A Merry Old Day

Christmas to me means family. I am not religious but christmas is an important cultural tradition to me. By the time this is published, I will be already up, perhaps off getting some ice to chill the drinks in the laundry trough.

This is our oldest christmas ornament, from about 1982.

We received three hand made cards this year, one from Peter in Amsterdam, accompanied by a large piece of delicious chocolate which lasted a few minutes, one from Pants in Larrikens End featuring her own artwork and this very special one from Copperwitch. Surely oh red haired one, you did not stick each jewel on individually? It is just brilliant.

Our tree this year. We bought battery operated LED lights for it this year. 100 did not go far. We bought another lot and the second lot were discounted by 30%. I don't know how they worked, but the first evening we turned them and then off when we went to bed. The next night I was last up and I forgot to turn them out, but in the morning they were off. I thought R turned them off during the night. To keep it brief, each night they would come on by themselves at about 6.30 and off by themselves at what time we don't know. It is not light related as we had a very dark day where the light was dimmer than at 6.30. The set just seemed to learn from the first setting.

When R wound the new lights onto the tree, the first lot would not work, well, they would come on and go off again. We puzzled over this for a day or two, altering flashing rates etc but they became worse. At school I vaguely remember we a class called Clear Thinking, and that was what was needed. In a moment of enlightenment, I asked myself why would battery operated lights keep going off? Asking myself the correct question immediately gave the correct answer. The batteries were flat. There were four AA batteries of an obscure brand and clearly not made to last. Now we take firm control of when the lights are on and off.

If it is not your day to celebrate, then you can still make it day to eat and drink too much. I bid you all Seasons Greetings.

(Hels, read a book a book and go out for a walk. There is always tv?)