Tuesday 31 December 2019

It's Christmas time

Not quite Latvia! I have my oldest son to thank for the
photos this week as I keep forgetting to take my camera
On Christmas Eve, I had a surprise, Ian finally accepted my friendship request on FB. The surprise did not last long when I found out he didn't mean too and I had to explain how to unfriend me. Don't worry I'm not overly concerned. We can always send emails to each other..... errrr I mean talk to each other instead.

They wanted to see pictures of the alpacas
Usually on Christmas Eve, I decorate the apartment but not this year. I would be travelling and it would mean Ian putting all the decorations away and he's not that bothered. What he is bothered about is the Christmas food though. So instead of decorating I did the cooking. However, I didn't even try that hard with the cooking. Just enough to make it a bit special. It's hard to think of what to do when I bake so many cakes and we eat locally sourced, organic food throughout the year. Dried wild mushrooms? No problem, I have jars of the stuff. Different herb mixtures? I dry my own and use them regularly.

My helpers in the garden
I attempted croissants but they didn't work as well as normal. My arm was still aching so tried the pasta machine to make thin sheets of pastry. That bit worked all right but the croissants weren't as light and flaky as normal. They were alright and we still ate them for breakfast on Christmas day. At least I didn't have to do any cooking apart from making some Yorkshire Puddings. I also left Ian with a pile of leftovers to keep him going for a few more days before he had to start cooking for himself.

Taken on a family walk
On Christmas day I went with Ian to put cream on the animals that needed some extra TLC (tender loving care) before I went away. I also sorted out some of the things still left out in the caravan or in the greenhouse while Ian showed visitors around. We had a young couple from Riga. It was the husband's surprise treat for his alpaca-mad wife. He even blindfolded her in the car just outside of our village before they arrived, so she couldn't guess where she was. Ian took Brencis to the car for her to reach out and touch before he took the blindfold off. They promised to come back in warmer weather.

Well nearly all the grandchildren together in order of age.
One was not so happy about the idea.
On Boxing Day (2nd Christmas day) I took the early morning bus from our village to Riga so I could get to the airport to travel to the UK. It was weird to arrive in Riga with Christmas preparations still ongoing. A couple of guys were trimming the bases of Christmas trees for sale and at first I couldn't work out why, then it dawned on me that for those celebrating Orthodox Christmas (7th January) the preparations would just be underway. Since the proportion of Orthodox Christians is 26% in Latvia and most of those live in Riga it makes sense.

Opening more Christmas presents
Travel on Boxing Day is difficult in the UK and so my parents arranged to pick me up. Well I arrived but there were no parents to greet me. I sent texts and tried to phone a couple of times but got no reply. I headed for the Terminal pick up point and on the way I finally got through to my parents to find they were stuck in traffic at one of the large shopping centres. So having spent a huge amount of money on presents that might not last long, much of the population head to the sales to spend yet more money - and some people wonder why I don't live in the UK! Eventually my parents arrived and I went to their house for an overnight stay.

My youngest son and the amazing cake my
daughter made. She based it on a car that
my youngest designed and actually
went into production for introductory
level racing
The reason for leaving Ian alone for much of the Christmas period and into the New Year is that I wanted to be in the UK for one of my grandson's 7th birthday and my youngest son's partner had organised a surprise birthday present for his 30th birthday on the day after Christmas. I could spend about a week at each of my children's houses and still get to both birthdays. The surprise was a little dented in so far as we got stuck in traffic again, between my parents house and the venue for the party. We ended up nearly an hour and half late. At least we didn't spoil the initial surprise of having a party organised for him.

An evening meal with the grandchildren before their parents
went out in peace for a meal and left me to babysit them
all. They were all in bed by the time I was left alone with
them though. 
This time I travelled with my older son and his family to stay at my daughter's home as we were all staying there until the New Year. My youngest son came up for a pre-arranged day that he did know about and so I was together with all my children, their partners and children - all 15 of us.

Together!
So happy New Year to you all, may this year ahead be one where we can move forward and address the many issues that have held us back and threaten our future from the last decade. May we all be bold enough to rise to the challenges of changing our societies to ones that care more for each other and the environment.

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