Christmas Day at Kristen Close
Dear Ann,
We arrived back at David’s place mid afternoon to their giant Christmas tree laden with gifts under, over, beside & beneath the tree. I had probably taken approximately forty gifts up there before Christmas Day mostly for Charley & Riley.
After being so organised in early November in having it all wrapped, the shops kept putting new things out that I kept thinking great for Riley or great for Charley!
Charley is easy to buy for, as I know what she enjoys & needs especially as she moved into a granny flat in Christmas week. A move always brings to the fore new things you need in a different place of abode & especially her new place, as it will be a melting pot with the heat in our summers.
I had recently become enamoured with a tall trim revolving fan, which would fit in any small corner that I mentioned in a previous letter. As a matter of fact I was so enamoured with it that I eded up ordering two more, as they took up little space & were very effective. I thought they would be perfect for Charley’s hot new granny flat.
Even though she will probably use her birthday money to buy a portable air conditioner, she will no doubt use the two fans as well. So it has been easy to pick up little things like that for her new home, but I also had some other nice things for her: more new clothes & plenty of accessories to go with them.
Riley is not so easy to buy for, but I managed roughly the same number of gifts as I did for Charley for her. Gran’s can’t have favourites!
I am a great catalogue shopper these days as I really don’t enjoy window shopping, unless it’s with another female, so I make good use of various catalogues. One of them by name of Innovations have a very good array of all types of things from indoors to outdoors to apparel & jewelery & it’s from there that I orderd the fans for Charley.
For Riley I saw a really nice beach towel in colours she likes & was lucky enough to find a beach bag to match in my local pharmacy that she loved. Dainty jewellery, perfumes & accessories are also a good stand by for my young granddaughter, as are jewellery accessories for Charley, but they both like opposites. Riley with contemporary & Charley for the unusual.
I also find a lot of gifts in our local Post Office as they have some very different, but very good gifts, at the right prices from time to time. I have purchased a lot of cookery books for the girls there.
One day they had some small hard cover cook books, all favouring different things to cook. There was about fourteen different books, so I bought the lot & wrapped them up in the one parcel for the girls to take it in turn to select.
They should both become excellent cooks with all the recipe books they have received over the years.
I try to think of gifts that can sometimes be a little different. One day I had a brain wave. Charley is having difficulty at present in making ends meet & one day in the Newsagent I saw a gorgeous Christmas Card which read ‘From your cat’ & bought it.
One of Charley’s greatest loves is Wesley her cat, which she purchased from an acquaintance because she felt it needed lots of TLC. Poor Wesley had indeed not had a good start to life & was very much a ‘scaredy cat’.
Charley brought Wesley out to my villa a while back & he was so scared. He would have nothing to do with me; hid under a chair & glared at Charley for bringing him here. If I attempted to stroke him he would hide in another place.
So when I saw that card I knew what I would do. Firstly, I concocted a letter to Charley from Wesley which read:
“Dear Mum from your cat. We’ll spend the purr-fect Christmas, You need never worry about taking me to your Gran’s place again as I have got to know her now.
She is an amazing person & I have quite got to like her. I wanted so much to give you something special for Christmas because you are so special to me & you love me more than anyone in the whole world.
So I consulted with your Gran as to what i could give you that would be so special to you. After lots of serious & secret chats we came up with something I know you will like as it benefits us both.
Never doubt my love for you. Wesley.’
I found out from my chats with Wesley’s owner what Wesley liked most which was chicken, turkey, & fish, so I bought every variety I could of the former & a dozen cans of the latter. I wrapped them all up in two huge parcels for Charley.
Christmas Day 2017 Card & Cat food.
When it came to that gift from the tree, Charley had to read the card to all, then unwrap the parcels. Now would you believe that it was her very favourite gift from under the tree?
Not only that, but I had ascertained somewhere along the line that Charley ran out of toilet paper, so I also got her a special from the supermarket sporting no less than 32 rolls of the ‘can’t do without commodity’ for $12 & gave that to her too.
She was quite emotional when she said, “Oh Gran these are the two best gifts you have ever given me as Wesley & I use so much toilet paper.” My Mum didn’t teach me any adage for that!
So we all l had a grand time with what Santa left under, over & everywhere near the Christmas tree & with special gifts well chosen. I must say that Charley was on the ball at our markets, as she would suss out anything to do with Kombi Vans: especially blue ones as David’s is blue. He loves his Kombi van!
She found a white dish with a blue van in the bottom at our Twilight Market that we attended. David was delighted with it, as he was with his blue Kombi tee shirt.
David with his Kombi Christmas gifts.
In the matter of gifts I scored pretty well myself, even though I don’t need anything. Charley had ascertained that I had fallen in love with a necklace in the newsagency where I live. She doubled back one day when she found this out, asking the sales girl in a hurry to please keep it for her until she came out to Warners Bay again.
I was truly delighted with it, as it was too expensive for me to warrant me spending such a sum for myself & now I wear it on special occasions.
Riley had also excelled herself, buying me a gorgeous ring surrounded with ‘diamonds’ which she heard me say was not unlike my beautiful emerald & diamond ring that was stolen. I also have the ear rings that match perfectly, although they came from a different jeweller!
I loved them all. The girls certainly know my love for jewellery.
There are also things I don’t need, but can either bring me joy or can be useful. I admire the thought put into these gifts from my family.
Christmas Day 2017 Riley and Madison go at the packages.
I had been asking David through the year if he knew some marinades that I could use for fish as I love fish, but wanted a bit more variety in flavours. I was given the neatest little pack of marinades you ever did see & – as well received – a wonderful pack of boxed exclusive Mustards & Chutneys imaginable.
On a more serious note though, I also received a lovely almanac which has a prayer for each month. This now hangs on my dining room wall where i can read it every day & would like to share with you the prayer for January
‘Oh Lord my God teach my heart this day where & how to find you.
You have made me & remade me & you have given me all the good things I possess & still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek you for I cannot seek you unless you teach me or find you unless you show myself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking.
Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.Amen
On writing this I think I need to phone my illusive friend, Sarah whom I have told you about.
After all this delightful excitement with so many secrets & thoughtful gifts coming to the fore we had a very simple meal with some good wine.
The day had been wrought with unexpected things & guess what? Charley was putting me to bed in one of the spare rooms, which is really a vague recollection. It had been a long & eventful day!
I was fast asleep when neighbours of Charley’s rang to tell her that Wesley had pulled the window screen back & let himself out…somewhere! Poor Charley.
She evidently raced home sobbing all the way & for sure she would send a prayer up to heaven when she found Wesley cowering under the house safe & sound!
What an eventful Christmas Day! I don’t think I will forget it as now I didn’t have a car…again!
May God Bless you always as He does me. Love you, Dawn X O X O