Very early this morning the text alarm went on my phone.  I checked it and saw it was from the Chemist, telling me they would be closed for Christmas but not to miss their huge 50% discounts on Boxing Day, it ended with a cheery 'Merry Christmas to you and your family'  It got me thinking what if for some people, that text from the Chemist was the only Merry Christmas they would get.  There would I am sure be many.  Those with no family, that offer to do the Christmas shift at work, so that those with families can be with theirs.  Hospitals don't close, airports don't close, trains and buses run and cyclones occasionally interrupt the festivities. My brother and sister in law were in Darwin back in 1974 when Cyclone Tracy went through.  Our Christmas day was very tense as we waited to get word that He and his family were ok.  Not till late on boxing day did we get the call and our family could breathe again.

I remember hearing that in some trenches during the first world war the fighting would stop for Christmas Day then resume straight after.  Unfortunately hardship and suffering doesn't care what day it is, at any given time all around the world their are children mistreated, wives beaten, thousands starving and people freezing with inadequate shelter.

So back to the text, I felt very blessed to be busy in my big kitchen, cooking happily for the bunch that are going to descend on us on Christmas Day, and thankful that I have such an abundance of loved ones to wish me Happy Christmas and certainly will not take it for granted.  In amongst the merriment lets remember to text someone we don't normally include when we are busy, you may make their day, they may just have been sitting at home alone wondering if the Chemist and his family had room for one more at Christmas lunch.

Caramel Popcorn

Just made a big batch of Caramel Popcorn for the Grandies on Christmas day.

I popped one bag of microwave popcorn
then melted and stirred bubbling for about 2 minutes:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup glucose syrup
This gets very hot, so be careful, don't make this with little ones (i.e. toddlers, dogs) under your feet.

I poured it into a large bowl containing the popcorn and 2 cups mixed nuts

spread it on a large oven proof tray lined with baking paper, and baked it on 180 degrees c for about 20 minutes, stirring it a couple of times.

Cool and store in tin ready to gobble on Christmas Day.

Caution:
1.  Don't serve if anyone in your crowd is allergic to nuts (this will spoil Christmas Dinner when you have to dash to hospital emergency room).
2.  Try not to eat to much while preparing, from personal experience this makes you feel sick.

Reason for the Season

Ya! only three more sleeps to Christmas.  I tried to play the gee I've been diagnosed with cancer card, but that didn't work, everyone is coming to our house for Christmas and I am making most of the food.  Today I'm making Pavlova and Hayley will bring her amazing Black Forrest Trifle, the recipe is from her friend Mel, absolutely disgustingly rich and decadent (the trifle, not Mel).  What a lovely girl Hayley is, last Friday while stacking shelves with stock in a store down Mandurah way (she is a rep for Coca Cola) an elderly lady was asking her about flavoured pump bottles, which the store didn't stock.  While they chatted Hayley found out that the ladys' husband was going through chemotherapy and not doing well.  One of the only things he could taste and enjoy was the lemon pump.   After they parted Hayley felt very strongly to give the woman some money as it sound like she was doing it tough but, couldn't find her in the car park when she looked.  Being resourceful Hayley asked on Facebook, if anyone knew a lady with a husband seriously ill with cancer in the area where the lady had told her she lived.  The response was amazing,  someone replied that they had asked their neighbour with a very sick husband if she had spoken to a coca cola rep the day before and she said yes.  Several people gave money and Hayley went and bought all the stock of lemon Pumps she could find on the way and turned up at the couples home bearing her gifts.  She apologised for visiting without an invitation and explained how she had tracked her down.  It was a very teary exchange, as both were overwhelmed.  The lady with a stranger's kindness, and Hayley with the joy of being able to bless someone else.  Kindness and giving for no personal gain always gives us an overwhelming sense of well being.  I think that is why we are told it is more blessed to give than to receive.  There is nothing like it, and speaks to us of what Christmas is all about.

