MORROWS WORLD
MORROWS WORLD
DECEMBER 2000. Someone must have pressed the "fast forward" button on my life. How can it possibly be Christmas already? One early indication that the season has started is when we get the annual phone calls from people wanting to "borrow" a deer for their Christmas display! They find it hard to believe that our native red deer wont walk happily round the local shopping centre with a red blob on their nose. What they would like less is to know that this is our cull time and all those potential Rudolfs are actually on their way to being venison steaks.
I blame the fairy lights for the high rate of marriage breakdown over the Christmas period. In our case it is my feeling that a house cannot have too many twinkling lights to give that special seasonal atmosphere. Johnston wouldnt quite feel the same and views the annual wrestling with the stepladder and the Blu-tak as entirely my responsibility and is quite happy to sit and watch TV while I swing from the pelmet in danger of imminent death from a fall or electrocution.
The strain gets to my parents-in-law in a slightly different way. Nancy has had the same two sets of Christmas lights for 15 years and every year they sparkle into life with the first flick of the switch, much to her disappointment and Addies delight. Addie, who is by nature a generous man, has had a real block about splashing out on a new set of lights when there is absolutely nothing wrong with the old ones, despite the fact that everyone knows that the big crystal types are terribly out of fashion.
Now a golden rule is never to get involved in a dispute between partners, but I couldnt help myself coming in on Nancys side that it was indeed time for an update and with my encouragement she bought a new set. Her mistake was to ask Addie to help her put them on the tree! An hour later she rang our house to ask for a rescue team as the new loop system had completely defeated them both and she could no longer stick Addies constant rhyme of "I told you there was nothing wrong with the old ones".
Amy fancies herself as a bit of an interior designer so she went up to save the day and her grandparents 47-year-old marriage. Amid much hilarity, the three of them managed to "deck the tree" quite magnificently.
I heard a woman who was waiting on a miserable morning to see President Clinton remark that "Sure, were not worried about getting wet, were Irish, we thrive on rain." But not if you have converted to a New Zealand method of dairy farming. However, despite the daily deluge, the cows still seem to be reasonably content to be outside in December, certainly as happy as they ever were to be in the house.
The constant monitoring of the grass levels and moving the stock means that there is more work than you might imagine. However this is the third Christmas with no milking and there is no doubt it makes for a more relaxed atmosphere – even down to being able to choose what time we eat our Christmas dinner.
Twenty-one round the table this year – friends, in-laws, family of three generations, all organising each other as to where to sit, what to pass, who will say the annual Christmas prayer of thanks, who to pull a cracker with. It is a good day for our family, and those who are missing this year – most notably my mum – are in our stories and in our hearts as we have such fun together.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.
Lightening the situation: Amy helped grandparents, Nancy and
Addie Morrow sort out the troublesome Christmas illuminations.