Making a list and checking it twice...

I have a present list - we tend to collect things together for people so they get a few smaller things instead of just one present. This year I have made pickles and chutneys and jams and put them into smaller jars so that I can give them as gifts. To ensure that I don't get muddled about who is getting what I made a list.
Mr M looks after it and keeps it away from seven-year-old eyes. It wouldn't do for those eyes to see what grandma is giving this year would it. I want to see the disappointment when she get a jar of Plum jam..... I am joking honestly.

Turkey dinner

I have never ever made a list of things I would like for Christmas. I was brought up in the post WW2 era when rationing was still on and there simply weren't many treats around, or the money to buy them. My mother explained that even though Father Christmas brought the presents our parents had to contribute money for the cost of making and transporting them. This seemed totally logical to me as my father was making things and the raw materials cost money that his customers paid. Mum said that we didn't have much money because sometimes our customers took a long time to pay and until they did we couldn't buy stuff. This directed any animosity towards unknown debtors - pretty clever eh? So I never asked for anything and whatever I got was a bonus. All I wanted were books and riding lessons and somehow my parents knew this and so that was what I got.

I make shopping lists for groceries for Christmas but that doesn't count. I make a list of things to do - for both of us, but that doesn't really count either.
As I have said before Christmas is very relaxed in this house. It will happen if it happens. Oh, oh, here's a perfect example of what I mean.

Continental lentil toad-in-the-hole

Every year for the last four years at least we have been given a turkey. How and why isn't important. This is a large free-range, organic bird and it arrives on Christmas Eve. We are never told we are getting it so we simply don't know if it is going to arrive this year or not. Last night we somehow got onto the subject of Christmas dinner and Mr M said that he still hadn't heard if there would be a turkey this year. There was a silent pause and I said "Well, we can always have continental lentil toad-in-the-hole, that tastes like Christmas". Mr M agreed that he could happily eat that on Christmas Day, as it is his favourite vegetarian meal and we stopped worrying about whether there would be a turkey this year.


Now that's what I mean about being relaxed