Jean's Journal: Last thoughts on Christmas as the decorations are put away
By Jean Farrell
As the decorations are being put away, I’d like to comment on a few issues regarding Christmas before the final boxes are closed.
We had our eldest daughter here for ten days. Her two teenagers were with us also, as well as their father. They brought only one dog this year, so – along with our own ageing Bobby - we had two big dogs in the house throughout the Christmas!
My saving grace was that I have a special cushion which has ‘Reserved for Mammy’ written on it. I place this on my own very comfortable armchair, beside our open fire. No-one is allowed sit on it!
From the comfort of my chair I observed the total chaos! It was lovely to have them here, and we all had a good time together.
I’m sharing things I have read about Christmas with you. One woman told her children, “Buy me nothing that I’ll have to lift up and dust under.” Another said, “Don’t bring anything into this house that I can’t eat or drink.”
I love the story about the granny whose daughter was bringing twin toddlers with her for Christmas. Granny decided to buy an old fashioned playpen for them (it had a lockable gate at the side.) Big mistake. “I won’t be putting my sons into a cage,” was her daughter’s sharp comment.
The little boys were so wild that, in the end, Granny got her comfortable armchair lifted into the playpen. She spent most of Christmas in it, reading her book in peace, out of reach of the boys. They smiled in at her and she smiled out at them.
Another Granny ended up putting her Christmas tree into the playpen she bought. This was because the visiting dogs and babies attempted to dismantle it daily.
I didn’t really get to watch much of what I marked to view in my RTE Guide. Various things on Netflix were watched mostly by the teenagers.
My thirteen-year-old granddaughter loved ‘The Derry Girls.’ It seemed to be on a lot. I’m sure I’d enjoy it too – if I could understand a word of what they were saying! Their accents were beyond me. I have numerous lovely programmes taped to watch when I get my house back in order again!
I have a couple of other seanfhochail for you today. ‘An rud is annamh is iontach,’ came to mind many times over the Christmas. ‘What is scarce is wonderful.’ For eleven months of the year biscuits and cake are very scarce in this house, for health and figure reasons. A chocolate biscuit, on a February night, would be so wonderful to have. During the last month there was a surplus of cake and biscuits here. Yet, I had no much desire for them at all.
Another seanfhocail I read recently states, ‘Nollaig bhreá a dhéanann reilig teann.’ This means ‘A fine Christmas makes for a full graveyard.’ Does this mean that if we eat too much fatty food at Christmas, we die as a result? Or does it mean that if the weather is fine (go breá) many folk die, because there is no frost to kill deadly germs? What do you think? I’d be interested in your opinion.
And, always remember how awful very hot weather is. I have a friend who detests those (very few) very hot days we get some summers. I passed her uptown yesterday and commented on how very cold it is. “Don’t complain,” she replied. “It’s much better to be too cold than to be too hot!” I don’t know do I agree with her!
I met another reader uptown who told me that she read my article about making a Christmas cake, in Domestic Science class, in secondary school, long ago.
She baked a cake, in school, too and we laughed at what she had to tell me. Their teacher, a nun, was adamant that they added the EXACT amount of every ingredient. Each lot of raisins, currants, nuts and more had to be weighed twice to be certain sure that the precise correct weight was added to the mixture. It was the same with the quantities of liquids added. She impressed upon them that one must be very meticulous about this.
Then, to contradict all she had said, when the mixture was poured into the baking tin, the nun took a big bottle of Holy water out of her press. She poured very liberal amounts of this all over their uncooked cakes! It is ‘Lourdes water,” she told them, “the very best.”
This was the same nun, my friend said, who made them say a special decade of the rosary as the end of each Domestic Science class for the conversion of Russia! Didn’t we all pray for that at the end of our Rosary every night, as little children? We also prayed for a happy death and for President Kennedy.
I came across the following lately. The author is unknown.
“I asked an elderly man once what it was like to be old and to know the majority of his life was behind him. He told me that he has been the same age his entire life. He said the voice inside of his head had never aged. He has always just been the same boy. His mother’s son.
“He had always wondered when he would grow up and be an old man. He said he watched his body age and his faculties dull but the person he is inside never ever aged or never changed. Our spirits are eternal. Our souls are forever.”
So, keep smiling!
jeanfarrell@live.ie