create family traditions

1.
We have been doing the Christmas draw for a few years now,. It works well and Christmas is a lot less expensive and stressful as a result.

2. The Monday/Thursday family dinners have been on the go since the very first week of the new millenium, rain or shine, fights or not,through all kinds of traumas and happinesses.

3. The Hallowean ‘trick or treat’ punch party, with me dressed in a red and orange (gaudy!) witch outfit is pretty much established. It’s a chance for silliness on my part.

4. The Easter morning family brunch is a routine function.

5. Broader family ‘lady teas’ have been on-going for about 15 years.

We are having a Christmas morning tea with our two children, my mother, my sister and her husband and one of their children.

We are planning a classy tea, as follows:

Mother is providing a small glace-fruit covered Christmas cake; I am making rich shortcrust pastry cranberry, orange and frut mince mincepies soused in brandy, and cheese and sundried tomato hot pastry whirls; my sister is making a tier of beautifully decorated cupcakes as well as one other item. We are setting a lovely table with the Royal Doultan china and a small posy of clear yellow roses.

The gift exchange involves each person drawing one name only. This is kept secret, and we may only spend the equivalent of $10 or about £7.50. We are supposed to wrap the presents artistically and in a disguised fashion, and accompany this with a suitably cryptic and humorous rhyme.

Our Christmas dinner will be in the late afternoon whem it is a little cooler, and this only for the four of us and my mother, so unusually small.

We did some stretching for the past few days.
Kids seem to look forward to it.
Plus, we made fridays, movie nights.
Need to do Hoondok.
Maybe a volunteer day.
Bake cookies day.
So far, we made crafts every weekend – soap, and stocking.
I want to make a pillow rug.

Family traditions remind us where we come from…
They make us balanced and strong…
They remind us the importance of one another.

More neighbourhood children

The children in our enclosed suburb dressed up and came around for ‘tricks or treats’. We had signs up, pointing them down te woodland path in our garden to the large deck on the side of the house, where we had punch, crisps and sweets for the children and chilled red wine and berry punch for the adults. I wore a dress of my daughter’s – red velvet and orange silk with draped sleeves(far too hot for 32 deg celcius).

Afterwards, the neighbourhood all joined in a braai (barbeque) together.

on a Thursday. Planned an easy meal because of walking.

Made spaghetti bolognese for the carnivores and had a bought tomato sauce for myself.

Served it with a lovely mixed salad and hot garlic bread. Had Italian wine with it.

Pronounced good by all.

May be able to start enjoying family dinner on the deck soon as it is warming up.

will be waiting for daughter (who arrives from London on 14 December) andson (who arrives from Kofu,Japan on 22 December). They will contain information about Christmas plans, a break at a tented bush resort, sunscreen,(as they are both coming from northern hemisphere winter).

Any suggestions about what else should be inluded?

She is a naturalised American (Nashville, Tennessee), having emigrated in 1977 after the riots here. She has returned to RSA to celebrate a’significant’ birthday, and will be visiting our home (after several functions over two weeks) for dinner with her husband. I have decided to appoint a young aspirant chef to cater the dinner.

She will prepare a South African menu, based on the rich flavours of the Cape Malay influence. All I have to do will is tidy up a bit, set the table(and disperse a few cobwebs around) – but that is another story.

I will have to decide what to do with a couple of nude paintings -as they are very strict southern baptists. No, on second thought, I will leave the nude paintings exactly where they are.

My husband’s Muslim friends did not flinch, so why should they?

We really don’t have any – we have been hostage to the traditions of others. I always managed to keep Christmas at home, but Thanksgiving was usually spent acomodating the wishes of in-laws. Since this holiday seems untethered for us, maybe we should make a tradition of spending Thanksgiving in odd places… being thankful.