Take a moment to breathe, during the preparations.  If you are getting cranky at the shops, work or with family, reassess your to do list, and cross some things off, it is not worth the grief.  No one really cares if the floor was just mopped, or if there are fingermarks on the sliding door.  Once everyone starts spilling drinks and throwing wrapping paper around, your beautifully laid plans for a perfect Christmas will have to be re thought.  So remember that God's love is the motivation behind us celebrating Christmas, so take a deep breath and relax, don't sweat the small stuff

Christmas Lights Canal Cruise

Had a fabulous time with our daughter Hayley, Ben and our grandson Beau on Thursday night cruising the Christmas Lights on the Mandurah Canals.  It was extra special because Sarah was with us as well as Ben's parents.  Sarah flew in from Sydney as a surprise.  The whole family has been thrown into a bit of state since my being diagnosed with breast cancer last week.  Sarah was tortured being so far away and not being able to be here for me, so a beautiful couple at their Church, paid for her to fly home.  Her mum-in-law and a wonderful friend, flew to Sydney to help look after their three active children.  How blessed am I.  The Christmas Cruise was brought forward as I was due to see the Surgeon the next day, and find out what surgery I could expect to have and how quickly.

We had a great night, but, I couldn't help thinking about the previous year.  We always pull up at the pier to get fish and chips, which we did last Christmas on our cruise.  I am an absolute tea-totaller and as it was a hot day, I had raided my husbands fridge and grabbed what I thought was two small bottles of lemon, lime and bitters, not a problem.  We just sat down at the outside tables to eat the delicious smelling fish and chips and I pulled out a drink and took a big swig.  My throat started to burn, my eyes watered up and the first thought that flashed through my mind, was that the lime was off.  The second thought registered that it wasn't cool drink at all but alcoholic.  My husband by this time had realised what was happening and in between hysterical laughter, managed to splutter out a "where did you get those bottles from".  "Out of your bar fridge of course".  He continued to laugh some more, but finally cleared up the mystery.  Apparently the source of my burnt throat was due to the drink not being regular fizzy but in fact Grappa, that a mate of his at darts makes himself, and is probably about 100% proof.  Needless to say, I stayed out of the bar fridge, this time round.

The Mouse Hunt

It's that time of the year, when spurred on by the need of Ms Mouse to have a home, Mr Mouse keen to please the love of his life sets out to find her one.  Sadly, they chose our house, and although we are in a 4 x 2 with just the Moth (Man of the House) and myself residing here, we weren't taking tenants.  They would have been ok if they had flown under the radar, but before they had unpacked their belongings, Ms Mouse decided to come and watch TV with us the other night and sadly that would be the last programme she would see.  I screamed and ran to call our daughter Hayley who having lived by the beach for a couple of years is armed with loads of mouse traps.  These furry little intruders are invading as more and more as land gets cleared to make way for new estates.

If your a catch and release person you may not wish to continue reading.  I gave the Moth a cup of coffee in bed and informed him that our happy home maker had been snapped and that we would have to dispose of it, and that by we I meant him (funny that we assume that men are automatically born able to take care of mice, spiders, fuses and fix leaking taps.  We caught her mate the next night and we hope we are now mouse free.

All this does leave you kind of jumpy though,   I was vacuuming this morning and went to suck up a tail thing that had been poking out of the lounge for two days, it moved under the couch when the vacuum head touched it, I screamed, the Moth came running.  Dashing to rescue his damsel in distress, he lifted the lounge and grandson Beau scooped up the object of my terror - a blue plastic mouse phone with a black tail.  In hind sight I should have known a mouse would not have stayed in the same position for two days.

