The Ghost of Christmas Past

All the Christmases of my childhood were spent at my paternal grandparents' house, next door to my own, at our family farm. We always opened our presents on Christmas Eve, a tradition I didn't realise was from our German roots until I was much older.

We would BBQ trays and trays of meat, the adults would drink, we children would play. Some years we put on a Christmas concert, consisting of lame "skits", dances and anything else we could think of that would be entertaining. We would perform this in the courtyard, frequently heckled, delighting in every laugh we got at our very bad jokes. Later we would open our gifts to each other, with so many people a process that could take hours. We could barely fit in the lounge, and the floor would soon be crammed with splayed kids' legs and discarded wrapping paper.

1996 was a year I was obsessed with Lois & Clark

In the morning, it was church at 8am. We would take our Santa sacks (not stockings, for some reason, just plastic Christmas-decorated bags) full of chocolates and eat it after the service while the adults all caught up with the other once-a-year churchgoing neighbours. Very often, we jumped the fence to our friends' house and our dad had a cheeky pre-Christmas lunch beer with his mate.

Lunch would be tables pushed together in the biggest room, often with a small table set up for the littlest kids. Whoever was hosting would have an army of helpers, and it appeared to our young eyes as if food was magicked out of nowhere into being. Platters of cold meats - ham on the bone, cold chicken. Bowls of salads - potato, lettuce & tomato, coleslaw. Hot roasts - beef or pork. Boats of gravy. Endless sides of corn, peas, beetroot, carrots, beans.

Crackers would be pulled and everyone, without exception, would wear their silly paper hat for the whole meal. I loved seeing my normally serious Grandpa wearing his.

More drink, lots of eating and talking. Until everyone was full and we would disperse throughout the house. Some would clean up, some would go watch the telly. Within an hour, the house would be quiet, with everyone napping contentedly on chairs, couches and the carpeted floor with the tv droning on quietly in the background.

Now that my generation of kids is grown, and most have children of their own, we don't do this Christmas any more. My grandparents' farmhouse is empty. We all go to different places for the big day - our spouses' family, or away to the coast for an "away" Christmas.

I must say I miss the huge family gathering, the hot summer evening, the bugs and endless burnt sausages, Nanna's potato bake and the thrill of getting your name read out by whoever was playing Santa that year.

But now we can start new traditions of our own. This year we are going to my brothers' house in Bundaberg. Lots of family will be there. I'm sure it will be jolly and fun and there will be plenty of food.

Much love to all my lovely readers at this special time of year. Tell me about your Christmas, if you like?

Give More/Self Less with Kiva

Traditionally, Christmas is a time not only for gathering and spending time with friends and family, but also for helping others. A lot people donate time or money to charity, but one of my preferred methods of helping my fellow humans is through Kiva.org microfinance.

I've blogged before about my lending through Kiva, and recently my last loan was paid off. This means I had another $25 to a person who cannot otherwise access finance from big financial instituations.

Kiva's holiday campaign "Give More/Self Less" is definitely a message I can get on board with. These loans change lives, empowering the recipients to earn an income for themselves and their families.

If you're looking for a last-minute gift, they even do gift cards.

This time, I have lent to Aiperi from Kyrgyzstan, who needs funds to buy livestock. I used one of my Kiva teams, Nerdfighters, to find the loan and got on board. As you may know, I like to support women entrepreneurs whenever I lend.

It's kind of an amazing feeling knowing your money is working for another person far across the world.

Have you ever lent via Kiva? What charities do you like to support at Christmas?

Surely Sarah's Christmas Blog Round-up

As I haven't blogged much about Christmas this year, I thought I'd put together a post bringing together all the lovely blogs I've been reading recently that cover the subject nicely. I hope you find them as entertaining, helpful and interesting as I did.

• First, some lovely dessert. Drool over this lovely easy chocolate and cream cake at abeachcottage.com.

• Redcliffe Style broaches a subject close to my heart all summer long - how to stay fresh on Christmas Day.

• Tamsin talks about differing Christmas traditions over at Kiki & Tea. Her Danish Christmas sounds very much like my family's German one.

• I've been loving Jack Monroe's "Have yourself a cheaper little Christmas" series over on her blog. Check out this frugal recipe for ham and veges.

• The Hemborg Wife shows how upcycling is done, wrapping her gifts with things she had around the house.

• A Beautiful Mess has done a mega-round-up of their DIY posts as suggested gift ideas. Some ones in here I wouldn't attempt, but some really cool easy ones too!

• If you're a sucker for a White Christmas like me, have a gander at beautiful Old Quebec in December here and also here at night. It's like a goddamn fairytale.

