It's that time of the year and I thought it might be fun
to share our thoughts on how we spend this Festive Season.

The feast of Christmas is always preceded by four weeks
of Advent, a period of "fasting and contemplation".
"Kucios," or Christmas Eve, is the last day of fasting,
followed by sumptuous feasting. No less than 12 dishes
must be served at this special Christmas Eve meal of
predominantly sea-food, beginning with the recitation of
Grace and the breaking of a special unleavened wafer, called
"Plotkele". This wafer, blessed by the Parish priest, is
shared by all at the table, signifing a spirit of unity.

Christmas Day includes the traditional Catholic Mass -
followed by a long traditional lunch that folds into
dinner.

I cook for both Christmas
Eve, and Christmas Lunch, and both events are held at our
place where the family gets together. It's tradition.

Another tradition that we have is to finalise our
Charity donations at this time of the year. I've just
mailed off cheques to all of the Charities that we support,
including to our Parish and Priest.

Wishing you good health, happiness, prosperity and success
in the New Year 2015. May all your wishes come true

Christmas is a dish served cold here. Ham, chicken prawns etc. with salad & lots of icy watermelon & mangoes keep the kids happy.

The only exception was mums Christmas pudding. Everyone had to stir it, & mum had a stock of old threepences & sixpences to add, cooked Christmas morning.

With an acre & a half around the house, & large rooms, it was always at our place, with all my ladies family & kids along.

Since all those kids are now grown, with kids of their own, the tribe is too big even for our place.

Christmas is now a picnic on the beach at a Gold Coast park, with a couple of sky boats, jet skis, & a canoe to keep the kids amused. I'll take a sailing dinghy, if it's not too windy for little ones in it. The noise can become quite loud, thank god I'm going deaf.

Back to just our family at home for Christmas day at our place now.

Oops! And a merry Christmas to all.

Hi Foxy!

Looks like it's just you & me kid. No one appears to want to talk to us.

Hi Foxy, it sounds like you have a lovely traditional Christmas.
My family gets together each year, but it is never the same crowd!

My parents divorced when I was a teenager, so our family is a bit fractured and my mother dislikes Christmas because of that, to this day.
Us siblings try to have Christmas Day lunch together each year, and my daughter and I almost always do all of the cooking.

Because my husband is Irish, he loves to have the hot turkey Christmas Lunch, with everything that involves!
So he learnt to cook our turkey in the webber each year now, and he has it down to perfection.

The usual family squabbles go on right up to Christmas Eve of course, but we always have a wonderful Christmas day (and an arvo kip!) every year.

Here's to another great Christmas this year for all.

Cheers,
Suse.

Dear Hasbeen,

The Gold Coast would be a great place to be -
and with family - very special. It sounds so
great - and I wish you and yours the lovely time
that I'm sure you'll all have.

Dear Suse,

Gosh, how sad for your mum. And what a great thing
for you to do the traditional Christmas lunch. Our
Christmas lunch is also a traditional one - I use
all of Margaret Fulton's recipes, from the roast
turkey, to the glazed ham, to the Christmas vegies
and roast potatoes. I cheat somewhat with the dessert
by ordering a large "fruit bombe" (cake and fresh fruit) from
our Swiss Patisserie. Christmas Eve - is done especially
for my mum - who likes to see me keep up with the
traditional Lithuanian dishes and customs. She's now
very frail - and it gives her a change from the food in
the aged-care facility in which she lives.

Talking about traditions...

I read a great article by Sarah Harris in our local magazine,
about some of our traditions of Yule.

As she writes, "Some of these customs, like the wearing of
silly paper hats drawn from the obligatory bonbons along
with a joke and plastic novelties, are relatively modern
practices."

"Apparently it was while sitting by a crackling fire that
British confectioner and cake decorator Tom Smith decided
to reinvent the bonbon - originally a French creation of
sugared almonds in pretty paper twists - and blow away the
competition. After some wexperimentation he created a
friction strip coated with a small amount of saltpetre,
which created a bang when pulled apart."

"Smith's Bangs of Expectation, which went on the market in
1860, were high-end works of art containing wax dolls with
whole wardrobes of clothes, jade Buddhas, real ivory
elephants and real jewellery."

"By the turn of the century Smith's company, now run by his
three sons, was producing crackers for every occasion.
There were crackers for royal tours, crackers to celebrate
the discovery of Tutankhaman's tomb, crackers for store
openings. And Christmas would never be the same."