Anticipation: Granite Glen Christmas gathering
It is about to be Christmas Eve Down Under.
And while I would never claim to be “all things Aussie”, I reckon our brand of festive celebrations for Christmas will be echoed in some way or other in many households across this great land…
Here’s is how I expect ours to go down:
We will wake Christmas day early, with children baying to be let at the gleaming be-ribonned parcels stacked around the tree – a pile which has taunted them as it has grown in into a small mountain over the past few of days. Santa sacks will be torn open and loot examined loudly as parents blearily seek coffee (having wrapped and gossiped til the wee hours).
…
We will hold the youngsters off the more serious gifts (from family) until breakfast has been had – ham, poached eggs and cooked tomatoes. Adults will finally succumb to escalating nagging around 8am, and the gifts will be sought, identified, torn open, examined and added to the pile in a growing crescendo of noise and shiny paper drifts.
…
Once sated by this orgy of (gift) opening, those younger than 18 will head off to various corners of the house or garden to investigate their new treasures. Adults will check on the animals that need attention. GG’s current checklist includes two frisky foals…
and one little poddy calf (which is needing some human help to feed) …
before falling into a pool or collapsing onto a squatters chair on the patio. We will rouse and regather for a coffee and the menfolk will possibly raise the energy for a drive, to check on waters in various paddocks (an excuse to show off the latest work and calves to our once-a-year visitors).
…
The women will spend the next few hours happily kitchen-bound, glazing the ham, roasting the leg of pork, whipping up custard for the plum pud (already lovingly made by the allocated pud chef of the crowd) and running crowd control on the ankle-biters. Much discussion of the year’s events and the antics of menfolk will accompany this activity.
…
Kids will be commandeered from loot piles to set the tables – cobbled together from various un-matched dining and kitchen sets, laid with almost-matching tablecloths, decorated with spray-painted gumnuts and matching silver stars (cleverly constructed from paddlepop sticks) which will double as place settings with hand-inscribed names. We will all finally saddle up to a feast about an hour later than anticipated, thanking the Lord for the fare and hosts for the air-conditioning as the heat shimmers past the doors outside.
Fruit platters with cherries and grapes and nectarines will vie for attention with chocolate delights to finish off the smorgasboard, as chardonnays, beers, iced waters and strong coffees wash them down.
…
Adults will at this point beg for a nap, but the kids will hound us until a grown-up agrees to provide the mandatory lifeguard duty, and watch them poolside.
When they are completely waterlogged (and have inhaled big wedges of pink watermelon to lift sugar levels) …
… the tennis court will beckon. The pool adult will pass the baton to a revived counterpart, and head for the mattress to recuperate.
…
Eating, swimming, eating, drinking, feeding, napping and checking animals, oh, and maybe a little more eating.
We will all be utterly exhausted by about 8pm.
And the house will grow still and quiet and content.
And we will all look a little like this…
…
What are your Christmas traditions?
12 Comments
Debby
Oh, when the children were small, the big tradition was that they could not open presents until the clock chimed six times. So they’d all congregate in one bedroom to whisper in the dark and as it neared six, they’d clamber to sit and whisper at the top of the stairs. I’d lay in bed and listen to them, and smile remembering other Christmases and other voices whispering in the dark long before this generation was born.
And if they showed any sign of over sleeping, I had a wrapping paper tube behind the door. By 5:30 I was ho-ho-hoing through the tube. That would get them up and whispering, by golly.
Cactus Jack Splash
We woujld gather at my grandparents house (where I live now) and the grandkids would all hang out in the sunlight basement where the tree was. We would all sleep around the tree in sleeping bags hoping to catch Santa. Our dads and grandpa would sneak the presents in while we were crashed (I am now suspicious that we work up into a frenzy so we would pass out cold LOL ). We would hear sleigh bells and my grandpa would do a big, deep hohoho and we would wake up to a lit tree and tons of presents.
Lydia
I’m a Yank, so up here in South Dakota, we would eat oyster stew and sweedish meatballs AFTER the candlelight service. The family would open gifts from each other.
On Christmas morning we would open gifts from Santa — and eat a HUGE Christmas dinner with turkey, ham, dressing, cranberries and Grandmas plum pudding… fantastic.
God bless you all this Christmas!
A Novel Woman
My “kids” all sleep in now, so my husband and I are up first. We have a quiet coffee and putter around until we can’t stand it anymore and then we’re the ones who go in their rooms and jump on them to wake them up. Or we send in Buddy. He does an admirable job of leaping about in the beds and licking faces, and can’t easily be stopped. We open stockings first (we all get one) and then have a big breakfast – panetonne, fresh fruit, bacon, eggs, orange juice, coffee – then open gifts. Usually about 11 a.m., I get going on dinner – stuff and throw the 30 lb turkey in the oven, get the veg ready (turnip and mashed potato and steamed brocolli with garlic and olive oil and lemon), make dinner rolls, soup (although I might forgo the soup this year. I have no water at the moment, there being a burst pipe somewhere in town.) Then everyone goes out to skate or toboggan or play hockey, and I sit with one of my new books and read until the crowds descend. After that, it’s all a blur until the family clears out.
Pam
A Novel Woman
ps
Love that last photo, with the little drool at the corner of her mouth. So sweet.
My kids were looking at all their baby photos last night, giggling with their heads together. I must scan some of the old shots and post them. It really does go by quickly….
Kate
Quick question before i leave my actual answer…what does Poddy (poddy calf) mean? I mean i know that you are talking about a poor little calf with no momma but what is poddy? 🙂 thanks!
Jayne
We pretend to be asleep while Feral Beast tip toes down to the tree to hunt out his pressies then he launches himself on top of us with our pressies to open.
And we sleep at some time in the arvo….it’s mandatory all Aussie have a nana nap on December 25 😉
Portia
We have a relative that runs a homeless shelter downtown, so every Christmas morning we go down and cook and serve breakfast and have our Christmas celebration with that side of the family. Then we go home and open our gifts. After all that we take naps because we have to get up so early to make breakfast. After naps we get together with the Grandparents and Cousins.
jeanie
Darn – my insightful and witty comment didn’t post.
Just make up something witty and insightful and put it in here, will you?
Tracey
Some similarities, but our extended family, even when we do get together, is not big. Even as a kid I never had the pool either. We will be having a very quiet one in comparison. Just us. We will still be woken (hopefully) by the oohs and aahs as the Santa presents are ripped open. Mandatory breakfast before family presents to each other. Then, tomorrow, hopefully the forecast rain will hold off so that we can get in a good swim at the beach. We may not have the grandparents and cousins here, but a beach all but in your backyard beats sweltering Sydney suburbia all too often experienced in the past.
Scotty
Traditions? To survive, lol.
Hope you and yours have a great day, BB – Merry Christmas.
🙂
Lakeland Jo
I loved reading about your Christmas-thanks for sharing! Especially the bit about the pool- jealous!!