Christmas: home and away

Warning: lots of words, no pictures!

As Christmas approaches, my sewing time has diminished to next to nothing. The reason for that is this:

Yesterday (Tuesday), I got some knitting and some reading (three quilting magazines) done as I travelled for nearly ten hours by train to Coffs Harbour where I was met by DD who took me home to her place. I arrived after the boys were in bed so they had a lovely surprise when they awoke this morning. Around mid-morning, the four of us left for my home. Unfortunately, SIL was not able to join us due to work commitments; which is why I had to make the trip; 591 km – 370 miles is a long trip for one adult with two active toddlers! We arrived home at 7:45pm, just over nine hours after we left Woolgoolga.

Tomorrow evening, my mother arrives by bus and train from her home town of Bingara – a ten-hour trip. I am sure she will be very tired and very hungry (she never eats or drinks on the trip; Dad would be so cross if he knew) but pleased to see her great-grandsons.

On Friday, apart from entertaining my guests, I have an appointment for a  haircut and have to take Mum shopping for some personal items. I also need to do the last of my grocery shopping and cook the turkey for Christmas lunch (we have it cold – it’s summer here).

On Saturday, my uncle (my father’s brother), my aunt, my brother, DSIL and four-year-old niece, will join mum, DD, the Grandboys, WM and I to celebrate Christmas. Saturday evening we will spend in front of the television watching the Carols in the Domain.

On Sunday, after church, we will join WM’s extended family at the retirement village where his mother lives. It is next to a school and there is a large fenced sports oval for the little ones to run around in (and not escape). Some members of the family will bring gazebos for some shade. Lunch is basically a bring-your-own-meat for the barbecue and a standardised pot-luck (in the sense that the women tend to bring the same thing every year – I always being a cheesecake for dessert; apparently if I didn’t, I would be told to go home and make one!). It will either be served in the “rec room” which MIL has booked for the day or on the oval. All very Australian, isn’t it?

My niece will arrive on Monday to take Mum home and DD, the Grandboys and I will spend a quiet 

day before making the return trip to Woolgoolga on Tuesday. WW will follow by train on Christmas Eve (after work). It will be a long day for him: he gets up at 5:45am and the train arrives in Coffs Harbour at midnight! At least he can sleep on the train.

We will stay in Coffs Harbour that night but join DD and the family early on Christmas morning. Christmas lunch will be held at SIL’s parents place, which is nearby. J&A, SIL’s parents, are kindly giving us the use a car while we’re in Woolgoolga, so we will have some freedom to come and go as we please.

We plan to spend the Friday and the Saturday with DD and family and, hopefully, some of that time will be spent on the beach (10 minutes from DD’s home). On Sunday we will catch the train home so that WM can return to work on Monday!

Then, with Christmas behind me, and most other commitments on a summer hiatus, I plan to sew and sew and sew and sew! There will also be more ironing, cutting, sorting and storing of scraps since I am nowhere near done and I’m obviously not going to get much done in the next ten days!

How about you?
Will your Christmas be as hectic as mine?
Or do you plan on a quiet celebration?

And so that was Christmas!

Christmas is all but over for WM and I. All that's left to show for it is a tree that was still growing in a paddock last Friday, a fridge full of left-overs, a tray of untouched lollies, about a kilogram of cashew-nuts, half a tray of glacé fruit, most of a large Christmas pudding, about ten mince pies…

And a very bad cold (and infected sinuses) which has knocked me right out of action -- an unexpected and unwanted present from my grandsons!

For the first time in thirty-six years of married life, WM and I will spend Christmas Day without family.

For the first nine years we had Christmas lunch with my family and spent Christmas evening with his -- I am very blessed to have in-laws who didn't expect us for Christmas morning and lunch!

Then along came DD; and my family came to us for Christmas. That lasted until my sister started having children, then we alternated who was hosting.

After her second divorce, my sister moved away, closer to our parents, but we continued the alternating years until WM started working shift work and we couldn't get away. Then began many Christmases with just the three of us. Mum and dad would join on 27th December and stay until 2nd January.

Now DD and family have moved away and we had to find new ways to be together. WM had to work today (Christmas Eve) and be back at work on Friday so we can't travel to them for Christmas.

Instead, we've had three family celebrations where DD and the family have been present.

The weekend before last we went away to Ebor, in northern NSW, about two-and-a-half hours from where DD now lives and a 1600km (1000 miles) round trip for us. We went there to share Christmas with my sister, her children, her sons-in-law, her 8-month-old grand-daughter, and my mum. What a great weekend we had. My sister booked accommodation for all fourteen of us and we had a wonderful time.