• And lastly, a great reading list from 26 Years and Counting (in which she mentions me, yay!) - The Hide In Your Room At The In Laws Over The Holidays Best Of Blogs Reading List 2013

Happy reading! And if I don't get to blog between now and then - have a Happy, Simple and Relaxing Christmas!

Sunday Summary - 1st December

This week I have been...

Reading - All Good Things by Sarah Turnbull. A memoir of the author's life when she moved to Tahiti. It's pretty cool.

Tidying - my patio and yard. A huge job, but one that is very satifying.

Loving - those moments when you stop and just breathe. Like when I saw this beautiful Moreton Bay Fig at the markets today. What a glorious elder of its kind.

Watching - a mish-mask of television including The Walking Dead, NCIS and Sleepy Hollow. I like to pretend that Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow is James Norrington from The Pirates of the Caribbean's long-lost brother. (Don't blame me, it was on tumblr).

Dreaming - of landscaping my pool area with terracotta pots and minimalist spiky plants.

Thinking - a lot about Christmas. I wrote a guide to a Happy Homemade Christmas last year, would like to do something similar this year, but I'm not going to be doing much homemade stuff! So I might just curate some great other blogs that are doing it.

Baking - my own pizza dough! For the first time, I was insanely pleased with it. I also made a banana loaf today, finally used up all those over-ripe bananas in my freezer.

Hanging - out at the farm. Went and saw mum and dad last weekend, did some deep-breathing and chilling out. Going up to the farm recharges my batteries. I took some photos, which I have the intention of blogging but are still on my camera...

Looking forward to - work winding down after we complete end-of-month accounts this week. More scrapbooking in two weeks. And then some time off!

How's your week been?

A Happy Homemade Christmas - part 4 - All over Red Rover

And so, the Silly Season is over for another year. Though I didn’t achieve perfection (by a long shot) in my Quest for an entirely Handmade Christmas, I was happy with my efforts.

I made the salads for our Xmas lunch. I supported local business by getting the chutneys and pickles at the markets.  I wrapped my presents up in lovely rustic twine and brown paper. I bought handmade for some of my gifts.

It wasn’t easy though. Particularly the gift side – I’ve discovered not everybody can be catered for by the handmade or locavore movement.

Books, for example. You have to buy them, you can’t make them or get one from your friendly local author. You CAN, however, support authors by buying from independent bookshops. Or DVDs. Again, something you can’t hand make or buy local. But you CAN purchase them legitimately from a shop or online retailer, thus ensuring everyone involved in their production receives their cut of the profits. Piracy helps nobody.

So what did I learn? Well, I found that handmade gifts for the men in my family are extremely difficult. They just don’t want or need leather hip flask covers, stamped silver bottle opener keyrings or manscaping smelly things to splash on their chiseled jaws. They’re not into fashion, and wear no jewelry. Thus, sites like Etsy are a little of a lost cause for me when shopping for males. The one exception is t-shirts – there are some great, original artwork tees out there.

I also learned that you just can’t do everything and work full-time. I worked right up to Xmas Eve, and found that hand-making gift tags, co-coordinating a decorative colour theme for the dining room and trialing a tablescaping idea were not within my abilities. However, I found some lovely handmade-looking tags, bought crackers that matched the baubles on my tree and threw some pinecones in a wire basket for a centerpiece. And it worked out ok.

The loveliest part of the day was having the chance to bring out and use some of my vintage Pyrex. I used a divided casserole dish, an old amber glass pie dish and a large mixing bowl for the salads.

I hope your Christmas was just as nice as mine. x

A Happy Homemade Christmas - Part 3 - Food

Crown Roast

I've been thinking about Christmas lunch for a few months now. I've done one Christmas lunch before, and that was with my brother and his girlfriend. This year, it will just be us, my mum and maybe my dad (he works out west, doesn't know if he'll be back yet).

 

Caprese salad with grilled peppers

Somewhere along the line I've got it into my head that I want to do a "cool" lunch.  that is, no cooking. I do not want to turn my oven on. This is problematic.

I've discovered, that even though in Australia we tend not to do the whole hot roast and all the trimmings thing any more, a lot of our traditional Christmas food still requires cooking. And all the northern hemisphere recipes are, of course, great for winter when the oven is cosily warming the kitchen while your children play in the snow. But not so fab when it's 40 degrees outside and the sweat is dripping into your eyes as you check if the roast veges are done.

