Wednesday 23 December 2009

Family time


Phew! After all the shopping, wrapping, tidying, cleaning, bed-making, cooking, baking, cat-polishing, and the general retail and domestic hyperactivity that is Christmas nowadays, it's time to sit down quietly with a cup of tea and a mince pie (thank you, Bee, for the pastry recipe; after all these years, I'm capable at last of rustling up a decent mince pie!) and think about what it's all about. Not only the traditional meaning of Christmas, but the opportunity to have family come together and spend time in each other's company, enjoying ourselves and admiring the gleamingly-polished cats.

I am so looking forward to the arrival of this baby:




The Lovely Son, now 38 years older than when this was taken, and who wouldn't be seen dead in yellow hand-knits. He can still make that face, though.

And, shortly after Christmas Day, this baby:



From left to right:

Bottle-blonde Dolores, who could walk and turn her head with each step, pouting attractively in her best frock and little real shoes. Her hair couldn't be combed, however and she soon lost that Hollywood starlet-of-loose-morals look. In time, she would be supplanted by Rosebud, my favourite-ever baby doll, who had no hair at all, and cried "Mama!" when tipped forward. I may have tried the same trick with the Lovely Son many years later.

Me. My mother always cut my fringe like that, and if it wasn't level at each side, would continue cutting until either she got it right, or there was insufficient fringe left to cut. This was to remain an agony to me for many years.

My sister Anne. She looks like a Giant Baby, although this is deceptive; to my joy, my mother once described her as looking like a long, skinned rabbit.

Let me reassure you that this will be the only time any of you will get to see a protruding naked tummy or an exposed nipple belonging to either of us.

Brother-in-law John will also be here, but sadly, I don't have any embarrassing baby pictures of him to share with the world. You know I would if I could.

4 comments:

BumbleVee said...

I had that very same haircut...and my Dad was a barber... however, he was also a drunk, so it was tough making some family fun at Christmas. It was just a bigger booze up than the rest of the year...

I had a sibling with a protruding tummy too... who later went on to model and became runner up to MIss Canada in the 60's..

I have to admit to still having an occasional tiny twinge of something akin to envy when I hear of families having gatherings and enjoying great times.... but, also freely admit it's wonderful not having some drunken oaf pushing somebody into my beautifully decorated tree ...

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

Wonderful that you'll all be together in such a lovingly decorated house , full of plump glowing cats , scary climbing frames with ears and lots of delicious baking .
Have a very cosy Christmas with the adult versions of the cuddly babies .

Susan said...

Do you make "hard sauce" to go with your mince pie ? I Love little mince tarts warm with a blob of hard sauce and a small scoop of the finest vanilla ice cream. Yum. I've added mincemeat to my Super Store (tomorrow and Yes ! tres last minute) shopping list. I buy the mincemeat in a jar and Dr. it up (lemon & orange juice and zest and grated fresh ginger).

your Gang the Merriest of Christmases
xo S & les Gang ( especially Oliver)

Marcheline said...

Excellent! I'm trying to catch up on my blog reading after holiday crunch time...

My mom used to put a huge strip of scotch tape across my forehead while my hair was still wet, and then slide the scissors along underneath the bottom edge to get the bangs straight.

All went well, until I sneezed and nearly lost an eye, or until my hair dried and the cow-lick over my forehead made one side of my bangs higher than the other.

8-)

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