L to R: Sister, OG, N2H2S, SIL, DD, YG, Boyfriend #2, Niece #2, WM, great-Niece, Niece #1, Boyfriend #1, Mum, Nephew

On Tuesday, DD and family arrived here. Mum arrived on Thursday. On Saturday, WM and I hosted Christmas (ham and turkey with salad followed by a choice of Christmas pudding or fruit salad) here with my brother and his family, mum, mum-in-law, DD and family. Hence the fridge full of leftovers mentioned in the first paragraph. The photo shows my youngest niece (mum’s youngest grand-daughter, aged one month younger than my Older Grandson) opening the first present of the day.

L to R: DD (under hat), YG, OG, SIL, niece, DSIL, N2H2S, DB, MIL, Mum (WM is taking the photo)

Yesterday WM and I took mum to Strathfield station to make the trip home, went to church then went to WM's extended family get-together. He's the eldest of six and his mum has seventeen grandchildren (all but one with partners or spouses) and thirteen great-grandchildren. Unfortunately, a lot of them weren't able to make it. It was extremely hot and incredibly noisy. The cold my grandsons shared with me had hit with a vengeance (colds in summer seem worse than those in winter) so we only stayed about four hours. I hope I didn't share too many germs, I tried to stay away from as many people as possible!

a sweaty boy reads a new book

one of the best places to be when the temperature is 40°C (104°F)

four of my mother-in-law's six great-grandsons; she also has seven great-grand-daughters

DD and the family left at 10:30 yesterday morning. There were so many things that I should have been doing and so many things I could have been doing but what did I do? Went to bed and slept for another two and a half hours!

It's bizarre sitting here looking at the tree. I'm still waiting for Christmas feelings to arrive but they seem to have gotten lost even more so than usual! I haven't felt at all like Christmas, despite all the hoop-la we've been through! It's also bizarre seeing ads for Christmas on television because, in my head, Christmas is already over!

So how will we celebrate the day itself?

We were going into the city to see the Christmas lights but I’m not feeling well enough to brave the crowds. WM is secretly pleased, after all the excitement of the last couple of weeks he’s looking forward to a couple of quiet days! Tomorrow morning we will go to a low socio-economic suburb not too far from here where we've volunteered to help serve lunch to homeless people. After that, we've been invited to afternoon tea at our friends' house.

Boxing Day will be spent quietly at home before WM heads off to work on Friday and "normal life" resumes for us.

January is summer vacation time in Australia but WM won't have his annual leave until next October. With all my classes and most of my other activities (quilting group, Bible study) closed until February, I guess I'll have plenty of time for my own crafting activities!

Whatever you're doing, and whoever you're spending it with, I wish you a peaceful and joyous Christmas. There’s only one reason why we’re having this holiday (holy day): “peace on earth and good will toward men”.

the scene above our garage

Happy Mothers’ Day weekend

WM and I arrived home at 8:45pm yesterday, exhausted but happy.

We had a great trip north; we left home at around 3pm and arrived at our motel in Quirindi at 8pm after stopping for a meal at a truck stop in Murrurundi.

We had FaceTime with our DD and grandsons on Friday morning (hurrah for accommodation establishments that have free wi-fi) and arrived at my niece’s place just after 9am. Baby Emily (then seventeen days old) was happy to cuddle with us and WM took quite a few photos. Here’s one of them.

After staying longer than we intended, we met my sister for lunch in Tamworth before travelling to Bingara where my mum lives, a total distance from home to mum’s of 560km (according to Google Maps). Here’s the map of our route.

Saturday was the most exciting day. We travelled east towards the coast to a town called Glen Innes where there is a monument of Standing Stones to the Celtic people who helped establish this country. At the monument there is a fully fenced playground and picnic table – and it is here that we met up with DD and the Grandsons for a picnic and some much needed cuddle time! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, DD, it was a great idea and a fabulous Mothers' Day present!

The map below shows the route we took to drive 142km (88 miles). The circle on the right is the town where DD, SIL and the Grandsons now live. As you can see, DD had a slightly further drive than we did – but she had to do it alone (SIL was working) with two toddlers.

Here are some photos of our day (including a very rare one of me with Older Grandson)!

On Sunday we had FaceTime again with DD and the Grandboys then took mum out to lunch before making the long trip home.

