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~ Letting ‘Life’ show me the way.

Rosie’sFrenchAdventuresandIrish Shenanigans.com

Tag Archives: Christmas lights

Memories, the best gift of all……

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by RosieJoseph in Friends, My home, People, The continuing adventure

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

anniversaire, biggest dinner, cats, champagne, Christmas, Christmas lights, cosy home, creepy, Dogs, Family, Friends, gifts, good to be home, mannequins, memories, narcolepsy, no place like home, presents, Simple things, welsh terrier puppies, Welsh Terriers

So they came (for those new to my blog you may want to read my last post) Karen, our dear friend, and now a member of our family, and Tom our darling son who we have not seen for three years.

Tom was his typical narcolepsy boy (as we used to call him as he always fell on asleep when in transit on anything that moved including the back of his Dad’s motorbike once!!) So he said to Karen “put the heating on full and it will make the puppy go to sleep, guess what?

26056904_10159851342405475_1163329347_n

So Karen entertained herself by shouting “Tom! Tolls” every time they came up to a toll and he had to pay, she had a great time what with that and talking to herself!

I was so excited to see them and when we met them on the bridge in Ambrieres, with the youngest member of the family Dylan the Welshie pup…

Dylly Dyls

we cried. We cried to see each other again, we cried for time lost. Then we went to the pub!!! (We are English after all!!)

As always the French people of out town welcomed us, welcomed Tom wished him bonne anniversaire for his birthday the next day, and made a fuss of the three welshies in their midst – not least the cutie above.

Then we were off home, where frivolity, drinking and eating took place (after unloading Karen’s Citroen with all the goodies they had brought over from England.)

On Christmas Eve it was Tom’s birthday, so we took him off to a little town near us to look at the Christmas lights. Now France is a Catholic country so little is open on a Sunday but we thought that given some of the bars in our town were open the bar in Ceuce would also be open. But no!! The Boulangerie was open (as always in France bread has to be available it is the law!) but no bars. So we decided to look at the lights that the won had made an effort to put up.

Now I love living here, but sometimes things can be weird like the mannequins that were put in in the town (unsure what they had to do with Christmas!) and also all the farm machinery and implements that were displayed with lights around them, mmmmmmmm…… Not sure about those either. Tom thought they were hilarious and weird, and we all thought that they were a little creepy especially the mechanical ones that stopped what they were doing and turned and looked at you. They looked as if some in-breeding had taken place as all the mannequins looked the same apart from the men had beards and the women had breasts!!!

 

26177822_10213611102804821_2015596522_o (2)
Tom running from figures

I walked around the displays with the words “worst birthday ever…. where did your mum take you for your birthday Tom? To a weird town with mannequins that stared at you and you couldn’t get a drink!!” ringing in my ears. It became one of the catchphrase of the season “worst birthday ever!” And we think we might make it a tradition if he comes next year!

On Christmas day we were invited to our French friend’s and neighbours house for an aperitif at eleven. As always we were made so welcome, and it made me realise how much French I can speak now as I was the translator for all. I think it made Tom feel reassured about our life out here, he could see that they loved us, especially when they hugged me when I became tearful when I tried to thank them for all their help and support. They really are wonderful lovely people and we are blessed.

After consuming three bottles of champagne and cheese aperitif’s we made our way back home to have the biggest dinner in the world (not until 7pm) and open our presents.

It was a different Christmas to any before, Rich and I did not buy each other gifts, we could not afford it and also realised that it did not matter. We have each other, and after all our hard work over the years we cherish what we have.

So we had small gifts for Karen and Tom and they had small gifts for us. Loved ones from England had sent us thoughtful presents, treats for the cats (so I won’t have to buy them) Baileys, Shortbreads, warm socks, and not least a beautiful opulent hamper from Fortnum and Mason’s. It was the kindness and thought that had gone into those presents that meant so much.

But the best gift I received was when my son (who did not want us to move here, and loved our old house by the sea, as I did) stood in our living room and said “It’s good to be home.”

tom it is good to be home

The time flew too fast with much eating, drinking, giving Tom dirty looks for taking photos of us eating……

 

Christmas dinner
Boxing day spread
rich mois and karen in reading corner
The look of death from mum

To sleeping….

 

christmas sleeping karen
Dylan on big bed
doggies everywhere

That puppy was pooped a lot of the time

Dylan Pooped

The little dogs had such fun, forming a pack very quickly with Harley being alpha, Wiglet being mummy and the baby being told!!

 

The three amigos
big dog little dog
big dog little dog
Dillon with ears

The last day came round too fast, we went to Mayenne,our nearest large town, and Tom finally got that birthday drink in a bar (well he had a coffee, we had a drink!) On the last evening we all posed for memories (although they will always be with us)

 

mois karen and Rich
mental mois karen and rich
mois karen and Rich
mois and karen
mental mois karen and rich
lovely photo tom with mum and dad
lovely photo tom with mum and dad

and Tom told me how he loved the house, how it felt warm and cosy despite the mold on the walls and there only being an open fire. I knew why, because our house is full of love, and nothing can buy that.

When the day came for them to leave, Tom off to another adventure in Italy visiting his girlfriend for New Year, Karen and Dilly Dils back to England; I busied myself making them sandwiches for the journey, and we all cried as Karen and the pup left. Then came the time to say farewell to Tom and he hugged me hard and told me how much he missed me, but he knows now that home is still waiting for him, always. It is just in another place.

I sobbed as they went, Rich taking him to Laval for the train and the house seemed empty, as the ghost of Christmas present finally gave his last. I cried my way through the washing up and wiping down, and the dogs sulked on the chairs.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas also, this one made us realise that Christmas should never be about the presents but about the presence of loved ones, and the memories that are left are all the gifts you need.

