For my final post in the 52-week challenge, what better way than to remember back to Christmases past, especially those that I can remember growing up on Mumby farm, but they are very vague. There are, however, a couple that really stand out in my memory.
My earliest memory would have to have been when I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. How far can one’s childhood memories go back? But I do remember waking up on Christmas morning and Father Christmas had placed a dolls size wooden kitchenette at the foot of my bed and in my pillowslip was a toy shop. There were loaves of bread, fruit, cakes and all numbers of things. I can’t remember if I was given the China tea set at that time or whether I already had it, perhaps from a birthday. I still have most of that tea set. Another heirloom that I missed blogging about in the heirloom blog, along with my whistling mug that Garry, my eldest brother gave to me one Christmas past.
We used to always buy each other a present and most times it was a book. The boys would get books like Treasure Island or the Famous Five. Mine were What Katie Did, What Katie Did Next, Three Little Women and other Enid Blyton classics.
Another distinct Christmas memory was when I received my walkie-talkie doll from my nanna Herbert. I was about 6 years old and she is a real treasure. The fact that I now have a photo my doll, siting with me in my chair just blows me away. How fortunate are we to have photos and only one photo at that!?
Then there’s the blue Malvern Star two-wheel bike. I mentioned that bike on a video blog that I did some weeks ago. I now had my very own bike, not one that had been put together by bits and pieces from other old bikes and I no long had to fight my brother’s for a ride. I cannot believe I actually gave the bike to my brother Bobbo to ride as it was a little bit big for me. That did not last long, a few hours at the most when I took it back. He obviously suggested that I should give it to him as it was too big for me!!
From then on I don’t recall what presents I got when. Christmas was a time for family and the food for Christmas lunch was always the traditional ham, roast chicken, vegetables, trifle, icecream and pavlova. Oh, and I mustn’t forget the plum pudding with the threepenny bits. How exciting it was to find money in our piece of pudding. Chickens were a rarity, only ever eaten at Christmas time and a few days before, Dad would catch one of the chooks and off with its head!! I can still see the chook running around the backyard without its head until it dropped. I’m still here, didn’t have any nightmares and still eat chicken!!
I also recall the plastic cane bowls that the boys made at school, they always were filled with lollies and the nuts still in their shells that we had to break open with a nut cracker. Mum would make pickled onions. I still have her recipe and occasionally Bob gets the urge to make some. I’m not keen on the watery eyes when peeling them.
Every year Dad’s brothers and sometimes his sisters family would call over for morning or afternoon tea. Nanna Herbert, mum’s mother would come and visit. It was on one of these Christmas visits that she died on Boxing Day, 26 December 1966. Nanna was washing up the breakfast dishes with my brother Peter, I was still eating my breakfast at the kitchen table, when thud, nanna had collapsed back onto the wooden floor and died from a brain haemorrhage, right there in front of Peter and I. We screamed, mum and dad came running, dad had been milking the cow, so the bucket of milk went flying, but nothing poor Dad did, could revive her. It was too quick. That was a very traumatic end to Christmas that year. We weren’t allowed to go to her funeral, so I was sent off to stay with Uncle Jim and Aunty Nell Cripps at their beach camp at Horrock’s Beach. I would have been 11 years old.
Mum always baked a Christmas fruitcake. Even after I was married, she would make one for me every year. When she died, my good friend, Donelle James would bake a cake. It was so nice to receive one every year and it always brought back memories of my mum’s cake. We have decided this year that Donelle shouldn’t do that anymore. It was a lovely gesture.
Midnight mass at the Catholic church in Northampton was a must. We would go to bed and at 11pm, Dad would wake us up and we’d head off into town for mass. We never missed and it was always a special time. Lots of Christmas carols and catching up with Northampton people. Sometimes we went to mass early in the morning, I don’t recall why it was mostly midnight and other times during the day, unless I’m confusing this with a normal Sunday mass. However, I do recall that after the daytime mass, we would call around to see dear Great Aunty Sally Chisholm, my grandfather’s sister. I’m sure I was as tall as her, she was such a tiny thing and I’m sure I was the same height. Aunty Sally was 86 when she died in 1975. Recently, a cousin posted a photo of her as I remember her. Alison Wood, hope you don’t mind that I borrowed your photo.
