If you can’t get a chance to visit a loved one in a nursing home this Christmas you should had made the effort and sent them a Christmas card, you may think what’s the point the person won’t know the difference but the staff will as will those who do find the time to visit, your loved one isn’t dead yet they have just reached a stage when they need more care, they may not always seem to know what is happening but I feel that somewhere inside they do know what is happening. 

The Holly, Ivy and Christmas Plants

Holly, Ivy and other greenery such as Mistletoe were originally used in pre-Christian times to help celebrate the Winter Solstice Festival and ward off evil spirits and to celebrate new growth.

When Christianity came into Western Europe, some people wanted to keep the greenery, to give it Christian meanings but also to ban the use of it to decorate homes. The UK and Germany were the main countries to keep the use of the greenery as decorations. Here are the Christian meanings:

Holly

The prickly leaves represent the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified. The berries are the drops of blood that were shed by Jesus because of the thorns.

In Scandinavia it is known as the Christ Thorn.

In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy a female plant. An old tradition from the Midlands of England says that whatever one was brought into the house first over winter, tells you whether the man or woman of the house would rule that year! But it was unlucky to bring either into a house before Christmas Eve.

Ivy

Ivy has to cling to something to support itself as it grows. This reminds us that we need to cling to God for support in our lives.

In Germany, it is traditional that Ivy is only used outside and a piece tied to the outside of a Church was supposed to protect it from lightning!

Laurel

Laurel has been worn as a wreath on the head to symbolise success and victory for thousands of years.

It symbolises the victory of God over the Devil.

Another day to make one feel like they are melting when they step outside into the heat. When I was out shopping this morning the shopping centre I went to had people handing out free bottles of water near the entrance.

I am done and dusted with my Christmas shopping, except for Tim I will have to pop out and get his present sometime this week. He is hard to buy for but then in many ways so am I. Why well because we pretty much have everything we want or need.

Have to say it is working out ok with Natasha living here, as the house is clean more often then not, she is a bit of a clean freak unlike me I am it looks good enough type of person.

This afternoon Tasha is at work, Tim is at work so I have had a quiet afternoon home alone, which you all know I so like.

However, I have to say that at times I feel like she wants to change who I am and that isn’t going to happen. Like her father she thinks I buy too many Christmas presents and give presents to too many members of the family. I take after my mum and she takes after her mum we are givers this is who we are, please don’t try and change me.

With less then a week to go till the big day, I am feeling nice and relaxed, I don’t stress over Christmas and have to say my mum doesn’t really s tress over it either. It is a busy day and such but it is also a loving family day and when I get home fro my parents place in the afternoon I am glad the day is over. I often have a nap when I get home on Christmas Day, it is also one of the few days that I actually drink well more then one or two drinks I may get a little tipsy on Christmas Day but I can at 53 I am allowed to have a few drinks on such a wonderful day.

Hello world it is now Sunday for me and have to say the last two days seemed busy, ok Friday is always busy I know this but Saturday yeah it was busy as well. I went out to Wallsend for Jessica a drive of about 10-15 minutes to get something she wanted for Leo. Anyway I get to the shop and they are closed it was 9am and they didn’t open to 10am would had been nice if she told me that in the first place. So I will have to go back there for her tomorrow as they are not open on Sunday.

This Sunday I am not having breakfast or lunch for the family, why you wonder, well I will tell you I really need to sort out the Christmas presents and yes I know I have been saying I would do them for the last week or so but I mean it today I will get it all sorted. I just hope once I have done that I do not discover that I have to get more stuff.

Speaking of Monday, ok not speaking of Monday but anyway a Monday thought came to me tomorrow Monday I will have to go and get Tim’s Christmas present although not sure what the hell I am going to get him I was thinking of a battery pack starter thing, you know the thing one uses to start a car with a flat battery that is suppose to be better then using jump leads from another car. I am just not sure about it, I might get him a gift card from Supercheap instead, I will decide tomorrow.

