Well here I am at Wednesday 27 December, Christmas is over for another year and for the most part it has been a good one. Starting on the 23^rd when Tim and I went over to my brothers for the Jenkins Siblings Christmas get together as well his sisters also in attendance was long time as in childhood friends Colleen & her husband and their child, a total of 15 people which had more the feel Christmas at our parents place which was good.

Christmas Day saw Tim and I stay home and our daughter Natasha cook lunch for us as well as Jessica and Sam, the morning was wonderful with Jess and Sam here.

The yesterday Boxing Day Tim and I went over to our eldest daughter’s place for lunch and to exchange gifts. We got caught in a hail storm just after we left Kathy’s to come home, as like a minute after leaving we were still in her street and had to pull over due to the hail.

Now is the 27thaday spent at home seeing no one and going nowhere. I hope.

I will shar photos tomorrow after I go through what I have.

Here we are at Christmas Day here in Australia, and this is the last post using the book Christmas in the Colonies.

Santa Claus is a mixture of Saint Nicholas and Sante Klas and other magical gift-bringer of early folk lore. By the mid 1800’s he had become an elderly figure known also as Father Christmas, with a snowy white beard and a cap wreathed in holly or mistltoe, dressed from head to foot in fur trimmed clothes.

He would either deliver presents and rewards or punishment and coal to children depending on how good or naughty they were. He could squeezed down a chimney, drove a sled led buy a team of reindeer and thanks to Clement C Moore in 1848 with the story The Night Before Christmas became so well known around the world.

By the later part of the 1800’s he was firmly established as part of Christmas, his image appearing on Christmas Cards, and as illustrations in story books.

He first appeared in Australia in his tradition get up in 1864, some will say he swapped his reindeer for kangaroos but nope didn’t happen. Other’s believed he swapped his sed for an oxen cart laden with festive eucalypt branches and Aussie Christmas tree.

Up at 4.45am and it is much cooler then yesterday I do have both sliding doors open and there is a nice breeze.

It has reached 25 degrees and even though I am sweating I don’t have the air con on .

Sam had their eye sight tested and they need glasses.

Managed to get through the day without the air con on.

A good start to the day up at 5am it isn’t hot and there is a nice breeze blowing throughout the house.

Tim shut the back sliding screen door which meant I had to turn the fan on but at least not the air con.

Had a visit from Saint Vinnies with a Christmas Hamper of stuff this was a surprise, I said what we don’t want or use we can pass on to someone else such as Tasha or Sandy.

Blain brought down a bag of stuff that Tasha didn’t want so I could pass it on to Sandy.

My new bras came as well as the ¾ length pants, I hope they fit.

Up at 4.30am due to being hot and mostly awake, I opened the house up but by 8.30 I had shut the house up and turned the air con on. I also had developed a headache, the type that feels like it is caused by the weather.

The headache finally went away around 10am it is a pretty damn hot day, I turned the air con on early before Tim got up.

Tasha is in another mood over her rent and Blain, he doesn’t want to go on Centrelink benefits but because he is able too, the Dept of Housing will charge him rent as if he is getting the money. This has pissed her off and I get it, it is wrong and I told her to explain to Blain how it is, as the guy from the Dept of Housing said it is their policy. I think if he went on Centrelink Blain would be ok with it he just thinks it is not worth it and that Centrelink messes you around

A new day up at 5.20am after a rough night, it is much cooler and it is wet outside not sure if it is raining.

I have someone coming to take my blood and the tests are fasting tests so no breakie for me till after that is done just water to drink.

The lady turned up at 8am to take my blood, this was followed by breakie.

It has rained on and off all day, Tim went into work about extra time off and came home with the thought that he may end up losing his job. I said it may happen but no point in stressing over it. It is a bridge we will cross when we arrive at it.

The cleaners didn’t come which didn’t surprised me.

A much cooler morning, I am wearing light weight ¾ pants as the only shorts I have left clean are the above the knee ones that ride up and annoy me, if it gets warmer I will change into them. It started raining around 10 am and looks like the rest of the day will be wet.

