Di at Pensitivity101 is our host for Share Your World.

Here are the questions for this week.

 Do you have any family traditions?

Naomi and I have a few family traditions, especially about Christmas. We still like to have a British style Christmas dinner. Here in Tasmania it doesn’t get as hot in December as some other parts of Australia. It is summer but it can be mild and sometimes downright chilly so we can enjoy our hot roast dinner and Christmas Pudding. I always bake all our Christmas goodies myself, Christmas cake, mince pies and the pudding. I’ve been making our own mince pies since I was about fourteen years old so that’s definitely a long standing tradition.

 With December on its way, have you ever been carol singing?

I haven’t seen carol singers going from house to house here the way you see in the movies. Here we often have carol singing concerts instead. Big ones in the cities but often smaller local ones put on by a council, church or service organisation. In Adelaide I did like to go to “Carols By Candlelight” which was held in a city park every year. My only issue with them these days is that there tends to be more pop music than traditional carols which is what I like to hear and join in with.

 Do you decorate your home for the Christmas holidays?

I have always put up a Christmas tree, even when I lived on my own after David died. I have favourite ornaments that come out every year, another tradition. Naomi enjoys it too so now we always decorate the living room as well as the tree. We don’t get as many “real” Christmas cards these days so the decorations really brighten the room up.

Do you enjoy the Christmas rush for preparations and shopping

I don’t enjoy crowds that much but I do enjoy the Christmas atmosphere. I like to have most of my shopping done long before Christmas so that December shopping trips can be more about picking up some odds and ends rather than frantically searching for cards, gifts and wrap. There is only two of us so there is not really that much to do even though we usually do pet presents too. I like to get most of the baking done early too. My Christmas cake is already made although not decorated and the pudding will be done this week I hope. I like to have everything done so that by Christmas Eve we can sit down with some snacks and drinks and watch a Christmas movie on TV knowing that all the preparations have been done.

Gratitude:

I do love this time of year. Christmas is a special time even though there are now just the two of us to celebrate it together. At the visitor centre where I volunteer there is a Christmas Tree where people can leave donations of toys and food for those who are less fortunate. It’s lovely to see the nice things that some people have left there. Last Thursday an employee from the local Woolworths supermarket came over with a whole trolley full of goods that customers had donated while doing their shopping. I think it is wonderful to live in such a caring community.