Happy New Year, lets hope it holds all you desire, even if you don’t know it yet.

Moisy

 

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The beauty and poignancy of Christmas decorations, my favourite part of Christmas

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by RosieJoseph in My home, Reflections, The continuing adventure

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Christmas decorations, Christmas garland, Christmas lights, christmas memories, Christmas tree, Countryside, Dickensian, First Christmas, Glow, Inspire memories, Inspired, Lamplight, Miss Haversham, poignant memories, Professional christmas decorator, Seaside, Single parent, Sparkle, Star, The hobbit, Wolverhampton

Ever since I was a child I have loved decorating the Christmas tree. My mum (God bless her soul) would bring out our white artificial tree (so 60’s and 70’s, but back in vogue now) and all our old deco’s accumulated over the years. The vivid green elf with his red hat, grinning maniacally it looked like something from a horror film!! The carefully wrapped long glass baubles with gold inside (probably worth a fortune now, as so vintage).

My favourite, however, was the fairy. My mum had improvised one year, got one of our tiny dolls and dressed her in a dress made of pink loo roll (with the tube from the middle stuffed up her skirt to ‘give it volume!) Then we sprayed her with gold and sprinkled glitter over her and then, just to add to her indignity, stuck her on top of the tree with the tree stuck up her arse!!!

Every year that doll came back out, had different coloured loo roll put on her, depending on the fashionable colour of the time; and each year she was sprayed with glitter paint, silver, gold again, bronze one year, she looked like she had spent the summer holdaying in Bermuda!!! But I was hooked, I loved Christmas decorations.

As the years wore on my decorations have become more subtle, but I have never been one for those sterile trees, where all the baubles are the same, round and all one colour, like the types you see in shopping centres; for me they are soulless. When I first left home I bough some expensive decorations, and this year thirty two years later, I have used them again. They bring back memories of when I first left home and moved to Wolverhampton, or a small village nearby, of the lovely old neighbours I had, of the excitement I had of decorating my own tree.

From then on I bought decorations every year. Anyone who knows me will tell you I love things that glitter and sparkle, that ‘catch the light’ they mesmorize me. So over the years I have accumulated a lot. I progressed to garlands and they became more and more elaborate. I would have frost themed garlands, with colours of the sea when I lived by the seaside in England, or garlands laden with fruit decorations (very Georgian).

So this year my surroundings and circumstances have influenced me again. With the colours of the surrounding countryside, and the cold; the fact that our house is damp and drafty and over 200 years old, I was inspired to make up a Dickensian garland. It has berries, and deep red flowers, cherubs, and iced ivy leaves, with poinsetta running through it. There is a sparkling icicle garland that I picked up somewhere over the years, and the beautiful vintage candleabra that my lovely Mother in Law gave me, covered in crystal droplets. It just makes me think of Miss Haversham, sitting at her Wedding feast, where the ivy has grown i to the room and it is covered in cobwebs.

 

Since living here Rich has always wanted a real tree (which are inexpensive in France) and a dear friend gave us a gift of money so I finally relented and we bought one. My garland inspired me to carry on the idea and I got out my beautiful red and gold ribbons and threaded them through the tree ..

 then I added all the red and gold baubles that I have not used for years (I tend to be a silver type of girl, it sparkles more!) I added to that some of the hundred or more crystal droplets I had also accumulated and now I love it. (Although I have to confess that the first ginpme I did it I had a few wines and was doung it in the dark! Add to that just as I finished a set of lights right in the middle went out and I added some over the top! Mmmmmmmmmm……..when I got up the next day it looked like someone had thrown things at it!!! So I took it all apart and redid it!)

As I hung the baubles I remembered the lovely purple glass one had been brought from Woolworths, now long gone, in Herne Bay

The gold round glittery ones, bought from Beatties Department Store in Wolverhampton, sadly also now long gone. The ribbons were inspired by my beautiful Edwardian House in Herne Bay, now a holiday home. The sparkling red baubles that glittered on the tree when my son and I snuggled up together as I read him ‘The Hobbit’ by lamplight. I was a single parent then with electric on a meter, so we had a blanket over us as we sat by our red shaded lamp and the lights of the tree twinkled, and it is a memory that will live with me forever.

Even the star is the first star I bought thirty two years ago, again from Woolworths, God I miss that place, and I miss my mum, who was with me at the time.

i look at the garland and remember going late night shopping with my mum when I found the iced ivy garland, now on my fireplace in France; and I think of my mum, who is no longer here. Or the garland on top of my armoir, simple with greenery (good old Woolies again) and silver stars, which were bought in France when Rich and I came over the first Christmas after our wedding. God! Little did we know then what we would endure, only to come out stronger the other side (but you will need to read my book for that story!)

The artificial black tree, smothered in crystals, including a crystal garland, and white decorations, makes me smile because I think of the little kitten that is Diddyman who would climb up into it, because after all she matched it’s theme! She was the kitten that helped to save Rich and I, and she would peek out at us from the foliage, and make us laugh.tDaryl and Tom

 

Someone said to me this week that I had missed my vocation, i should have been a professinal Christmas Decoration dresser, or window dresser. They are probably right they do inspire me. But what is important to me is that Christmas decorations should inspire memories, and create memeories for the future. So that when people, or a time, or places are gone we remember them and they make us smile.

This year our dear friend and her puppy are coming to stay, and my son, who I have not seen or hugged for three years is also coming with her. It will be especially memory making because his birthday is on Christmas Eve, and because you never know what life holds for you I intend to cherish every moment.

I urge you all to do the same.

 

Moisy

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