While trying to type up tomorrows blog post I had problems with my word software and I lost all that I had written when I went to save the post. This is always frustrating when it happens and in the end I decided to write it up tomorrow.

Another cool start to the day and I am in ¾ pants again as it is cool with the sliding doors open.

Dawson rang around 10ish asking if Tim could pick him up and to some place a street away from us as he had no way to get there.

My mouth is so sore I am having trouble eating today.

Tim went and bought the prawns and went to have the paperwork filled out about his eyesight for his drivers authority.

At around 11ish Dawson arrived here to wait for a friend to come pick him up. We told him if he wants us to drive him to his dad’s tomorrow to let us know.

Here we are at Saturday and this Saturday I have extracts from the book Christmas in the Colonies.

So identified is England with Christmas and Christmas with England that it seems as though they were made for each other. The Englishman in Australia hails its recurrence with feelings particularly his own.

It reminds him of olden times, never to be recalled and of pleasant scenes, never perhaps to be revisited and of old familiar faces that have passed away for ever, years may have rolled by but still when Christmas Day comes around the sense of separation from native soil and from friends and companions of early days, returns to the heart with scarcely diminished force.

Of Englishmen it has been truly said that dinner unlocks the heart and with equal truth the same may be said of the majority of Australians. We delight in keeping up the sacred festival of Christmas, not only in decorating houses and churches and repeating the message of peace and good will first hymned by the angelic host at Bethlehem.

We kept up the mystery of Christmas gifts as thoroughly as we sing our Christmas carols and we have transferred as a national heritage the home “bill of fare” for merry Christmas as the proper cheer for Christmas.

What though we garland our family portraits with ferns in place of laurels and replaced holly berries with scarlet geraniums, we nevertheless send our plum pudding to the table in a blaze. Even though the sun was shedding his hot rays over the parched grass or well-watered flowerbeds, instead of struggling through dense clouds to light up the snow laden landscape of Old England.

Well here we are at another Friday and another coldish day here in my part of the world. Today we are looking at decorating our homes and churches for Christmas.

Well way back when it was common place to decorate houses and churches with evergreens such as rosemary, bay, mistletoe, holly and ivy, you get the picture. Houses would have leafy stuff around ledges and shelves. Well that is what it was like back in the old countries.

In the colonies it was different, for starters it was hot and some of those plants were not common place, so things like gum leaf saplings, and branches of wattle. The gum leaf saplings were dragged in and spliced through verandah posts and tied along railings to decorate homes and shops.

Towards the end of the 19^th century interest in decorations started to take off again influenced by the women’s journals of the day with instructions on how to fashion wreathes, create bon bons , paper chains and such.

I remember making paper chains with my mum as a child when we had little money for bought decorations.

Of course the Christmas table had a vase of Christmas bush, and it was possible to buy artificial evergreens which could be threaded into chains.

Of course the Christmas Tree added the final touch, Christmas trees were an old German custom, which spread to England when Prince Albert had them in the royal palaces. Here settlers happily used almost any species including she-oaks, gum, wattles and even a small olive tree said to be the earliest recorded Christmas Tree in South Australia.

Parents would often decorate trees as a surprised for their children often with paper stars, miniature toys and other ornaments. The large trees had a lot of ornaments on them with large gifts unwrapped for all to see placed under the tree.

If the tree was a small one it would be placed on a table surrounded by unwrapped gifts, and small presents hung from their branches.

Ok let us move on to Christmas presents, something we all pretty much take for granted you get a present or presents on Christmas Day. However until the mid 1800’s this wasn’t the case and yes sentiment and charity played a part it was mostly due to commercial interest and the need to make money that it came about.

It was around the 1840’s that the idea of a Christmas present had spread to the colonies, naturally local retailers took to the idea like house to fire, filling showrooms with all sorts of gifts for the buying public to purchase.

When the gold rush hit and people had more money stores would stock more elaborate and expensive gifts for their customers to buy.

It didn’t take long before children became the focus of the festive season with toy bazaars and shilling shops where children were made happy at the cost of one shilling each, they opened in every city more or less.

