It's 2013!
Up here in Scotland pe (Oops...) Stop! It's not "up here". I didn't dictate that! It's up north, if it's "up" at all... Try again, Alice. Do moderate your intake of alcohol, despite the seductive advertising, and concentrate.
Here in Scotland people keep wishing their friends and family (and sometimes strangers too) "Happy New Year" for weeks, depending on whether they've seen them since Hogmanay. A lovely tradition, in the true spirit of Auld Lang Syne. Sing along with Dougie MacLean, if you want, on this video with the words. And if you need a translation, here's the same version, but with the English.
Seasonal Feasting and Celebrations
We had our festive meal on Christmas Eve, so the next day could be all nibbling and minimal effort. It was delicious! Politically correct chicken breasts (organic and free-range) stuffed with herbs, a slice of orange, and a slice of onion; all wrapped in a rasher of streaky bacon. One for straight away, and one for the day itself...[Note - "politically correct" above is strictly speaking gramatically incorrect. Alice] If you say so. Just get on!
There were delectable M&S pork, cranberry and clementine stuffing balls (also wrapped in bacon); roasted potatoes, parsnip, carrot and beetroot; and freshly cooked brocoli, sprouts and peas, with slices of baby leek. It was all topped off with home-made mushroom and onion gravy, plus eco-friendly Banrock Station Shiraz Mataro to drink. Bliss.
You can tell we're real foodies. Alice is a good cook, too. She's blushing. Just keep typing, dear.
We'd almost finished, and Carols from Kings was on TV. My favourite is It came upon a midnight clear. I think the bit
about "man at war with man" is most relevant today. We all want
Peace, don't we?Later we had coffee with a cherry liqueur chocolate each. Aaaah!
What a pretty candle-powered mobile! Butterflies can be Christmassy too, as they glitter and turn...
Traditionally, one is supposed give a box of money or food to the poor after Christmas. Hence "boxing" day. Did you know that?
We went visiting again just before New Year.
To the grand-children's house, to exchange Granny's presents. Sorry, Alice's presents.
She got given a DVD of that wonderful film, Dreamchild,
about the real Alice. Set in her old age, it looks back
to when she first knew Dodgson, and weaves in scenes from the books, using some of the great Jim Henson puppets.For more see a trailer at Amazon.com (as an alternative image) plus a learned article in this pdf.
Her son certainly knows her well! She was very pleased indeed. We'll have to watch it soon. And the children enjoyed their colouring books, too.I really liked the view from under here - though not the falling pine needles... But what a wonderful tree it was!
[Click on the photos, or better still open in a new tab, to see them full size.]
We travelled back on the last day of the year for a quiet Hogmanay at home: a candle of my own, a wee dram, and the fireworks on TV.We could hear the real ones even from inside. Hmmm, are fireworks on TV not really "real"? Red King again, isn't it?
Best of all, you can cosy up by the fire with your nibbles. Happy New Year!
And try this version of Auld Lang Syne.
P.S. Confession
Here's the original image from which the first one here was created. Right click and open in a new window or tab to see it just as big. Alice did a nifty job with that one, didn't she?
Oh dear, she's blushing again. But we all need appreciation - if only from a little monkey like me.
