Of course, it is Wednesday 1 December here in Australia but in parts of the USA it’s probably still Tuesday and time for PCGuyiv’s weekly challenge question.

Frank’s question today is this: Whatever holidays you may celebrate this time of year, how ready for them are you?

These days we don’t have very much to prepare for Christmas. I used to send and receive loads of Christmas Cards, now I probably send less than half a dozen by snail mail. It’s a bit sad. I used to love to go to the Charity Card Shop in Hobart (and Adelaide before that) and pick them out. I miss having a bunch of them on the mantels too. eCards are not really quite the same.

I have done most of my gift buying but still have a parcel to post next week. I haven’t made my Christmas Cake or pudding yet. That will also happen next week, I think. Shopping for Christmas food and making mince pies and other Christmas goodies will happen closer to the day. I am trying to source fruit mince as the supermarket doesn’t have the brand I like at present.

I love to decorate the house but I don’t like to put the tree up too early. In the old days when we had a pine branch it would be dried up and dropping needles everywhere within a week or two so putting a tree up in early December or November as some do was impractical in an Adelaide summer. I designated the weekend before Christmas as a good time to decorate and I have more or less stuck to that even though we now use an artificial tree. Everything comes down around 4th of January too.

Sadly, there will be no Christmas Parade in Wynyard this year. It’s my third Christmas here and I still haven’t seen it. I’m told it used to be really good. There are other Christmas events on around town but I don’t expect to be able to get to many of them. We are going to a Christmas dinner for the volunteers at the Visitor Centre next week and the following week I think there is a function at Don River Railway where Naomi volunteers.

Christmas Day will be spent at home with a home cooked meal like last year and presents for us and the pets.

So, there is nothing really urgent to do just yet. I’ll be ready.