We also have had a few stinking hot days again temps in the high 30’s today it is suppose to be around 37°c and tomorrow it is suppose to be hotter still. Although have to say it was nice when I went for my walk this morning not hot at all, although I did leave home at around 6.20am.

Can you believe that Christmas is less then a week away, bloody hell, this year I don’t think Jessica is coming here for Christmas Eve, she was going to but I think Leo said he would like it to be just him and mummy Christmas morning.

Kathy and Michael are going to Sydney with the girls Christmas Eve to see his parents and will be home here sometime in the afternoon of Christmas Day, she was concerned that me and her dad would have a problem with that but nope we don’t, we get it there are times she needs to be with Michael and his family and this is one of those times. Michael’s father isn’t very well at the moment.

Blain is at his fathers this week he will be home again on either Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon he went to his dads a day early as Kelli was in the area on Thursday and picked him up made more sense to do that then come back the next day just to get him, it is a 40 minute drive to his dads place.

Most of yesterday afternoon Natasha was asleep on the lounge, Tim said she should had gone to bed but she preferred to lay on the lounge, it didn’t bother me and if she was content to sleep there the so be it, might have been cooler for her as we had the air con going and the lounge room was not too hot, unlike her bedroom which with the door closed was like an oven.

Tim is working this afternoon and I am hoping the bus he is in is air conditioned you might think der of course it would be but you would be wrong there has been other days when it has been stinking bloody hot and he had been in a non air conditioned bus or a bus that the air conditioning isn’t working in. Which really annoys the hell out of both of us with temps in the high 30’s a body can suffer from heat stroke, but do the idiots in charge give a rats ass, nope.

Well today is the last day of school for the year and both boys Blain & Leo are having the day off, even though teachers will say that lessons are taught right up to the last bell of the day, anyone who has been to school on the last day know that is a load of rubbish. In fact usually students spend the day helping the teachers pack up stuff and many teachers take in DVD’s and the children watch movies.

Yesterday Blain’s school went to the pool for the day, Leo’s school have had a water fun day held at the school and when I picked Leo up yesterday he had a Christmas bag with lollies and toys in which everyone in his class received.

My own girls had the choice of whether they wanted to attend school on the last day of the year as well, sometimes they would go other times they chose to have the day off.

When I was speaking to mum last night she was telling me that my brother asked if she would take the girls (his daughters) to school as well as taking Landon to day care and Dawson to work experience. Dawson wanted to go to his work experience he enjoys it so much.

Now my parents only have a small fart-ass little car and it is difficult to fit me and the two girls in the back seat, Dawson of course will not sit in the back and yeah I know some people might say that Dawson is the child and should sit in the back but to be honest I don’t care I am ok with sitting in the back. This is the thing though when she was trying to explain to Dave that there may not be room for all of us he couldn’t get it, his answer was take Landon’s car seat out to make room which mum would do anyway,as it turned there was plenty of room in the car.

Just had a nap, and Jessica woke be by walking into the bedroom and yelling so that I jumped with fright, not funny Jessica.

So question for the day is do your children go or went to school on the last day of the school year?

The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in the UK way back in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was a civil servant (Government worker) who was very interested in the new ‘Public Post Office’ and wondered how it could be used more by ordinary people.

Sir Henry had the idea of Christmas Cards with his friend John Horsley, who was an artist. They designed the first card and sold them for 1 shilling each. (That is only 5p or 8 cents today(!), but in those days it was worth much much more.) The card had three panels. The outer two panels showed people caring for the poor and in the centre panel was a family having a large Christmas dinner! Some people didn’t like the card because it showed a child being given a glass of wine! About 1000 (or it might have been less!) were printed and sold. They are now very rare and cost thousands of Pounds or Dollars to buy now!

