Monday 14 December 2020

Xmas 2020

Christmas preparations are under way.  Presents and decorations are gathering dust, having been put up 3 weeks ago



This is the flower of Christmas.  A poinsettia with its gorgeous red leaves.  Known as an Alexandrino in greek.  This year I was given one for my birthday, a couple of weeks ago.

I kept it inside but it definitely didn't like the warm nights near the wood fire.  A lot of its leaves dried up and fell off.  Now I've put it outside but we are having a particulary cold wet spell and I'm a bit worried about it .  I may have to put it next to me on my desk where the warmth of the fire hardly reaches, shiver,  and it's near the window.

Every year my daughter and I try to keep them growing after the Christmas holdidays.  My daughter is more successful than I am.

They can grow well in this climate because there is one down the road from our old house which is the size of a tree and a friends mother has one for five years now and it's leaves turn red at Christmas just as they should.  That was another problem.  The leaves slowly turn green.  How do you get the red back again?



Home knitted gnomes meet coca-cola elves under the xmas tree.  The elves were part of a coca-cola campaign many, many years ago.  We got bundles of them because a nephew worked for the company.  



I always hang my birthday cards up with the Xmas cards.  This year there is 1 xmas card and two birthday cards.  Maybe the rest will arrive in February as has happened before, without a pandemic to slow the mail.

However, I did only send out 10 cards so I can't expect many can I!
The cards get fewer and fewer every year.  In fact I'm not sure what I'll do next year.  I haven't seen cards on sale here so I may have to remember to order some online in October.  Fat chance of me remembering that!

I have ready-strung cards from years gone-by so I'll just hang those, next year.






Mince pies cake pudding wine sauce
Mulled wine
Yule log
Brussel sprouts
Pate
Pointsettia
pohutakawa


18 comments:

  1. I also put my birthday cards with the Christmas cards. The knitted gnomes are great.

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    1. I live my knitted gnomes. They are all different,a bit wonky and justy style

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  2. Never enjoyed doing Christmas cards. One year I stopped. The world kept turning...

    Happy Week Before Christmas!
    🎄 🔥 🎄 🔥 🎄 🔥 🎄 🔥 🎄

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    1. That's the right attitude ! Every year I get fewer cards so I send out fewer. Maybe next year I'll take the big leap too!

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  3. They appeared here for years then gradually disappeared. Nothing to do with me (or family) losing interest, more the appearance of the internet and Aus Post putting the price of stamps up.

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    1. Stamps for overseas are ridiculously cheap and haven't gone up in years. Another reason I still send a few. I get about 2 from NZ now.

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  4. Love the gnomes.
    I mix my Christmas cards with my birthday cards as well.
    I think if you want to keep the red leaves you need to keep them under cover. The sun. Turns them green

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    1. Another close-to-Xmas birthday! Happy birthday to us all.
      I remember reading that I should put the plant in a dark place for a couple as f weeks. In fact I think we tried it but without success

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  5. My Christmas cards come, and go, in the form of Emails. Sadly I can't really hang them anywhere, and they stay inside a little flat machine.

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    1. You've moved into the electronic age. Easier at Xmas especially now when there is a queue at the PO and we have to wait outside in the cold while the animals go in one by one

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  6. I am another close-to-Christmas birthday. March must be a very romantic month!
    We had a huge poinsettia growing in our front garden in Tenerife. It didn't need much attention and was a vivid red in December. A much better climate over there for it.

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    1. Most of the family have birthdays on November or December . I always wonder why! The other half are double faced Geminis. Hard work for us laid back Sagitterians

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  7. When I was a child, it was the custom here to send greeting cards on the Jewish holiday of the new year, . Now people are sending greetings.

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    1. Things have been changing over the last ten/twenty years. We are well and truly into the electronic age. Greetings can be sent with the click of a finger

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  8. Lovely knitted gnomes, our Christmas card list is dwindling too I think we have had 6 so far, including one beautiful hand made card.

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    1. So much easier to find a site on line with Xmas cheer. Most of our greetings now seem to come via Viber or whatsap

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  9. We are selling them at my work right now but they have been made to believe it's Winter here when it's not.

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    1. I loved the last Xmas cards we got from NZ with surfing Santa's and picnickers in jandals.

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