Christmas
I was having dinner the other day at a fancy restaurant in Toronto. I was with a few people, we talked about Christmas. Everyone was talking about gifts. What gifts did you get your kids? What did you get your wife? Etc.
This conversation always makes me a little nervous, because I know they’re going to ask me. Which they did. My response was this: I have stopped shopping for gifts for my family and friends. Rich and I don’t really exchange gifts. I don’t put up a Christmas tree. No lights, no Christmas cards. Sorry. “Why?” they ask? Answering the part about the gifts I say, “I don’t want anything. I have no desire for anything special on Christmas day. Mostly, I just want stuff like warm socks.” Aghast; they were. DON’T WANT ANYTHING? Well, no, not really, not anything I can actually afford. I mean I’d like a skid loader and a Jacuzzi but that’s out of range this Christmas and probably for many to come.
So suddenly one day I realized I did want something and shouted at Rich, “I got it! A pasta maker.” ( customer told us how good pasta was with our eggs, but we'd never tried it.) Me wanting something meant Rich would get something and I knew what it was. Something he would have bought anyway, but so what, I could get it as a gift.
Later that day Rich searched Amazon and other sites for the right pasta maker, an Atlas brand, hand crank, made in Italy. Found, bought, to be delivered on Christmas Eve.
I searched REI for the best rated headlamp known to mankind so Rich could see what he’s doing at night when checking on the animals. I bought it. It arrived while I was away and he apparently tore the box open and used it that night so there wasn’t much excitement there.
Then we got really crazy with Christmas and two days before, we drove to the Whole Foods in Madison and filled up a cart. Coffee, cheese (not Wisconsin Munster I might add) Carrots, Chips, Catsup without high fructose corn syrup. It was like we were horse traders in a turn of the century open market. I was really scared when we got to the check out counter because I am not used to grocery bills. It was 100 bucks, and that included 5 lbs of coffee so I guess that wasn’t such a huge splurge.
Then today we got real kooky with the Christmas thing and decided to buy ourselves a pressure canner. So we could can meat. Oh, not really meat just soup stocks, but you can use it to can meat. Eeww. Off to WalMart because as I said when we were pulling in, “I hate Farm and Fleet more than WalMart so let’s start there.” No go, but there were mobs of people spending gift cards on useless crap so we had to leave. We got a pressure canner at Farm and Fleet and headed home.
So that is Christmas on the farm. The hens have doubled the amount of eggs they’re laying. The sheep are very pudgey like babies are gonna come in February. For the first time since April, there are no eating chickens on the farm. All in all – a good Christmas! Pretty much a stuff-free one.
This conversation always makes me a little nervous, because I know they’re going to ask me. Which they did. My response was this: I have stopped shopping for gifts for my family and friends. Rich and I don’t really exchange gifts. I don’t put up a Christmas tree. No lights, no Christmas cards. Sorry. “Why?” they ask? Answering the part about the gifts I say, “I don’t want anything. I have no desire for anything special on Christmas day. Mostly, I just want stuff like warm socks.” Aghast; they were. DON’T WANT ANYTHING? Well, no, not really, not anything I can actually afford. I mean I’d like a skid loader and a Jacuzzi but that’s out of range this Christmas and probably for many to come.
So suddenly one day I realized I did want something and shouted at Rich, “I got it! A pasta maker.” ( customer told us how good pasta was with our eggs, but we'd never tried it.) Me wanting something meant Rich would get something and I knew what it was. Something he would have bought anyway, but so what, I could get it as a gift.
Later that day Rich searched Amazon and other sites for the right pasta maker, an Atlas brand, hand crank, made in Italy. Found, bought, to be delivered on Christmas Eve.
I searched REI for the best rated headlamp known to mankind so Rich could see what he’s doing at night when checking on the animals. I bought it. It arrived while I was away and he apparently tore the box open and used it that night so there wasn’t much excitement there.
Then we got really crazy with Christmas and two days before, we drove to the Whole Foods in Madison and filled up a cart. Coffee, cheese (not Wisconsin Munster I might add) Carrots, Chips, Catsup without high fructose corn syrup. It was like we were horse traders in a turn of the century open market. I was really scared when we got to the check out counter because I am not used to grocery bills. It was 100 bucks, and that included 5 lbs of coffee so I guess that wasn’t such a huge splurge.
Then today we got real kooky with the Christmas thing and decided to buy ourselves a pressure canner. So we could can meat. Oh, not really meat just soup stocks, but you can use it to can meat. Eeww. Off to WalMart because as I said when we were pulling in, “I hate Farm and Fleet more than WalMart so let’s start there.” No go, but there were mobs of people spending gift cards on useless crap so we had to leave. We got a pressure canner at Farm and Fleet and headed home.
So that is Christmas on the farm. The hens have doubled the amount of eggs they’re laying. The sheep are very pudgey like babies are gonna come in February. For the first time since April, there are no eating chickens on the farm. All in all – a good Christmas! Pretty much a stuff-free one.