Once Bob and I were married, we would take our family up to the farm for Christmas. Bob didn’t have any parents when we married, they had passed away when he was a teenager, so he was happy to have Christmas with us. I mentioned our first Christmas together as a married couple in the wedding anniversary blog.
Our first Christmas as a family was when Helen was born in 1974 and that Christmas was the day that Cyclone Tracy wiped Darwin in the Northern Territory off the map, or that’s how it was portrayed over the news. The destruction was devastating. Cyclone Tracy was a very intense category 4 cyclone, killing 65 people and millions of dollars of damage. I’ll always remember that day. I blogged about it more here.
Bob’s Uncle Jock MacKay, used to live with us so he often had Christmas with us when we had the family come to our home at Chapman Valley Road, Waggrakine. Another time we went to my brother Bobbo’s house in Northampton.
A very significant year was when mum died in August of 1988, that first Christmas was hard to get through. The photo above of all of us together was in 1989, a year later when for the first time in a very long time, we all got together and had Christmas with Dad.
Mum loved to make crafty things and every Christmas I think of her when I pull out the decorations she made. Even though I tend not to put a tree up anymore, I do put out these decorations along with several others that have a special meaning.
Our first grandchild, Alana was born in 1997 and it was a special time to now have another generation enjoy Christmas. When Dad died in 2000, Bob and I started to go to Perth to have Christmas with our daughters. One year, Melissa talked Bob into being Father Christmas for all her and Jason’s friends. It was such a hoot!
We would then head on up to Kings Park in the evening and enjoy a picnic on the lawn. Melissa and her husband Jason moved to Chile for 3 years, so our Christmases became very quiet. Peter had moved to the eastern states so Helen was the only one still in Perth. There has only been one Christmas that we ever spent on our own. It was ok, we still set the table, ate ham and prawn cocktails, drank wine, but it just wasn’t the same. Now with an abundance of grandchildren and great grandchildren, we hope to never spend another Christmas on our own. This year will be very special as we spend the day with our newest grandson and his parents for his first Christmas.
Jenealogy Scrapbook 
Hi Jenny, This is my first time reading your blog. Very inspiring! Thank You. I’m not very good writing about myself or my family. But I am encouraged by yours. Thank You and Lots of Luck &
happiness in 2018! If I do this it will be a first for me!!!
Bunny
Thank you Bernadine. I encourage you to bit the bullet and just do it. I always say to forget our school teachers looking over our shoulder (hope you’re not one! Hah) and write as you speak. I just put it out there and have been rewarded tenfold with positive comments and relatives contacting. Good luck.
Aww, that is sweet Jenny, that you used the photo of Aunty Sally. Yes she was so tiny, but I too loved visiting her and her garden, which she loved.
I laughed at the pickled onions, Mum always made them too and I have her recipe, that we make every year along with pickled eggs which Mum always made too. Even my daughter who lives in the UK has Gran’s pickled onions recipe, and makes it for an English Christmas. Traditions, it is great to see them carried on through the family. Thanks for your memories which are similar in lots of ways to mine. xx
Thank you Alison. I have a vivid memory of Aunty Sally and your photo sealed it. All the best for 2018. We’ll have to make sure we connect.
Merry Christmas Jen.
A lovely to read Jenny thank you.
Thank you Helen. 🙂
What lovely memories you have Jenny. Thank you for sharing parts of your life with us all. Ted and I wish you a very safe, happy and holy Christmas filled with love, fun and laughter to make many happy memories for years to come and may 2018 bring you good health, peace and happiness. Best wishes, Ted and Kathy