To me Christmas Time is Family Time, I know that isn’t the same for everyone but I’ve been lucky and almost always had family close by. I still remember the first Christmas I spent away from my immediate family. For years every Christmas holidays I’d been going to stay with Aunty Mavis in Port Pirie but I always left home after Christmas Day. Aunty Mavis owned and worked in, “Pirie Art Florist” and when she was old enough my cousin, Barbara, also worked there. I think I would have been about 14 the year I stayed at Barbara’s house so I could help look after her little boys and that year I was already there before Christmas.
On Christmas morning everyone was in the lounge room, I heard the excitement but I stayed in bed. I felt totally out of place. Christmas morning was all tied up with Mum, Dad, my brothers and sisters. I had no idea what to do. Eventually someone came into the room and said, “Aren’t you ever getting up?” I was embarrassed but I did get up and go into the Lounge Room. I was given a present and when I opened it I was shocked and delighted, it was a manicure set in a pale blue leather case. I’d never seen anything like it and it was such a “grown up” present. I felt proud that they thought it was right for me.
You didn’t know that about Nana did you?
The weird thing about the photos is that I can’t find my leather case just now so I’ve used an image from the web and the scissors are missing. The one part of my set that I’ve always used are the scissors so although they’re looking rather old at least I can to take a photo of them.
Musings of a Retiring Person 