Proclamation Day
In South Australia, we don’t have Boxing Day, we have Proclamation Day because South Australia was proclaimed as a state on the 26th of December. At least, that’s what I remember without Googling.
Today meant more food and more presents as we had a Christmas Lunch with A’s family. I had made a pavlova yesterday, before my back went. It was supposed to be a trial run, and eaten that day, but it didn’t get eaten and I didn’t have the energy to make another one. I wasn’t very impressed – using normal sugar gave it a bit of a gritty taste, I should have used caster sugar. We took along cream, strawberries, kiwifruit and chocolate to grate over the top to decorate. I also made these Christmas puddings from the Taste website. They looked very cute and there weren’t any left over!
It was great seeing A’s family, especially for Willow. She loved seeing her Nan, her great nanna, her uncles and aunties and her cousins. There was a bit of a problem when one of her cousins said to her ‘You’re a cousin!” in a less than pleasant tone. Willow, not understanding the concept of cousins, was most upset by this until I took her around to see all of her cousins, from the littlest one at 8 weeks old, to the oldest ones at 20+.
We drove home, exhausted. Tomorrow would be a busy day.
On Saturday, we had lunch at Stirling with a fantastic group of friends. I am so lucky to have these women in my life, they have had such a wonderful influence on me as a person and me as a mother. Willow and Dexter loved seeing their friends again. I laughed when the hosts oldest boy saw Willow, he launched himself at her for a hug.
En route to Stirling we stopped at Burnside Shopping Centre. Dexie had fallen asleep in the car, so I parked underground and A stayed with him. I had to buy some last minute presents for my family as we would be going down there straight from Stirling. I dragged Willow around the shops with me, the poor girl could see children with their faces painted and children holding balloons but we didn’t have time for either. I finally found 4 presents that I was reasonably happy with – I vow to be more organised next year!
The BBQ lunch was great – it was interesting to see the men sitting outside near the BBQ and the women sitting inside around the dining room table! It was cooler inside anyway!
All too soon it was over and we started down the free way to my home town. I wanted to just drive straight through, but my back didn’t think that was a good idea plus the children woke up, so we stopped halfway. I often feel bad about not going down to see my family more often – it’s not who is down there, it is who isn’t down there. We had booked a motel this time – it didn’t really seem fair to inflict the four of us on my poor grandparents. We got into town at about 8:30, quickly picked up the motel room key and popped around to see my grandparents. Willow was so excited to see them, she did not stop talking the whole time! Dexter brought a smile to their faces, which made the whole trip worth it. My Poppa has red hair like Dexie so it was lovely to see the two of them together.
We went back to the motel and unpacked our stuff. A set up the portacot, but he might as well not have bothered since Dexie spent the night in bed with us. Willow slept on a pullout single bed. We were woken up at about 6:30am by a flock of screeching galahs. Such an unmistakeable sign of being home.
Slowly we got ready, had breakfast at the motel restaurant and headed up the the cemetery to see my Dad and paternal grandparents. Willow was asking question after question about where we were going, but she didn’t really understand. She has been a bit obsessed with death recently, but of course a nearly 4 year old doesn’t understand it. I don’t think I really do.
I’m not really one to cry in public – not that a quiet country graveyard is really public – but it really hit me, being there with my family, how much Dad is missing out. And how much we are missing out by not having him around.
There was, as in most graveyards, a section for baby graves. Willow wanted to know why they were little compared to the others, so I explained that they were baby graves. Being into counting everything, she skipped along merrily ‘One baby grave, two baby grave, three baby graves!’ Tragicomical!
From there we went for a bit of a drive, showing Willow the houses I lived in, the house A lived in. It was sad to see my houses looking so different and run down, but things can’t stay the same.
Will write more later, need bed now!
