Christmas 2007

Another Christmas has come and gone and I hope everyone had a nice time. For me, it was one of the most enjoyable Christmas’s I’ve had in recent years. This year, I had the unusual experience of enjoying Christmas on the double. On Sunday 23, I had Christmas dinner with my eldest son and his family. This arrangement came about to facilitate my son having Christmas dinner with his children who would not be with him on Christmas Day.

We were joined by the children’s only other surviving grandparent - their grandmother, Alice. It was a marvellous day. The dinner was prepared by my granddaughter Mari. In truth, all the family gave a hand in the preparation but Mari was the main architect. And, what a terrific job she did. My other granddaughter Deirdre added her own touch of excellence to the meal by preparing the dessert, which was a tasty dish consisting of stewed apple with fruit stuffing.

All Hands On Deck, Deirdre, Mari, John, Michael, Patrick

On Christmas Day, I had dinner at my daughter’s house. Added to the pleasure of this was that I got to meet another one of my granddaughters who was back home for the holiday from her job in Germany.

Granddaughter Emer

All in all, it was a very nice Christmas, but today was tinged with a little sadness because this evening some of the grandchildren returned to their various work locations - two of them to Dublin and one to Germany. Granddaughter Mari, the architect of the first of our Christmas dinners, is now in Canada. Still, it was a nice day. All the family gathered for 9am Mass this morning, after which, we had breakfast at my son’s house before saying our goodbyes.
It’s now Sunday night and I am ensconced in my newly decorated sitting room reflecting on a very happy Christmas and looking forward to dinner on New Year’s Day at my daughter’s house. Did I tell you I am blessed with a great family?

Nenagh Christmas Lights

Interestingly, Judy and I had a conversation this day about what constitutes success in life. Is it arriving at a time in your life with a large amount of wealth? Our discussion ranged around a lot of things that we could consider success. I offered the opinion that if wealth was the only criteria, then, alas, I, for one, haven’t had much success in life. On the other hand, I thought that parents bringing up a devoted family and them, in turn, bringing up a family that is a credit to all must surely be one of the greatest measurements of success.

Another Nenagh Street Scene

The Sign Says, Merry Christmas Fom Nenagh

I would like to wish my readers a very Happy New Year.

House Improvements

Those last few weeks since arriving home from America, and in between the more important work of getting some posts done, I have been carrying out modifications and, what I hope are improvements to the house. Where will it end? I don’t know. Hopefully, this present spate of work will be the end, but then I have been known to make that observation before.

I have carried out a lot of work (too numerous and boring to mention) to the house since I bought it a year ago last July. I don’t know why I’m doing this – the house was in perfect condition when I bought it - apart from a few small jobs that really needed attention.

To date, I have put down new floor covering in the kitchen. It’s a pretty large kitchen and I have carpeted half of it to turn it into a nice dining area. The cooking area, I have re floored with wood-effect vinyl.

I am now on my third suite of sitting room furniture. There was a nice suite in the house when I arrived here and as a consequence of my brilliant bargaining skills, I got the vendor to include it in the price of the house. Lucky me!! Lucky him!! I soon discovered that all I had done was saved him the cost of moving it to the rubbish tip. Yes, it looked nice ok but I soon discovered that appearances can be deceiving. While it certainly looked nice and indeed, the armchairs were quite comfortable, I soon noticed that the settee was anything but. I acquired this piece of knowledge by noticing that anyone who sat on it seemed, after a short space of time, to have difficulty disguising their discomfort. I think of Judy, especially, who used to sit on it with her computer when she and Tom were here last year. I’m sorry Judy for your discomfort and, I know, I should have adhered to what you always say- “sit on it first before you buy it”. Really good advice, but then I’m sure you have heard the saying “never look a gift horse in the mouth”.

Anyway, I’m not going to go through the processes that have brought me to acquire the suite I have now. It’s beautiful brown leather and fits the room perfectly. It’s expensive but it hasn’t cost me any more than if I bought it the first day because I have acquired it by a method of “trading up” with the same furniture supplier that I have known for some time. In fact, when I did the maths before I bought it, I discovered that after all the trading I am well ahead. And I sat on all the chairs too to ensure their comfort before I had it installed. Thank you Judy for that sound bit of advice (she made me write that).

So, now the furniture is installed and all seems well. One problem!! Now the carpet doesn’t look right, nor do the window curtains. I never particularly liked either of those but I had decided I could live with them but, the installation of the furniture has changed all that. There is only one thing for it now. A complete re design is the order of the day. This is where I recruit some help and who better than my good friend Judy. So with the aid of modern technology, to communicate between Minnesota and Nenagh, we embarked on the plan to give my room a complete makeover.

Out goes the carpet and curtains. My own carefully thought-out ideas for the refurbishment of the room are dismissed politely but firmly. I am now in the hands of a power greater than myself. Pictures of different carpet colours and textures are transmitted across the lines and eventually we choose a nice beige carpet with brown interwoven flecks. This I was reliably told would pick up the colour of the seats. Who am I to argue?

Another family friend, who is of a similar mindset to Judy when it comes to decorating, helped me choose and hang the curtains. They look great!!

Well, the job is now finished and I’m quite pleased with the result. My sincere thanks to Judy and Monica for all your help and expertise.

Oh, I nearly forgot. My Christmas decorations!! Yes, in the misdt of all the decorating, I managed to get my Christmas decorating done. My “giant” Christmas tree is now shining brightly in the window and is a beacon to all who pass the way.

Merry Christmas everyone.

View of front window showing my newly acquired curtains

My favourite addition to my room, picture of Derek holding my hand as we go to collect the mail during my last visit to Minnesota.