Christmas Celebrations

It is our tradition, to celebrate Christmas with all the family on Christmas Eve! So, all my family want to come this year to my place again! 🙂 We are usually more than 16 people for this kind of get-togethers! This is including four of my great-grandchildren aged 2, 5, 7 and 9! 🙂 I have two more great-grandchildren in Victoria. Unfortunately I have not seen these for quite a while. – – – Sadly, it is going to be the second Christmas without Peter. – – –

Secret Santa will be coming again this year. So, everyone gets only one present! However, I am sure there is going to be some very special nice food provided once more due to the combined effort of several women. I am probably going to make some potato salad again. A lot of people do like my salad! 🙂 And of course people bring along beer, wine and maybe some liquor as well as a variety of soft drinks. 🙂 (Mark is in the habit of drinking only Coca Cola when he knows, that he has to be driving home again.)

Our other custom at Christmas time is to make ‘Bunte Teller’ with Pfefferkuchen (gingerbread), nuts, special fruit and some sweets like for instance marzipan sweets and chocolates. 🙂

I hope the weather is going to be fine, so that we can stay outside a lot and make good use of the new deck and to be outside in the open a lot of the time. 🙂

Maybe some people are going to stay overnight again, that would mean, we could be able to cheer with plenty of nice drinks! 🙂

All the outside area on the three different sections of the house have been made usable recently. So there is plenty of room for people to spread out a bit. There are even two ramps for my rollator! Colourful electric lights have been installed, and there are also about half a dozen solar lights spread out over the ground as well as some new electric flash lights! 🙂

I hope, my son Martin will be able to come from Victoria, and that this time the borders are going to stay open. Martin told me, that he can stay only for a couple of nights, but that I am welcome to go back with him and his dog Millie to his place in Benalla. 🙂

I am looking forward to spend some great holidays in Benalla! 🙂

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

This morning I went to Wikipedia to look for a certain quote by Johann Wofgang von Goethe. When I saw the above Wikiquote page I was immediately hooked. My thoughts were, that this page is very, very interesting. I could not look enough at it. How wonderful it would be if I could study it for hours and hours!

I have the feeling time is running away with me. What with more and more medical tests and all the every day things in life that still need doing if one wants to live independently, one would love to have a bit more time left for reflection and writing.

In old age everything does slow down a lot, in my case maybe more physically than mentally. But the mental capacity is very much reduced too, I am sure. It is often difficult to concentrate on just one thing. The frequent dizzy spells do not help in this regard.

I very much wish to approach the end of my life in a calm, thoughtful way. Haste in any form is obnoxious to me. Alas, quite often it cannot be avoided. Maybe sometimes I feel rushed unnecessarily. But this is how I often feel: “Not being able to accomplish things as promptly as required!” Is that the reason for my blood pressure going sky high? Or are there some other underlying causes?

I am looking forward to some relaxing Christmas celebration with joyful company, some alcoholic beverages and a choice of excellent food. Plus I hope for some soothing music and at other times also some very joyful, exuberant music.

DSCN3529 (2)

DSCN3529

The other day I bought myself some beautiful sandals in this special shoe shop in Piccadelli, Wollongong.. Afterwards I sat down in that cafe opposite for some coffee and a snack while I was waiting for Peter to return from his medical appointment.

On another day I waited for Peter in the car in Burelli Street in Wollongong. The car happened to be parked where some more retirement building is going on. I took some pictures from the car. When Peter returned we talked about how very convenient it would be to be able to live in an apartment in that new retirement building in the centre of Wollongong. Alas, we would have to have at least half a million to afford a place like this. Our place in Dapto is worth quite a bit, but not quite this much! So I guess we will be staying in our beautiful place in Dapto for as long as possible, trying to look after it as well as possible while we are aging more and more.I really do feel sad sometimes that our place shows some signs of neglect. but on the other hand it is really a beautiful not too expensive place, and we love it!!