and so that was Christmas...

I have just been reprimanded for not blogging. It's kinda nice knowing that someone cares enough to check up on me. Thankyou, blogger extraordinaire!

Christmas was of course as stress-free as I could make it, but brings stresses just the same. Where to go, what to do, who to visit, to drop in some baking and stop and chat or just be a good fairy and leave it on the doorstep, not intruding on another family's togetherness?

Of course, it wouldn't have been Christmas if I didn't leave things until I was pressed for time. Why didn't I make the condensed milk balls a week earlier, they mature well and are better for it? Why didn't I wrap up the gifts from Zacchi and Pickle and put them in a safe place? (And where the heck are they now?)

I was torn, this year, more than ever. I couldn't make a decision. I couldn't say decisively "This is what I am doing at Christmas". But in the end I left it too late to go to family and after a lovely two week "pre-Christmas" in Alabama I stayed home and simply pleased myself.

I chose to spend the most important part of a European Christian Christmas, the Vigilia di Natale (Christmas Eve), talking with family in New Zealand. I know this offended at least one friend, but at the end of the day it is about what you believe, and I don't think that eating to excess, particularly in hard economic times, is justified anywhere. The price of fish has sky-rocketed this Christmas, and I want no part of the commercial side of the season. So Skype and G-mail video it was, sharing time with the people I love, while Italy ate and ate and ate... seven courses, all of fish, if you are to do it "properly".

I did go to mass and then to friends for a cup of tea afterwards, and was home by midnight to watch the computer clock tick over into Christmas Day.

Christmas Day itself was again a choice, and my preference was to go to an ex-pat friend in an Italian family where a Kiwi link was really appreciated. While I have tried very hard to assimilate here, I see why ex-pats do tend to group particularly at "family" times when we are away from the ones we love. These friends, an Italian-English couple, have more than half their family in NZ so are currently jumping through the NZ immigration hoops. Over a mixed English (roast turkey) and Italian traditional meal we laughed about the senility test administered to the over-70 wanting to immigrate, wondering if we younger ones would pass it ourselves, and discussed what a Kiwi Christmas felt like. My gift to the Italian and more reluctant emigrant half of this equation was a bottle of my very Italian olive oil in a clear, stylish, recycled, NZ bottle (from Paeroa). Italy into New Zealand does go.

My reflective time was spent reading and re-reading emails, looking at Youtube videos of Christmas carols, of troops abroad at Christmas, crying over the images with John Lennon's "So this is Christmas (War is Over)" song, and thinking of the homeless and the hungry.

I have felt closer to New Zealand this Christmas. When I came out of a restaurant a week ago where, with an English speaking group, I had been happily singing traditional English Christmas carols, the tune I was humming and the words in my head were "Te Harinui". Now where did that come from? Of course, the subsequent Youtube search took me back to school... and many unbidden memories came floating by. Hours were gobbled by the internet... have you any idea how hard it is to find a clear sung version of "A Pukeko in a Ponga Tree"?

So, Christmas Day for another year is over. The snow came about ten days too early, but yesterday we had sunshowers and temperatures back up to around 16°C. No complaints about that.

And yes, that was Christmas. Some laughter, some tears. Some reflective time, some busy time. Some writing, dreaming, and planning. Some baking and kitchen chaos. Getting out of my jeans and into festive garb. Christmas, for me, was a mixture, and the lows serve only to make the highs much sweeter.

Today I am grateful for my loving family and friends.