do recall liking the smaller gifts more than my main presents though, I think it was because I usually knew what the main presents would be, but the stocking fillers were a surprise.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene? – Yes, my MIL bought it for us. It’s the source of some amusement because we like to arrange the figures imaginatively.

8. Hardest person to buy for? – Male people over the age of about 10, it’s always been a problem.

9. Easiest person to buy for? - The dogs, they’re happy no matter what they get.

10. Worst Christmas Gift you ever received? – The strange work colleague my ex-husband invited to Christmas dinner because he felt sorry for him. I can see why he was alone, somehow he managed to be both tedious and eccentric, and also didn’t know when to leave. He also complained because we had turkey not chicken, which I thought was very rude.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? – Don’t mind

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? – Its a Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? – December, I try for November but it never works out.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? – Yes. Many years ago, an acquaintance gave me a present unexpectedly, so I gave her a pair of (unworn) earrings someone had bought me the year before – I didn’t like them, it was no great loss.

15. Favorite thing to eat/drink at Christmas? – Christmas dinner, Stilton, dates (love them), Bailey’s Irish Cream – although nowadays, the latter always makes me think of Old Greg from The Mighty Boosh.

16. Clear lights or coloured on the tree? – Either/both

17. Favorite Christmas song? - The Pogues and Kirsty McColl doing Fairytale of New York. Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas is good too.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? – Stay at home

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? – Dancer, Prancer, Dundar, Blitzen, Vixen, Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, John, Paul, George and Ringo.

20. Angel on the tree top or a Star?- A star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? – Christmas morning – although Mr Blogs and I often cheat and open a couple on Christmas Eve. Sssh, don’t tell anyone.

Updated to add: I won’t tag anyone, so if you want to have a go . . .

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Google Earth. It’s fun, it’s interesting, but it can also be the source of some disappointment.

A few days ago, I made the mistake of searching for an overhead view of the house my family and I lived in from the time I was about 8. It was a mistake because, as you can probably guess, it was not at all how I remembered it.

Shortly after we moved in there, my mum planted a conker tree in the back garden. This was not just any old conker tree. It was the offspring of an older tree that she had grown as a child, which still stood in my grandparents’ garden. Over the years, this tree grew and grew, and it became the grave marker for two of our cats and my tortoise. I loved that tree, it was part of our family history in a small way. Now, it is no more. The current residents have chopped it down

I suppose I shouldn’t really have been all that surprised. The last time I went past the house, about 10 years ago, I noticed they had completely altered the front garden. Gone were the rose bushes, the crocosmia under the lounge window and the patch of bearded irises I was sick in the day I was sent home from school with a stomach bug (that’s a delightful memory isn’t it?). In their place were nothing but a sea of grass, and a large collection of children’s’ toys.

I’ve been thinking about what else they had probably changed. I don’t suppose the house bears any resemblance to the one I lived in. I wonder if they still have the pantry, or the red stone tiles on the kitchen floor, or the little round window on the landing, or the central heating system I could never get to work. I wonder what they have done to my bedroom.

Back when I used it, my bedroom (yes, it is still my room, I don’t care who uses it now) was decorated with wallpaper featuring a delicate primrose pattern, and the door was painted poppy red. This was a compromise. I wanted a Liverpool themed room, my parents said I should have something more girly. So, the room was girly, but in Liverpool colours. I loved it. The room, was an ‘L’ shape, with a sloping attic type ceiling, and from the window, you could see all the way to the hill at Broadway.

I had an ancient wardrobe in one corner, painted white because it was old and battered, but structurally, it was sound, and large enough to hold my ever-growing collection of garments. Two walls were lined with shelves which held my books, records, plants and goldfish bowl. In the opposite corner to the wardrobe was a small table my dad made which held my stereo – this I played loudly to compete with the teenage boy next door. It must have sounded awful, a combination of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC blasting out. God knows how our poor mothers listened to this racket without going crazy. Mind you, it did get worse, our other neighbour took up DJ-ing, and liked to rehearse at home. We couldn’t really complain, he did have to listen to me practising the violin at 7.30 on a Tuesday morning.

That just left my dressing table – home to lotions and potions, make-up and trinkets, and a little oil lamp I bought with my wages from my first weekend job, which I lit even though it smelt awful. And then there was my bed. Except, from the age of 14, I didn’t have a bed. Deciding that beds were for kids, I demanded, and after a while got, a sofa bed. It was one of those metal framed ones with a proper mattress, and was surprisingly comfortable. Although, I would have said that even if it had been akin to sleeping on nails.

In this room, I read and dreamed, gazed out of the window, had sleepovers with friends. I laughed, cried, sulked, and wondered if that boy, the one I was convinced I was madly in love with, had even noticed me – he had, but that’s another post.

I wonder who uses that room now. As much as I’d like to think it is still the same, I know it is unlikely to be. But, I do hope that whoever sleeps and reads and laughs and dreams there, feels the same sense of contentment and belonging that I always did.

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The BBC Have Your Say forum is currently holding a debate about school nativity plays, or rather, the lack of them. Apparently, a survey has revealed that only “Only one in five schools are planning a traditional Christmas nativity play this year…”

The thing is, I’m not sure if this is a new phenomenon. Way back in the mists of time, when I was a school girl (at a Catholic school) it wasn’t the norm to have a nativity play every year. Some years we did, in other years we did something different, although this usually had a seasonal theme. Well, apart from one year, when we performed something about villagers in the Ural mountains – I’m not quite what that was about but I did get to wear a jolly nice costume.

The point is, even then, teachers did try to lend a bit of variety to the Yuletide entertainment rather than expecting parents to sit through the same thing, year after year. The same was true when my own children were at primary school.

Have things really changed so much in a few short years, or is this just a case of someone manipulating data to prove a preconceived theory? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Currently listening to: The Everlasting by The Manics

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Just a quick post to let you know that anyone using Blogger in draft can adjust their comment settings to include Open ID, which is a big improvement on the options of either allowing only registered users, or allowing anyone to comment, including anonymous folk. So, if you came here from WordPress, for example, you can leave a comment using your WP log-in info and Blogger bloggers won’t have to worry about weird anonymous trolls turning up to gurn at us.

ps: it’s true, most trolls do look like that!

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