Today my mind wandered back to my childhood. How it felt when it was December…..as Christmas time approached. My mom usually worked, never had leave over a December month. Not that I can remember anyway but maybe I am just thinking of one December? Who knows….
I think it must have been hard for her. To get up in the mornings and go to work while the rest of us lied around at home. Due to a lack of being able to do anything else, I started to watch cricket. I taught myself how the rules worked and what everything meant. There are normally 5 day games on. That gave me lots of information as it was very boring and long (not the excitement of one day games or 20/20 cricket).
To this day, I still remember the King Pie advertisement. The one where the umpire stands with his finger up in the air, the signal showing a player is out. Then the words at the bottom of the screen would read One Hot Pie Please. My husband and I still laugh about this advertisement and sometimes joke about it when we feel like having a pie….
Then my mind wanders to Christmas eve. It was always at my mom’s parents in Benoni. She grew up English and they rather celebrated Christmas eve than Christmas Day. Come to think of it, maybe we did Christmas eve in that manner because we always used to visit my dad’s brother in Pretoria on Christmas Day, swimming and eating the whole day.
So we had best of both worlds so to speak. Both sides of the families were visited over the Festive season. Not the way we do it nowadays (sort of). This year it is her family, next year his family. We are not as strict with that, we spend most of the time with my in-laws in any event rather than my family, as my family (sisters and their families – not my parents and these days my father and his new wife) were always in different places over Christmas….normally camping at the coast….
We grew up with a Christmas tree. Not that many presents under the tree, but a little something. I always volunteered to put up the Christmas tree. When I was younger, I did not understand the concept of balance on the tree. It ALWAYS used to fall over when I was done, this was my BIGGEST frustration….
When we left to have dinner at my grandparents’ house, there were no presents under the tree. When we arrived home later that night, there were presents. Because I was the youngest, my mom used to pretend that Father Christmas existed for a long time. Today I know that NOTHING about how we celebrated Christmas, the tree or any other worldly celebrations are Biblical.
Back to the Christmas tree and presents. I could NEVER understand HOW Father Christmas got into our house. There is no chimney or fireplace for him to come in with. My mom always said that he used to make himself very small and entered the house through the key hole in the front door. That still boggled my mind, but I think I accepted that explanation.
Innovative and creative, the stories of my mom! When I was older, I used to ask her how she managed that? The presents under the tree. She then let me in on her secret. She always, just as we were about to leave, “remembered” about something she forgot. She would run back into the house, put the presents under the tree and take the forgotten item and put it in the car.
I wonder the whole time why my mind keeps on jumping around to different times in my life….
To be continued……
Reflekteer – Hoofstuk 3
