Oh, Mare
All those things we have collected over the years, but it comes to the point when we have to start getting rid of them, otherwise our children will have the job. I'm not a hoarder, but I just can't bring myself to let my mother's piano go. I play a little myself, but she would play often and accompany choirs. When we were little she would play after we had gone to bed and we would call down requests and then fall asleep with the sound of the piano lulling us to sleep. Who wants a piano these days? Keyboards are so much easier and can be moved around, as they are so light.
Small ornaments and silver items, nice table linen and so on. I don't think our children will want them. Even our Victorian and Edwardian furniture is not to their taste and probably wouldn't fetch much at auction. My son likes classic modern (Charles Eames chair, etc.) and my daughter goes for Scandinavian modern. We don't have any of either.
Gloomy day today, but tomorrow is the church Christmas Fair (or should I say Fayre?) and there will be lots of handmade items for stocking fillers, also hampers to be won with the Grand Raffle. A regular bun fight! Soup and a scone will be served at lunch time.
I think it's time to put our Christmas decorations up. We have brought them down from the attic, so now we must get down to the job, but not until I have had a good clean round. Not much chance to do that once the decorations and cards are up. Brass and copper things need a good polish, too, to reflect the light. There should be plenty of berried twigs and branches around this year, if the birds haven't eaten them yet, however we have not seen many birds in our garden this winter. They are usually clustering round the bird table, but we wonder if a number of prowling cats who appear in the garden sometimes are responsible for the lack of birds.
Just thinking back to my childhood again (sorry) when we had a rather bald small imitation Christmas tree to which we attached little candles. These were lit by my father every night and had to be blown out if no one was in the room. Christmas was always spent at our grandparents' seaside bungalow with Christmas Dinner at my aunt's, the highly polished table beautifully set with gleaming silver and lace table mats, sparkling glass and delicate china. There were table presents, too, a lacy monogrammed handkerchief for me one time, which I still have and rarely use, as it is too delicate for everyday use. I had it as my "something old" at my wedding.
