10 days to go, over eating and Star Wars

15 December 2013

It's ten days to go now before mums and dads are woken up at some ungodly hour by their squealing and excited sprogs; or in other words, Christmas Day. Of course with our son being 32 years old it doesn't happen for us now, but I have to admit that I do tend to get a tad excited around this time of year too. On Boxing day however, I'm ready for all the decorations to be taken down and put away for another 12 months. They look tired to me at that point. Sadly there's still a lot of superstition and tradition around these decorations. My mother would put up them up 14 days before the 25 and they wouldn't be taken down until 14 days after.

Another of traditions was Christmas Day breakfast. A large boiled ham would appear on the table along with just about every pickled bits n bobs as you can think of. A large pork pie, sliced up ready for the taking as well as mountains of bread and butter, red and brown sauces, salad cream and vinegar. By the time we had all finished with this lot, mother had a bit of rest before she returned to the kitchen to start with the usual turkey lunch. That was usually finished with around 2.30ish.

By 6pm she was in the kitchen yet again fixing up tea time. Sliced cold ham, beef and turkey along with all the same things as breakfast would magically appear. A trifle, a gateaux along with tinned fruit and jelly, mountains of bread and butter arrived at the table. By that time I was always stuffed and Jan was even more stuffed that me! Mother would get upset because we didn't have as much to eat as she thought we should have. 'It is Christmas and it's only once a year. It won't hurt you,' she used to plead. Well maybe not, but if you are really stuffed, as we usually were by that time, forcing down more was just shear greed and nothing else!

These days Jan and I don't make such a big fuss about it all. On Friday while I was out I bought a large joint of beef, turkey is always dry and tasteless to both of us. This week we will buy three large yorky duffs and some spuds and that will be it for us. We've invited our son Tom for Christmas lunch, hence three yorky duffs not two. We have also both a bottle of Jim Beam for him too. I can't stand the stuff, but he likes it.

But even this can become a tradition you know. If you do anything the same way twice it becomes one. It was to break the tradition of mothers groaning board that we began to cut down on what we were eating at this time of year. One year we even had sausage, egg and chips for Christmas lunch. Why not? Have what you like or feel like and don't be shackled by tradition!

We've been watching Star Wars over the last week. We began with the new ones, #1,2 and 3. Yesterday we started the original set, # 4,5 and 6. I have to say that #4 and 5 are very dated now, looking slow and laboured after watching the later films first so we got the story in chronological order. It didn't really make sense that Lucas would start on Vol IV, to my mind at least.

Today's photo then is of two sandy dogs ...

And today's funny ...

Jack decided  to go skiing with his buddy, Bob. So they loaded up Jack's  minivan and headed north. After  driving for a few hours, they got caught in a terrible  blizzard. So they pulled into a nearby farm and asked the attractive lady who answered the door if they could spend the  night.
'I realize  it's terrible weather out there and I have this huge house all  to myself, but I'm recently widowed,' she explained. 'I'm afraid the neighbors will talk if I let you stay in my  house.'
'Don't  worry,' Jack said.. 'We'll be happy to sleep in the barn. And  if the weather breaks, we'll be gone at first light.' The lady  agreed, and the two men found their way to the barn and settled in for the night. Come  morning, the weather had cleared, and they got on their way. They enjoyed a great weekend of skiing.
But  about nine months later, Jack got an unexpected letter from an  attorney. It took him a few minutes to figure it out, but he finally determined that it was from the attorney of that attractive widow he had met on the ski weekend...
He dropped  in on his friend Bob and asked, "Bob, do you remember that good-looking widow from the farm we stayed  at on our ski holiday up north  about 9 months ago?"
"Yes, I do."  Said  Bob..
"Did you, er, happen to get up in the middle of the night, go up to the  house and pay her a  visit?"
"Well, um,  yes!," Bob said, a little embarrassed about being found out,'I  have to admit that I did."
"And did you happen to give her my name instead of telling her your  name?"
Bob's face  turned beet red and he said, "Yeah, look, I'm sorry, buddy. I'm afraid I did.' 'Why do you ask?"
"She just died and left me everything."