Christmas food that requires heat:
Glazed ham
Turkey
Roast beef
Roast chicken
Roast Veges
Gravy
Steamed beans, peas and carrots
Seafood that needs cooking
Christmas pudding
Mince tarts
Salads involving rice, cous cous, quinoa, roast veges or pasta
Potato salad

So here's the flip side - "cool" Christmas food:
Cold chicken
Cold leg ham
Rum balls
Trifle
Cassata
Pavlova
Prawns & other raw seafood

I've spent hours surfing food websites looking for ideas, and come to the conclusion you could get lost in the world of salads, for example. More than I would have thought involve a cooking element too!

 

Curtis Stone's Sweet Corn and Zucchini Ratatoille

Another things pissing me off - articles like this one, titled "Beginner's Christmas", that actually involves a recipe where you have to stuff a bloody turkey. Stuff that.

So here's what I'm planning - No entree. Why fill up on hors d'ouvres when the main event is so yummy? Lunch will be a cold roast chicken, leg ham off the bone, a tomato salad, potato salad, (cooked the night before!), peas and corn ,chutney and mustard. Dessert is pavlova and bought Christmas pudding with cold custard.

My mother-in-law suggested nipping down to Woolies and picking up a few containers of their potato or pasta salad and some pre-made coleslaw. But my pride won't allow for that! (Note my pride will allow for bought custard and pudding as these are far beyond my meagre cooking skills...)

 Berry & mascarpone trifle

Now, as that's lunch taken care of... does this mean I can focus on my tablescaping? *maniacal laugh*

  Source: Beechtree Photography

Sites browsed that I found helpful in writing this blog: Recipes+, Super Food Ideas, Coles, Feast, Martha Stewart, Jamie Oliver

What's on your Christmas menu? Are you doing a roast? 

A Happy Homemade Christmas part 2 - handmade gifts

I am quite jealous of people that make things. I dabble - I try to cook, try to be crafty with my scrapbooking and so forth but have come to recognise my limitations. I'm no artist.

However, I love supporting people that are, and turn what was a hobby, passion or talent into their livelihood.

Here are some nice handmade things I've been browsing lately on Etsy. My guide for choosing presents for other people is: pick something I would want someone to give me!

 

Clockwise from top:

Floaty Feather Tea Towel Citron - from ElkhornDesign 

Vintage map organic cotton cushion cover - from mybeardedpigion

Funky teapots bag cotton hand stenciled print - from PrintingPretty

Resin bangle. pink orange yellow. sunrise. gloss. - from whizzbangle

Scarf Dahlia Wrap in espresso - from ElkhornDesign

Bec's Hummingbird fine art print - from kittensandcrumpets

 

So I think it's clear that I like things like vintage maps, tea, linen, birds and bright colours! 

Do you have a favourite handmade or bespoke crafter or artist? Tell me in the comments!

A Happy Homemade Christmas - part 1

Welcome to a series of blogs I'm going to be doing sporadically over the holiday season. It's going to be about planning and having a Happy, Homemade Christmas. Or my attempts to do so!

I have a different perspective on Christmas this year. My growing interest in all things vintage and my focus on "reduce, reuse, recycle" and trying to integrate this mantra into my everyday life has had a great effect on me. I'm starting to have an adverse reaction to what has become near-normal for this time of year - a commercialised orgy of spending, focused on buying new things and conspicuous consumption.

I only have to look at the growing pile of junk mail that is accumulating in my recycling bin to realise that I could get very wrapped up in spending money not only on gifts for others (that they probably don't really need) but also on myself right now.

Please don't think of me as ready to throw off the shackles of chain store shopping just yet, but I am ready to refocus my perspective of the season onto stuff that feels more right than just spending money on "things".

I'm going to try to do things "homemade" where possible, and get my gifts locally or from small business. Ideally, I would love to source all my gifts from Etsy! It will not be easy, but I'm going to give it a crack, and be sharing with you the lovely things I discover along the way.

It's not all going to be about gifts either. Other things I want to try to do the Homemade Way:

• cooking and baking
• cardmaking
• giftwrapping
• decorating
  

 I am hosting Christmas lunch for our family this year, so I'll be trying to serve up not only a lovely meal, but decorate the house nicely as well.  No tinsel. I've decided I'm allergic.

 

source: pinterest

What do you think about Christmas? Do we get too focused on buying stuff?

A post about presents that ended up being about dessert

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Yesterday on Twitter I confessed that I had not bought a single Christmas present. I was reassured by some that they, too, had not gotten started.

I had grand intentions this year of starting in months, doing everything online and effectively eliminating the stress of the entire epic saga that is Buying Presents. It was not to be.

