The New Normal: Twas the Night Before Christmas.....

 

We are in Tier 4 here so no visitors indoors and only one person distanced meeting outside, only essential shops are open but we had a very good Tesco delivery with everything we need last night.   I am very lucky that I have hubby and both sons living at home and Christmas together.  We have had lots of Christmas cards and many of our neighbours have put up fairy lights outside their houses.  

I did a couple of quick watercolours this morning as thought it would be fun to join in the art theme over at Rain's blog *here* I should have spent more time and effort but sometimes it's just nice to go with the flow last minute kind of thing.....

My idea of Night Before Christmas is a cosy room with a real coal fire and resident cat by the hearth, that sums up the perfect Christmas Eve for me, some presents and a tree, some holly on the mantle.... probably some sherry and a mince pie too - 

But with all the events of 2020, this year feels very Krampus - the dark side.  Krampus is the opposite of Santa Claus, referred to by my parents  as 'Old Nick'  (the devil)... (we were told if you were a bad child you would get no presents  but lumps of coal in your stocking but that never happened).... I watched the film Krampus the other night and felt inspired to paint the Krampus cat below .... the film was full of mischievous spirits like this one...

We don't have a hearth, we might have a Krampus cat though- Mollie is very odd and bitey as she is not yet settled - she trusts me, a bit, but is unpredictable still and it will be a very long time before she is completely settled,  Unfortunately she often regurgitates her food immediately after eating, this is due to being anxious, she also refuses to sit on us or next to us... but if I lie on the floor with her she edges closer and curls her paw round one of my fingers.  

We have lots of fairy lights around the house to make the rooms feel cosy and magical.   

Above is my cosy spot for watching tv....

and this is my cosy spot for not watching tv.... hubby might try and teach me chess again when we sit out here, I couldn't get the hang of it on my last try .

I have received a lot of cards this year ... My favourite is this lovely Krampus card which you can see had some influence on my own krampus cat.  It was sent by my long time blogging buddy, *Anne* who had Covid back in the Spring and is still suffering with the 'long covid' aftermath (let's hope 2021 is a better year for you Anne) ... the beautiful artwork on the card is by Kayleigh Radcliffe

I will ramble now about my childhood, as designed by my eccentric, pagan mother.  We always had a lot of holly and foliage coming in, on mantles and fireplaces, always had oranges and decorated them with cloves, made marzipan filled dates and sugared mice with string tails, coconut ice and mince pies... our tree was usually outside and we hung bacon rind on it for the birds.  

Indoors we hung paper chains from the ceiling and made baubles of flattened foil from the old glass milk bottles we used to have delivered, we would 'emboss' them with stars and patterns by simply drawing into them or making dot impressions and hung them in strings round mirrors.  

I don't remember getting presents regularly but we always found one of our dads old black work socks  on our bed in the morning stuffed with clementines, chocolate cigarettes, coins, hair bobbles and ribbons, a small knitted toy (made by my mother) and a bar of chocolate.  I still remember that happy feeling, delving inside my sock for the treasures, my mother knotted the sock all the way down to make it take a long time to get the contents out! I got as much pleasure again in watching my brothers opening theirs :)  As I got older it was my job to darn these socks for my dad (and sew his shirt buttons on - the reward was a penny).

I think traditions are important to us within families and communities too, they give us identity, a feeling of belonging.   So over the years we have maintained a few traditions and also created a few. 

We made our own family tradition of bringing out home made Christmas sacks every Christmas Eve (and I still fill them with pressies).  I made one each for my sons the year they were born so the reindeer is now 22 and the santa 26 :)   Over the years the tinsel has become a bit tatty but they have held up well.  I've shown these on my blog before, but you can't have the Night Before Christmas without them.

I always make sure my tatty old fairy  makes it to the to the top of the tree. she's about 25 years old, her legs  fall off but she is fixable - I love her feathery skirt and gold wings. 

 

Our traditional night before Christmas is a dinner my hubby's family always had, of a roast ham joint which he cooks.  I'm veggie so will have vegetarian 'sausage' rolls,  the men have their ham with peas pudding (a tradition from the North of England as hubby's family are from Durham).... peas pudding is made from yellow split peas, seasoned, boiled and mashed.  We also have salad, pickles, and small boiled potatoes.  ..***There are some other traditions of the Northern branch of this family, they have their own dialect (Geordie) and they do 'First Footing' on New Year's Day (a man must knock on your door and enter the house to bring you luck as you welcome in the New Year).***

We didn't make our peas pudding this year, we buy this one above.  There's a song about peas pudding from my childhood days (I was born in the North of the UK too so I guess that's where I heard it)...

Peas pudding hot, peas pudding cold, peas pudding in a pot nine days old, some like it hot, some like it cold, some like it from the pot nine days old!  

I don't talk about religion/faith often on my blog these days as I get mixed responses 

(occasionally some are unwanted to be honest) - 

but I have faith and hope just like you

Every blogger who stops here is on their own spiritual journey

So I wish you all that you wish yourself

a very happy Christmas/Yule 

And for all of us a much safer and better New Year 

See you on the other side.