Spencer the Super Hero

Unlike his technologically obsessed older sister who videos herself doing all sorts of things in all sorts of outfits (she is 8) and uploads them to You Tube, and his older brother very musically minded who cranks up the key board  to warp speed and prances around doing a Michael Jackson thriller cross moonwalk impersonation, looking like a deranged terra dactyl with his hands shaped like the lego people from his favourite movie, our grandson Spencer the more old fashioned of the trio is donning his cape, superhero gum boots and wielding his amazing garden stick wand with magical powers to rid the world of pain and suffering.  Unfortunately in this story, his mother's suffering, caused in actual fact by the superhero in question.  His Mom unwisely scooped him up to kiss his gorgeous pudgy neck and put him back down only to receive a hard thump on her foot from his super hard boot.  Our hero was not to be thrown by the incident, after a quick 'Thorry Mum' and adjusting of his cape he swung his wand towards the painful foot his mother was rubbing, and with a loud swoosh!! he was off undeterred to save the world.

Eat, Pray, Love

I saw a little bit of Julia Roberts new movie Eat Pray Love a few days ago.  She was enouraging her friend to ignore the carbs and just eat the pizza in front of her.  Julia's character had come to the emancipating conclusion that life is too short to never be able to enjoy pizza without guilt. It made me want to shout Halleluhah! Julia more power to you and break into an adaptation of Martin Luther King Jrs famous speech "I have a dream, I have a dream that a woman is no longer judged by whether she has wrinkle free skin or the size of her dress, but by the character she exhibits.  It is time we stopped being dictated to by what other people think we should be. Our self esteem is bombarded by media images of models, some of who are fourteen or fifteen peering at us from glossy magazines and even their youthful little faces have been airbrushed to oblivion.  Why do we even try to live up to such manipulation. Cindy Crawford was being interviewed by Oprah once and I heard her say, that in real life even she doesn't look like Cindy Crawford. (They used to remove her famous mole from her pictures) 

Most women I know, including me would say they need to lose weight, and with the mountains of diet information available,  diet plans in every magazine, low fat, low carb and my generations grapefruit diet to name but a few, you would think we would all be slim.  I know for myself I could utilize my most powerful weight loss tool, I could use my arms to push myself away from the table a bit sooner.  My food bill would go down, my arms would tone up and I could send the savings off to a world relief organisation.

The last time I checked the world statistic site, it said that in America the year before they had spent $262 billion on diets, and I would think most of the Western World would be on par, and yet as Nations we are all just as fat.  (My husband is convinced that it is the cottage cheese as you mostly see fat people like myself eating it - sorry I probably should be politically correct so would that be size challenged)  Imagine what impact just half of that amount would have on some worthwhile cause like world hunger.

Its a constant dilemma. Should we vote with Julia and stuff ourselves with pizza, or should we go with Katherine Hepburns approach in one of my favorite movies 'Guess Whose Coming To Dinner'  She pulls into a drive thru diner with co-star Spencer Tracy her husband in the movie, it is six o'clock in the evening and they are to have dinner with their daughters in-laws at eight.  The lovely elegant Katherine orders black coffee, and gets annoyed with Spencer for ordering boysenberry icecream, ' you'll spoil your dinner', she chastises him.  On the inside I always imagine that I am a disciplined devotee of Kate and have no trouble just having black coffee and not spoiling my dinner, when it is only six o'clock and dinner isn't  till eight pm.  But the truth is that like pudgy Spencer, I would probably order the icecream and it wouldn't spoil my dinner at all

why me or Security frisking part two

You have to have read my blog 'Command presence' to get this.  I rant about the fact that I always get frisked when going through airport security.  I have tried everything making eye contact, avoiding eye contact,  acting cool, nothing works, I always get frisked.  But, our last venture to the airport had to take the cake, as usual they called me over and frisked me, then made my husband Allan (who apparently looks a lot like Magiver) take off his shoes and belt and unpack his bag which they scanned several times after asking him in a stern voice 'Is this your bag Sir' It turned out he had a tiny tripod in the bottom which obviously looked like a tiny Nuclear Bomb.  I by this time was patiently waiting contemplating the fact that we may miss our flight by the time he packed up all his stuff.  Finally he was finished and I picked up my bag and turned to head off only to find that while all this was going on the man that frisked me several minutes earlier had finished his shift and a new fella had taken over….you guessed it, 'Excuse me Madam, can you just step over here'… You have got to be kidding me (I came close to swearing at him)