I think my problem is that I am a champion procrastinator, plus I totally over-think things (see previous posts about my Christmas Crisis).

I am happy to report, however, that yesterday I bought two gifts! And my darling other half has volunteered to get his mother's present, the one that really has me stumped. So what am I buying for everyone else this year?

Gift cards.

I know. I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. Cop-out. But I just don't care any more. I'd rather concentrate on the food and drink, actually.

I want to make a gorgeous dessert but can't decide between trifle, tiramisu and cassata. Oh my goodness. Here's some recipes I've been eyeing off...

Mixed berry trifle

Nigella's Irish Cream tiramisu

Cassata Gelata

Actually I just remembered my mother has an amazing recipe for cassata. I must steal it.

What's your favourite dessert at Xmas?

My Christmas Crisis

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Christmas is really doing my head in this year. I have been thinking about it since October but not actually done anything, besides some in-my-head gift ideas. For some reason, this year I’m becoming fixated on the presents.

I want to give everybody the best, most perfect, amazing presents ever. I want them to grin hugely when they open them and really appreciate the time and thought I’ve put into each one. We've got a tight budget but am determined to do the best I can with it.

... And then I read a wonderful blog about appreciating what you have (at Seven Cherubs). Got a fantastically inspiring email about buying local, supporting the local economy, not clogging yours and others' homes with plastic crap you don’t need, appliances you never use and DVDs you never watch. About not contributing the wealth of rapidly industrializing countries where labour is cheap (and sometimes exploitative) and manufacturing is environmentally harmful when your local hairdresser or lawn mowing business is struggling to make a dollar. Or seeing wonderful crafty ideas on Pinterest, and thinking about how homemade is so much better than a box of Ferrero Rochers I bought at the supermarket because I didn’t know what to give.

I’m also really interested in charitable giving, however am wary of giving people the gift of a goat for Xmas (see Oxfam Unwrapped) in case they don’t “get” what the gift really is about (and don’t have actually any "THING" to keep for themselves). Seems like kind of a mean gift, if you think about it that way. I KNOW that’s not the point, but am still not completely a fan of giving charity gifts of this kind unless I know the person is a big supporter of that particular organization, or of charity generally.

At least I am blessed in that I have a circle of family and friends who really don’t place a lot of value on material possessions, or monetary worth (so different from some I know). I know my parents won’t mind what they get from us and my partner C assures me his parents won’t either. I’m going to suggest a no-presents-this-year deal with my brother and his partner, as we both are struggling with mortgages. For my friends, I’m undecided – perhaps they would like to agree to a no-gifts-year this year too?

So I’m busy in my mind trying to reconcile all this mess in my head, and yet STILL trying to think of the perfect, most amazing gifts that a) are Australian-made, b) won’t end up as expensive clutter and c) are friendly to our planet.

And don’t even get me started on Christmas cards. (There's a minefield that's possibly best navigated by me just not sending any).

So now after all my resolutions to give ethical, suitable gifts this year, the original post I was going to write today about what I want for Christmas looks pretty damn selfish. So I’m not going to post it, and be grateful for what people decide to give me on The Big Day.

Do you have a gift-giving ethos this year? What is it?

FNQ Fashion

We're going to the tropics for Christmas.

I know, I know. It's going to be perishingly hot and humid. But C's parents live there and this is their year to have us. I know his mum will be taking care of the food, so I've been left to worry about other things.

Oddly for me, I've been fixating on clothes. Because I remembered the last time we were up there two years ago, I was warm and uncomfortable pretty much the entire time. My wardrobe was not designed to cope with that kind of weather.

So I've been trying to think about what would be suitable, and wondering if it's in my budget to get a few more items. Clothes to suit the heat and mugginess of Far North Queensland!

Of course, I turned to Polyvore. I present three ideal outfits for three different occasions, though in FNQ you can pretty much wear the same wardrobe to a restaurant as you would to the beach.

FNQ casual - beige by surelysarah featuring a wooden chain necklace

FNQ - shopping by surelysarah featuring knot jewelry

FNQ Evening by surelysarah featuring a blue maxi dress

What do you think? I am VERY aware that I am obsessed with the beige, the bone, the off-white, the cream, the ivory... What I was aiming for was breath-ability and present-ability. I don't want to be rocking board shorts and a tank top the whole week I'm there.

What do you wear when it's hot?

Pinteresting - wreaths

This week I've been thinking more and more about Christmas. One thing I've been wanting to do for a long time is to make my own Christmas wreath. Pinterest, as usual, was a wealth of inspiration. I like the different media used in the ones I found - everything from paper to baubles to fabric.

Enjoy!

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