A Family Christmas in Wales

It’s a long time since my sisters and I spent Christmas together -  over ten years at least before my dad died.  This year we hired a house for the whole family and everyone came except the New Zealand branch and the nephew who lives in Australia.  It took lots of careful planning as it’s not that easy to find somewhere for 15 people and two dogs.  Our first choice fell through in October and we ended up paying a bit more for a big house in Llandudno with spectacular views over the bay. It was a perfect location in the end despite being a bit of a trek for some of the sisters. The weather mostly dreadful - wet and windy except for Boxing Day - so we only ventured out for essential dog walking. We spent most of the time in this comfortable house which was decorated in a lavish fashion - all chandeliers, ornate mirrors and crushed velvet curtains. Not to my taste but nice for a holiday.

Santa brought lots of presents especially for the youngest nephews.  

In theory we shared responsibility for the cooking.  In practice it is Diane who takes the credit - you can see this in the photo above as she’s still in her apron,  She is like a whirlwind in the kitchen organising all the vegetable cooking and timing everything to perfection.  I had made the pudding though and had queued for well over an hour to pick up the turkey and ham from the butcher before we set off.  And everyone helped with washing up.

Here we all are about to tuck in.  All boyfriend/girlfriends of the older kids were with their own parents this year so it was just sisters and children.  The nephew who lives in Switzerland arrived on Christmas Eve to surprise the family.  He’s wearing the Santa suit in the photos above.  He had already celebrated an early Christmas in NI with his family back in November so no one expected to see him.  

After his Christmas dinner Paul took the dogs home.  It was hard work controlling the puppy in an unfamiliar environment and he had had enough anyway - he prefers a quieter Christmas.  The rest of us opened presents and drunk wine and played games and ate more.  It was very loud. 

On Boxing Day several braver members of the family - two of the sisters, one niece and two of the nephews joined in with the Llandudno Annual Boxing Day Sea Dip.  Good job the wind had dropped and it wasn’t that cold. Even so there was no way I was getting in, nor was Kate who shares my dislike of extreme physical activity.  I supported by buying raffle tickets and to my surprise I won a prize. I appear to be on a lucky streak this month - also won a chocolate hamper in the church Christmas fair. 

 

Here are the dippers wrapped up afterwards. We gathered for a family group photo (minus the late sleepers) with the house in the background - it’s the red brick one above my head on the second level.

Later on Boxing Day we walked up the Great Orme - well halfway since it was getting dark by then.  We admired the famous Llandudno goats perched precariously on ledges and enjoyed the view over the bay.  Of course we had to take the sister photo. That night there was more food - we finished off the turkey - a music quiz and even some dancing. We had a fabulous time. 

 Back home with Paul now and planning quiet New Year celebration meal with our usual visitors. 

Books and stuff

I have been meaning to write a book post for a while and this seemed like a good month to choose since November was the Chester Literature Festival. I have attended several booky events at Storyhouse, our local library/cinema//theatre, where an archway made of books greeted visitors. The highlight for me was An Evening With Monty Don. The rest of the family like to tease me as I have a bit of a crush on Monty - I never miss Gardeners’ World. So I jumped at the chance to see him at Storyhouse.  The meet and greet was a bit rushed though so I never got the chance to tell him about how I follow all his advice in my own garden. As you can see below, there’s still a bit of colour in the garden though the acer has lost its leaves now.

 

I wrote most of this post last weekend, then got distracted and didn’t finish it. In the meantime winter has arrived. The garden now looks like this. 

And now for  a round up of recent reading - my last book post was December last year.  I am not terribly good at recording what I read  - these are the ones I remember.  

I’ve been teaching a Literature course focusing on novels set in New York.  So quite a lot of my reading has been in preparation for this.  My favourite of the books I chose was ‘The Age of Innocence’ by Edith Wharton.  Very readable with some great characters.  There’s a film made in the 90s with Daniel Day Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer which I enjoyed too.  I also read Wharton’s novel ‘House of Mirth’, set in New York in the early 1900s.  This is the period I am writing about in my own story set partly in New York so it is useful research.  The other main text on the course was ‘Washington Square’ by Henry James.  In all my years of studying and teaching English Literature, I have managed to avoid reading Henry James.  His prose is notoriously difficult to read.  ‘Washington Square’ is one of his earlier novels and is not too challenging.  I also read ‘Daisy Miller’, ‘The Aspern Papers’ and ‘The Turn of the Screw’.  And I am halfway through ‘Portrait of a Lady’.  So it’s been classic literature for most of the year. On the New York Literature course we also looked at some shorter stories which portrayed the lives of Irish emigrants at the time these novels about the rich were set.  Joseph O’Connor wrote a story called ‘Orchard Street, Dawn’ which was inspired by a real family living in what is now the Tenement Museum in New York.  And we read Stephen Crane’s ‘Maggie: a Girl of the Streets’, a very sad tale of life in the tenements in the 19th century. 

Another memorable book this year was ‘Demon Copperhead’, the prize-winning modern take on ‘David Copperfield’ by Barbara Kingsolver.  It was easy to read and I got through the 600+ pages fairly quickly. I admired the way she played with the plot of the original and how she tackled issues like addiction to opioids but I didn’t love it. 

In fact, I haven’t read a book I really loved for ages.  A friend recommended ‘The Romantic’ by William Boyd earlier in the summer - the life story of a young Irish man who encounters the poet Shelley among other adventures. I persevered - it was also very long - and it was mildly entertaining.  I also had high hopes for ‘Absolutely and Forever’ by Rose Tremain.  This was, by contrast, very short and though it described London in the early 60’s very well, it was a bit disappointing overall.  The book I enjoyed most recently was a reread ‘A God in Ruins’ by Kate Atkinson, a follow up to ‘Life after Life’,which focuses on Teddy Todd, a WW2 bomber pilot and brother of Ursula from ‘Life after Life’.  This is a great book with an interest twist at the end.  I also read another war book set during the blitz in London, ‘Dear Mrs Bird’.  The plot is a bit silly. What I enjoyed most was the language.  Lots of expressions which reflect the attitudes of the time and the middle class backgrounds of the characters such as ‘pass muster’,  ‘tiptop’ and ‘What rot!’ One of the characters is called Bunty, not a name you hear much these days. 

I am now in the middle of another war book, a well-chosen bookclub read, ‘Mornings in Jenin’, described as a kind of Palestinian ‘Kite Runner’.  It is giving me an insight into the background of current conflict in Gaza.  And I am looking forward to reading ‘The Whalebone Theatre’ by Joanna Quinn which has been compared to ‘The Cazalet Chronicles’ my favourite family saga series.  Kate has read this and thinks I’ll like it. Finally I’ve got Paul Murray’s ‘The Bee Sting’ on my ‘to read’ pile. I loved his ‘Skippy Dies’ so I’m looking forward to this one. It was tipped to win the Booker but in the end it was another Irish writer called Paul who won.  That book sounds interesting too. 

That’s it for now.  Thinking about getting out the Christmas lights now it’s December.