The first postal service that ordinary people could use was started in 1840 when the first ‘Penny Post’ public postal deliveries began. Before that, only very rich people could afford to send anything in the post. The new Post Office was able to offer a Penny stamp because new railways were being built. These could carry much more post than the horse and carriage that had been used before. Also, trains could go a lot faster. Cards became even more popular in the UK when they could be posted in an unsealed envelope for one halfpenny – half the price of an ordinary letter.

As printing methods improved, Christmas cards became much more popular and were produced in large numbers from about 1860. In 1870 the cost of sending a post card, and also Christmas cards, dropped to half a penny. This meant even more people were able to send cards.

An engraved card by the artist William Egley, who illustrated some of Charles Dickens’s books, is on display in the British Museum. By the early 1900s, the custom had spread over Europe and had become especially popular in Germany.

The first cards usually had pictures of the Nativity scene on them. In late Victorian times, robins (an English bird) and snow-scenes became popular. In those times the postmen were nicknamed ‘Robin Postmen’ because of the red uniforms they wore. Snow-scenes were popular because they reminded people of the very bad winter that happened in the UK in 1836.

Christmas Cards appeared in the United States of America in the late 1840s, but were very expensive and most people couldn’t afford them. It 1875, Louis Prang, a printer who was originally from German but who had also worked on early cards in the UK, started mass producing cards so more people could afford to buy them. Mr Prang’s first cards featured flowers, plants, and children. In 1915, John C. Hall and two of his brothers created Hallmark Cards, who are still one of the biggest card makers today!

In the 1910s and 1920s, home made cards became popular. They were often unusual shapes and had things such as foil and ribbon on them. These were usually too delicate to send through the post and were given by hand.

Nowadays, cards have all sorts of pictures on them: jokes, winter pictures, Santa Claus or romantic scenes of life in past times. Charities often sell their own Christmas Cards as a way raising money at Christmas.

Charities also make money from seals or stickers used to seal the card envelopes. This custom started in Denmark in the early 1900s by a postal worker who thought it would be a good way for charities to raise money, as well as making the cards more decorative. It was a great success: over four million were sold in the first year!

Soon other countries such as Sweden and Norway adopted the custom and then it spread all over Europe and to America.

I personally send out a lot of Christmas cards to my family and pen friends I also now send out some Christmas Ecards but to be honest I prefer the traditional Christmas card over an Ecard, yes Ecards are ok and I do get a number of them but I like being able to hang my Christmas cards on the wall for all to see.

Hello everyone, me and blogging didn’t go well together for the most part of last week, I was busy doing one thing or another most of the week and every time I sat at the computer to write a post it didn’t happen because other things got in the way.

So here we are on a Monday afternoon and it’s been close to a week since I wrote anything.

Saturday was “My Blain”’s 10^th birthday damn those 10 years have gone fast he spent most of the day with his dad and came back her around 5.30pm and spent the night and all day Sunday here with his mum. He did appear to like his presents which of course makes us adults happy, although he is like his mum in that he doesn’t show a lot of excitement over presents. Sunday his mum cooked one of his favourite meals for lunch and I had bought a cake for him.

This morning I had to drive my dad to an appointment after I took Leo to school, only 2 more days of school for the year then the children are off till the end of January. I am one of those strange people who like school holidays, I have no problem with having the children home for 6 weeks although I know some who find school holidays a nightmare and can’t wait till it starts again.

Although I know some who feel they need to find ways to entertain their children when they are not at school, I don’t, no one had to entertain me when I was a child I was able to find plenty to do on my own and I think most children can do so. I rarely sent my girls to vacation care, which is run by different groups with activities for children over the school holidays. I did send the one year for a couple of days but over all nope couldn’t afford it and they managed just find, they found things to do at home that didn’t involve me.

Now I have no problem with parents who like to play games with their children but it wasn’t me, I am just not like that my parents didn’t feel the need to play games with their children we turned out ok.

There is only 1 more birthday for the year and that is Jonathon’s (Blain’s dad) his is on the 23^rd then there are more birthdays come January. Yes I buy Jono a birthday present not over the top but something have done for as long as I have know him pretty much and since Blain is now 10 you can take a stab at how long I have known him, but if you like I can tell you I think it is 12 years I am pretty sure he was only 16 when I met him.

I will try and do better at posting stuff this week but with Christmas so damn close I have other stuff I need to do like finish sorting out the presents, but first I need to buy a few more large gift bags got plenty of smaller ones but ran out of large bags. Yes I am a gift bag person, this is because I suck at wrapping presents, gift bags just makes it all so much easier and the clean up is easy as well.

The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe, such as Germany.

The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the previous year’s log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was considered important that the re-lighting process was carried out by someone with clean hands. Nowadays, of course, most people have central heating so it is very difficult to burn a tree!

In parts of France it is traditional that the whole family helps to cut the log down and that a little bit is burnt each night. If any of the log is left after Twelfth Night, it is kept safe in the house until the next Christmas to protect against lightning! In some parts of Holland, this was also done, but the log had to be stored under a bed! In some eastern European countries, the log was cut down on Christmas Eve morning and lit that evening.

In Cornwall (in theUK), the log is called ‘The Mock’. The log is dried out and then the bark is taken off it before it comes into the house to be burnt. Also in the UK, barrel makers (or Coopers as barrel makers were traditionally called) gave their customers old logs that they could not use for making barrels for Yule logs. (My surname is Cooper, but I don’t make barrels! My Great Grandfather did own a walking stick factory though!)

The custom of the Yule Log spread all over Europe and different kids of wood are used in different countries. In England, Oak is traditional; in Scotland, it is Birch; while in France, it’s Cherry. Also, in France, the log is sprinkled with wine, before it is burnt, so that it smells nice when it is lit.

In Devon and Somerset in the UK, some people have a very large bunch of Ash twigs instead of the log. This comes from a local legend that Joseph, Mary and Jesus were very cold when the shepherds found them on Christmas Night. So the shepherds got some bunches of twigs to burn to keep them warm.

In some parts of Ireland, people have a large candle instead of a log and this is only lit on New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night.

Different chemicals can be sprinkled on the log like wine to make the log burn with different coloured flames!

• Potassium Nitrate = Violet

• Barium Nitrate = Apple Green

• Borax = Vivid Green

• Copper Sulphate = Blue

• Table Salt = Bright Yellow

A Chocolate Yule Log or ‘bûche de Noël’ is now a popular Christmas desert or pudding. It’s traditionally eaten in France and Belgium, where they are known as ‘Kerststronk’ in Flemish.

They are made of a chocolate sponge roll layered with cream. The outside is covered with chocolate or chocolate icing and decorated to look like a bark-covered log.

One of the most visible signs of Christmas in Australia each year is the Christmas Lights displays. A very large number of families display a Christmas light of some type, lighting up their home and saying to all passers by; “Peach on earth and goodwill to all”. It might be a Christmas tree with lights showing through the window. A string of icicle lights are very popular. Possibly a Garden tree covered with a net light or a string of fairy lights.

Some families take Christmas lights to a whole new level each year adding to their collection of Christmas lights decorating their home and the most dedicated even have a collection of Christmas ornaments on display through window boxes.

Multitudes of families travel around these highly decorated homes and get out and walk up to the most interesting homes during December evenings, leading up to Christmas. These outings are fantastic, free, fun-filled outings for families with small children.

Many of the dedicated people that decorate their homes so elegantly with Christmas lighting, to entertain Australia’s children, are so generous with their time that they also collect funds for charity and/or sell raffle tickets.

So do you have Christmas lights at your place?

I do not, I would like to but Tim isn’t so keen and even though I have been asking him to set some up for me he still hasn’t done anything about it. I bought some solar powered lights so no extra high power bills.