Seeing DD and the Grandsons made the trip extra-worthwhile and has lifted a sadness that I was growing tired of carrying! I hope it will keep me smiling till we see them again in July!

I hope you had a happy Mothers’ Day weekend too!

away from home

WM and I will be away for a few days.

This afternoon we will drive to Quirindi where we stay in a motel tonight and meet baby Emily (my great-niece) tomorrow morning -- and wish my niece a happy day for her first Mothers' Day.

my niece, my great-niece and my former brother-in-law, Emily's grandfather (taken from niece's Facebook page)

 Then we will travel to Tamworth to take my sister (the new grandmother) to brunch before she starts work at 2pm. I'm sure Mother's Day is extra exciting for her too as Emily is her first grand-child!

After that we will travel to the small town of Bingara to stay with my mum. We will take her to lunch on Sunday then make the long trek home again -- all in all over 1,100 kilometres (688 miles)!

I have knitting and a hand-stitching project so I'll be okay. Most of the journey (both ways) will be in the dark anyway!

I'm also taking my iPad with me but mum doesn't have a wireless router and I can't very well spend hours on a desktop computer in another room while I'm visiting my mum, can I?

So, I'll be way behind in reading blogs... again. But I'll catch up with you next week.

In the meantime, Happy Mothers' Day to all you mums and grand-mums out there.

And, if you're a grandmother and you see your grandchildren this weekend, give them an extra big hug from me -- I miss mine so much!

taken in January before I knew I'd be "losing" them!

a blanket for Emily

If you’re looking for the May post for 2013: The Year of the Finished Project, it’s over here.

As you may know from this post, my eldest niece (my sister’s eldest daughter) had her first baby on 23 April. Being just two days before my own birthday, you could say she was an early birthday present.

This is the same baby I made the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt for (because it is her mama’s favourite childhood story).

But I’ve gone a little less bright and a little more “pretty” for her baby blanket.

I didn’t start the blanket until the day after she was born, and then I ripped it out (too wide and wrong colour combination) and started again two days later. It’s not that I didn’t know she was coming, of course. It’s just that I didn’t know she would be a girl (although I had a feeling she might be!)

I was also being true to my own rules – no new knitting projects until others were finished – but a new baby is exceptional! They don’t come along in my family every day!

I have not been in the mood for knitting between saying goodbye to DD and the Grandsons, being sick, and working over at the “renovator’s delight” (henceforth known as “RD” -- there will be a post soon, I promise)!

But there’s nothing like a new baby to bring out all those craft-y tendencies!

I looked through my stash and decided to use up my Fiddle De Dee cotton (by Cleckheaton, sadly discontinued) because it’s a heavier weight (10ply/Aran/worsted) than the other cotton in my stash (we’re coming in to winter) and, more importantly, it’s machine washable and dryable! I don’t know that my niece knows such a thing as hand-washing exists! It knits up very softly although, being cotton, is quite hard on the hands when knitting for extended periods. I only had small amounts of each of four colour-ways, three skeins (150g) of lemon, and six skeins (300g) each of mint, a lemon/blue/white variegated yarn and an lemon/mint/pink/white variegated yarn.

The right combination and the right pattern were going to be important so an entrelac blanket it must be (hi Cindy! LOL). My first choice was to use the two variegated yarns but I didn’t like the combination so I settled on the mint and pink variation (of course! LOL)

Anyway, I hope to see Emily next weekend and wish her mama “happy mother’s day” for the first time. But I doubt I’ll have the blanket finished. This is where I was up to on Saturday afternoon; I’ve done part of the next tier since then!.

(Thanks Diane for the photo taken by iPhone during our workshop on Saturday)

If I had time to knit all day I might have got it done …

But there’s no way that was going to happen!

It will be sweet when it is, don't you think?

Linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches for the New FO challenge (on the last possible day!).

Family news

My niece, my sister's eldest child, gave birth to a daughter, Emily Jane, at 3:17am on Tuesday April 23. She weighed a healthy 7lb 3oz. Emily is my sister's first grandchild (which might explain the excited pre-dawn phone call I got!) and my mother's first great-grand-daughter.

Coincidentally, Australia's population is set to hit 23 million today too, so my niece, her partner and my little great-niece were on the local news tonight. I don't know how long the hyperlink will remain active -- news isn't current for very long!

In a further coincidence, today is also the second anniversary of my father-in-law's death.

Pa with Older Grandson (then aged six months)

We miss you, dad!