Pretty much everything was imported from England and Europe, with the exception of some wooden toys. The types of toys sold were drums, spinning tops, rubber balls, buckets and spades, cricket bats and china tea sets. So pretty much the same type of cheap toys people can buy now days. I wonder how long they lasted before they broke.

Middle class families encouraged their children to take gifts to the less fortunate such as those in hospitals, orphanages and those stricken by poverty. The Sydney Mail stated in 1885 that it is a very sacred and Christian duty to the sick and that Christmas comes but once a year. Yeah I can l see that happening today.

By the 1890’s home made Christmas presents were very popular and were strongly promoted in women’s journals who printed detailed instructions for suitable “knick knacks”. So it was common for the women and children to spend time creating the daintiest little gifts out of all sorts of odds and ends.

Ok let’s talk about Christmas Cards, they were a Victorian idea coming from sentimental feels about children’s Christmas coloured drawings.

The first Christmas cards came about around the 1870’s I don’t know for sure I am not that old. The first cards most like would have been chromolithographed cards, with designs featuring Santa Claus, Christmas Bells, or Narrative scenes of snow clad festivities.

However, by the mid to late 1870’s people wanted more appropriate cards for overseas mail. This challenged was taken up by the other side of the world with foreign companies producing cards of Australian character, however they bore little resemblance to the country.

In the early 1880’s this started to change when a fella named John Sands of Sydney had a competition in which designs thoroughly Aussie would be considered for a prize 50 pounds. He received 700 entries from armatures and professionals with all works being placed on display attracting long queues.

In 1881 or 1882 the first Australian designed cards rolled of the presses These cards featured things like kangaroos, koalas and emus, as well as indigenous flowers and foliage.

This custom brought undeniable social benefits by strengthening family ties and friendships.

Ok let’s talk about what Christmas dinner was like back in the late 1800’s. As those first Australians were from Britain more or less it isn’t surprising that our idea of a Christmas feast involved the type of food from there.

Now of course for many Christmas Dinner or what most of us now call Christmas Lunch was made up of whatever they could find with money being short or absent.

That said many still had money and some a lot of it and they would rush the stores after the imported goods had arrived from the far corners of the globe. It was during the mid 1800’s that the sale of Christmas foods and beverages swelled a bloody lot, with shopkeepers furiously competing for trade. Their shelves were stocked with ever more tempting delicacies and some would offer special services to customers in isolated areas.

Family and bachelor packets containing that need for the season were prepared for immediate delivery, with the festive thirst being taken care of in the form of champagne, wines and spirits and even in some cases French cocktails.

The food consisted of things like ham, turkey veggies, mince pies, plum pudding and such. Of course the preparations for the meal would begin in early December with the housewife and their staff and often the children all chipping in to help. The Christmas pudding took time to prepare, cook and then be stored ready for the day.

It was around the mid 1800’s that shopkeepers made an attempt to do up or “dress” their windows for Christmas, with an example set by Messrs, Soloman & Nephews of Henry Street in Fremantle whose windows were splendidly lit and decorated with green Christmas Trees, toys, plums, currants and candied peel as well as other Christmas delicacies.

Until the 1870, most people would chose to have their Christmas meal beside a popular watering hole or under a leafy tree of some sort. However, this fell out of favour and was replaced by the English style Christmas Lunch.

Hello everyone since Christmas is so close and getting closer this week’ I will be posting a few things out of the above book called: Christmas in the Colonies by Maisy Stapleton & Patricia McDonald.

While Christmas in Australia is intensely traditional and also intensely Australian. As Christmas comes at the end of the year it is a time of climax followed by rest and relaxation.

During the early days of Australia this festive season held little importance to the early settlers, many missing the old ways and the cold and snow of the season.

It was around the 1830’s that with the growing amount of immigrants and the feeling that this country wasn’t doing it quiet so hard that the traditional celebration of the season kicked in.

Then came the Victorian customs of a Christmas Tree and Christmas presents that quickly caught on here in Australia. It was the English tradition of decorating ones house using native plants and such.

Up at 4.40am had to pee and felt awake so got up. I turned the air con off and opened the front and back sliding doors, the breeze feels good and a tad cool.

