Sunday we finally celebrated our Family Yule. It was rather nice to have my family together, both sons, and Kevin's partner as well. Firefly suggested that our table really reflected our family. It had a red, plastic tablecloth with snowmen on it, but was set with china. Then we used paper napkins and everyday utensils. He was in a flannel shirt. I was somewhat dressed up in red blouse and long skirt but had my old ratty, but warm slippers on. We had a lovely centerpiece that I put together from what had survived since our Yule ritual. It was mostly evergreens with some kind of berry (the berries have seeds in them and I must find out what kind of plant they are because I think it would be interesting to plant them but I don't know if they would grow in our area). I suppose he is right. Our family is rather eclectic, sometimes tacky and sometimes almost elegant. The problem of course is that we always taught our children that brand names, and expensive clothing, etc. are completely unimportant. It is inside that counts. So of course, that is what we got:)
It was a little more stressful than I like as Kevin's car had problems. It wouldn't start and the car repair place came and towed it away but neglected to tell him that they weren't going to be open over the holiday weekend. Tom ended up spending something like 3 hours picking them up and taking them home again while I cooked the dinner and did some of the cleaning. But it was still good to see them and we had a good time.
I am not so sure anymore though that it is worth the effort to make a big holiday dinner. Once our children are not coming home for Yule anymore and that might even be by next year I don't think we will celebrate it in the same way anymore.
Monday I didn't feel like doing anything and spent the whole day in my robe reading George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords. I have been following the series faithfully and as I turned a friend on to it have been able to get the hardbacks as gifts rather than wait until they came out as paperbacks like usual. But I was not happy with who and the number of people that got killed off in this one. I know it is war but... it is fiction.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind