Time for us......

Christmas time, my favourite time of year. It is time to write out my recipe menu for this season, what will we have for Christmas Day when J's family comes together? What will we have on Christmas Eve when the six of us share dinner together and toast the wonderful season of Christmas together. Some years ago when our Children were very little, we choose to have a bit of that old fashioned Christmas, of enjoying the true meaning of the festive season and of understanding what it’s like to wake up in a house filled with love on Christmas morning. Our immediate family Christmas’ have long ago stepped back to a pace where we look forward to Christmas together by giving what we could make and bake and share amidst the four of us; now the six of us. How lucky are we to have tow very special people join our family who share these same values. It certainly makes life less stressful when one is not consumed by the latest gismos, or worrying about spending more than we have. I can remember my grandmother telling me stories about sewing clothes and dolls for the children on Christmas Eve. Credit cards were not available then, people spent what they could afford and not what they were pressured into buying for their children. There was little media bombardment to buy, buy, buy! And Christmas Day was filled with the enjoyment of being together; not whether the house you visited had the latest x-box or Kinnect games. It gave us all a greater sense of community back then; a sense of family and fellowship I guess you could call it.
And so J and I have tried to instill in our next generation this same concept. I believe it has worked well for all of us. We must be the odd family out at Christmas and birthday times when we choose to spend little on material things and instead spend hours making and baking for each other. LA simpler life isn’t necessarily perfect in fact sometimes I think it can be quite hard but there are fewer demands on your spending ability, fewer avenues to take you down the wrong road. One simply needs to choose to move in this direction. Keeping up with the Joneses is left for those who feel that particular need and in place of all of this we have peace of mind. I once read a book by the Dalai Lama who wrote that “true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn will be achieved through the cultivation of love and compassion and the elimination of materialism and greed.” How true is that.
So what did J and I find in our recipe hunt? Some wonderful Aussie recipes to enjoy during the summer. Garlic bacon and chilli potato salad, pumpkin and pinenut salad, Avacado and Mango salad, a gorgeous greek feta salad that made my mouth water and deserts galore. I have a recipe for rum balls that a lady once gave me. Her great grandmother made them and passed the recipe down through the generation. Oh wonderful to be able to plan ahead.
Have a great evening everyone