Kathy and Summer arrived around 9.30am and left after an hour or so, Summer wanted to see Tasha.

Not long after that Kelli and her girls arrived, she left the girls with Jonathon while she went out shopping.

Jonathon brought the girls down to see me and Tim and he had a chat with Tim about his job.

Then Sandy arrived to pick up the 2 minute noodles Jess said she could have.

It hasn’t been as hot today but it did get hot.

Had a better nights sleep, the last few nights I have had some strange and upsetting dreams about Tim, in them he was a right asshole and treated me like shit. That is not what Tim is like he loved me and treats me well doesn’t swear at me or call me stupid like he did in the dreams.

Sam brought down his washing to toss in the dryer so he can have something to wear to school.

Sue called in to see me just before Tim left for his doctors appointment she had a cry as she misses seeing her grandchildren.

It has got very hot again around 26 degrees and it didn’t help that I was in the bedroom sorting out Christmas presents with sweat dripping off me.

The woman in unit 5 walked down to Tasha’s complaining about the dog and she slapped Tasha across the face. The woman pushed Tasha into her house where a punch up took place with Tasha beating on the woman who pulled Tasha’s hair. Tasha ended up with a bleeding ear when her hair got caught in an earring.

Tasha called the cops, who after talking to people asked Tasha if she wanted to press charges Tasha said she did.

Tasha has security cameras and the start of the fight is on camera, it shows the woman approaching Tasha, Tasha told her to go away she didn’t want to deal with her and the woman slapped Tasha’s face.

BLAIN’S 18TH BIRTHDAY

A cool morning but suppose to be another pretty hot day they say around 25 degrees. I thought about turning the air con on when it got to 26 but Tim said not yet so I didn’t turn it on and I managed to cope.

Tasha had a visit from the ranger about the dog she has in her back yard, this is not her dog. He was told the dog was neglected it isn’t it does have an infected ear but Tasha has been treating it with the same stuff the ranger recommended, so all was good he didn’t fine her or anything. Of course we know who made the report the woman from yesterday who Tasha beat up. I have heard the lady now has a bruised faced.

Saw Kelli she locked herself out of her house and came to get Jonathon’s key so she could get in. I gave her a gift from Mrs Claus for Thea.

A new day I have a doctors appointment this morning and I hope I am able to go Coles after the appointment depends on Tasha’s mood.

Appointment went well and I did manage to go to Coles and do a little shopping. He is pleased with my progress and has reduced the strength of one medication.

I contacted Snapfish about my missing order and they gave me the name of the actual printing company saying I would need to contact them which I have done via Email. I hope they reply.

Tim had rehab and I turned the air con on when he left for his appointment.

In for another stinking hot day, up at 4.45am.

Gave Sam’s driver a Christmas Card and a $5 scatchie, Sam that that was really nice of me, but it is what Mum taught me to do.

I managed to sort our more Christmas presents it made my back pain flare up standing on my feet for so long.

I don’t have anything for Kathy or Jessica. Haven’t heard from the printing company about the parcel that went to the wrong to the address.

Tim said that tomorrow he will take me to the library and then to the reject shop.

Up early this morning at 4.35am I had a rough night took me ages to fully settle down due to my feet moving so much. Going to be hot but not stinking hot hopefully.

Tim went into work to arrange more time off, I went with him so I could go to the library then we went to the Reject shop (a large cheap shop)only bought a few things but it was good to go out.

It has warmed up but the breeze blowing through the house is nice.

When we got home we found the postie had been and we now had a parcel to collect at the post office. I have asked Tim to get me more stamps while there and he wrote down what I wanted.

Awake and up by 4.30am after a good nights sleep, I have to wear ¾ length pants as I don’t have any clean or dry shorts, Tim did a load of washing and hung it on the clothes hoists, he will take them outside when he gets up.

Tim got the postage stamps but mucked up the order I asked for 2 overseas card only stamps, he got 1 of them. Mostly though he got what I wanted.

A hot lazy day, too hot to do anything I had the house shut up and the air con going.