Thank you, Linda
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| Linda and her daughter, Sarah, ready to party! |
What is your favourite childhood seasonal memory?
When you're a child you don't really notice if you are rich or poor, and I thought everyone lived in a Cornish unit council flat and got all their clothes from jumble sales. Happy times, though, honestly. But I began to twig my aunt in Canada had a lot more money than my parents did when I got to be about eight or nine years old or so. Every Christmas, my aunt Joan, who lived in Calgary, Albeta, would send a parcel of Christmas goodies. This parcel was quite something in its own right. It always came stitched up in cloth, not wrapped in paper. My mother always insisted on unpicking all the cotton stitching (which was waxed and took forever!) so she could save it to re-use it. It was my job to wind said thread on old wooden cotton reels. (Oh, and the cloth got recycled as floor cloths as well!) As well as presents for my parents and my brother, there would be Canadian comics - and I well remember how different the paper smelled, and how different the cartoons were drawn to British ones. The year that stands out for me is the year my aunt sent not just the vests and the knickers and the books and the colouring pencils but also some perfume - well, at eleven years old I was almost a teenager, wasn't I? It was an Avon perfume called 'Here's my Heart' and the bottle was like a saddle. I made it last for ages and kept the bottle on my dressing-room table when it was long emptied, until I left home to get married. I see Avon brought out a vintage run of this perfume but I didn't want it - it wouldn't have meant the same...:)
Tree, Real or Artificial?
Our tree is artificial these days. I'm past the age when I think it's divine to smell pine and no chore at all to be picking the needles out of the carpet for months afterwards. Our tree is a top-of-the-range artificial one, though, and fools a lot of people. It comes down from our loft in a huge plastic sack, ready-decorated, and it goes back up the same. Lor, but it doesn't have save a lot of time when I could be drinking champagne and eating mince pies.
After lunch
TV is banned in our house on Christmas Day. No Queen, no nothing. The day is given over to our grandchildren - who arrive with their mum and dad at midday - getting hyper on chocolate money and excitement with each present they rip open. When they've been taken home to bed by our daughter and son-in-law, our son and his partner arrive for supper. We might get a walk in, in between the two events, depending on the weather. We light the small table lamps and burn some candles and chat until the wee small hours. And we all say we will do something different next year, but we never do...:) It's nothing short of perfect for me.
Mince Pies or Choc Yule Log?
Mince pies for me, not yule log.
And I always make my own. I make rough-puff pastry because you grate the butter into the flour and mix it with a knife, not your fingers. I always add a couple of teaspoons of sugar and the grated rind of an orange before adding the water. I cheat a bit with the mincemeat as well. Sainsbury's best, but I tip it all into a bowl and add a tablespoon of brandy. Then when filling the pastry shells I put a tiny, baby finger-nail sized, dab of cream cheese on top of the mincemeat. Never mind the calories, just enjoy the taste, I say!
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TO TURN FULL CIRCLE By Linda Mitchelmore Published by Choc Lit (7 Jun 2012)
Available in paperback, large print, audio and on Kindle. |
Linda's blog http://lindashortstories.wordpress.com/
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