Merry Christmas
It’s Christmas Eve and the Yuletide messages are trundling in over WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and Email. Yassie and Nathan came yesterday, and we prepared the potato salad and even got the fish ready for the oven. It’s been freezing outside, and I wasn’t really noticing the weather the last couple of days. Lo and behold, it’s Christmas and the thermometer has gone up into the double digits!
The weather
I had the turkey on the balcony in the courtyard defrosting and put the fish and salad out there confident that everything is safe. This morning I’ve prepared the next two layers of the trifle and wonder whether it will be cold enough outside to properly set.
History
It’s been a welcome opportunity to reflect and share. I put on a YouTube playlist of recordings of Christmas concerts and our family Christmases over the years yesterday morning. Then I went to my mobile phone when Nathan and Yassie were helping me in the kitchen. It got to our wedding song, Together Forever, composed by Victor Royer, now known as Vegas Vic. I had put together a slide show of our photos which ran 12 minutes so the song had to repeat a few times. Nathan got out his phone and my Bluetooth box to get a more favourable soundtrack, not really appreciating the eighties spirit imbued in the wedding song. I mean four times over is also a bit of overkill, isn’t it? The track switched in time and my box didn’t want to play his songs. Sometimes the internet in our kitchen is not so great. We have a very big apartment, and the router is not really capable of reaching every corner. My phone often goes into data instead of Wi-Fi when I am just moving around the house. First world problem 
.
Gratitude
We have so much to be grateful for. Yesterday I got a Facebook message in Czech from a relative who was apparently using her daughter’s account to reach out to me. I have been thinking about my Mum and Dad lately.
Australia
My brother Eric sent me a message from Sydney – it is his first Christmas in Sydney and the first away from Melbourne in 25 years. My tribe Down Under met altogether in the house last year after Mum passed and everything is different this year. My friends here often ask me if I miss Australia and will I be going back? Good question. I always said it was the house that was my base and root, the coming home to, was 36 Holt Street. It is still on the market, but it was emptied out to sell and apparently the real estate market Down Under is still fairly tight.
Christmas in Vienna
Which makes me appreciate even more that we are all coming together here in Vienna. It’s the first year that we all actually live in the city. Now with partners it is not always possible to get all couples together, but I’m happy to say our boys will all be home for Christmas. Josef sent out some messages with our photo and both our names, as he usually does. I’m observing my typical overwhelm of wanting to do too much and resigning to “good enough”. This year I decided I will write my list of accomplishments and remind myself of what I’ve already accomplished. It was fun watching the videos of the kids in Linz and Waldviertel, going back a couple of decades. I have to marvel at Josef’s mother at eighty years old, bobbing down the slope with Christoph and Godwin.
Ideals
I am consoled as I watch the idyllic picture of our family singing and giving presents to each other. I remember back then it was everyone had a present for everyone. We were by no means financially rich, but I made a point of making it possible for every child to have a gift for everyone else in the family. It’s only been the last few years that we’ve graduated to Secret Santa, each focussing on one present which we all enjoy as we share, open and discuss together. So, now as I decide to post this blog as my Christmas mail, may I wish you all: Season’s Greetings, Merry Christmas, Peace to all men, women and children. Let us count our blessings. Let us reflect on all that’s good. Let us multiply the goodness.
Multiply goodness
I am so grateful. Please look for the positive. As we heard in our Toastmasters meeting this month, you will always find the negative, so be aware of your focus. I am learning to raise my frequency. I am getting fascinated by quantum physics and just amazed how I am just happening to get exposed to so much which just resonates and syncs with what I know and feel to be true and important. You know I am building Heavenly Parents Holy Community. And if you are reading this, then you are also already a part of it. So exciting! I’m looking forward to all we can do together! Stay tuned.
