HODGEPODGE DECEMBER 17

1. What's something about Christmas that most people like, but you don't? Elaborate.

This year we will celebrate a Corona Christmas, that means the two of us probably with our computers on the table and looking on the screens in Amsterdam where Son, Grandson and DIL will show us their tree, the gifts and what they had prepared for supper ! I hope that will be the first and last time in my life, or maybe I will get used to it.
 

2. Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if y

While most of the people in the world open their Christmas gifts on Christmas day, in Germany they open the gifts on Christmas Eve usually before a nice Christmas supper. Before we open the gifts we sang (at least it was like that in my childhood) Silent Night or another Christmas Carol. 

Twice in my life I celebrated like the rest of the world, on Christmas morning ! It was awful first I am not a morning person and then sitting around in pajamas or bathrobes, with a cup of coffee I had to prepare myself, because the others waited for breakfastt this put me always in a bad mood and I avoided to think about all the Christmas Eve as a child, a young wife, a mother and as grandmother. My son celebrated once at Christmas morning and I found it a catastrophe. Grandson had got a kitchen to be assembled, the two men tried to put it together, the little one wanted to play and cried and we women were hanging around !

2.Tell us about one cherished tradition from your childhood and if you'll make it happen this year?

I would have liked to do it since I became a mother, but living in Belgium it was impossible. In some regions of Germany there is no Father Christmas but it is the baby Christ (little Jesus) who brings the gifts on Christmas Eve. I had to stay outside the room and to wait until a little bell rang, then the door went open and I ran inside immediately to the open window and looked outside to see the little Jesus flying away ! Unfortunately I always was too late and have never seen him ! 

 But in Belgium it's Father Christmas and I couldn't maintain a use which was not existing here. Also because of the school, the shops etc. Poor little boy would have been completely confused ! 

3. In 1941 FDR declared December 15th Bill of Rights Day. Citizens were encouraged to fly the flag and gather for prayers and other ceremonies as appropriate. Did you know this? Will you fly a flag? Can you name all the rights and protections guaranteed in the first ten amendments of the US Constitution? Of the ten, which two do you value most? If you need a list you'll find one here. 

I didn't know that FDR meant F. Roosevelt, therefore I had to google. Maybe a few here would fly flags for an important person and maybe hold a mass but certainly not gather for prayers. The US Constitution I don't know, I am happy with ours, freedom and human rights are respected and death penality forbidden. 

4. Do you know someone named Bill? Tell us something about him? Is there a famous 'Bill' you'd like to meet? 

The only Bill I know is from the cartoons Boule and Bill which are very famous in France and Belgium. As Bill is an abreviation of William which would be Guillaume in French, the abreviation is "Guy". The only Guy I knew, was the husband of a collegue, nothing special to report except that he liked a slice of bread with Gorgonzola cheese and chocolate sauce !

5. A step in the right direction, on the right track, bragging rights, be in the right place at the right time, get off on the right foot, right as rain, right side up, give your right arm for, have one's heart in the right place...choose a 'right' that applies to your life in some way in recent days and tell us how it's so. 

I  think I did a step in the right direction. The idea came slowly into my mind when Mr. G. fell out of his bed and broke his hip. The hip healed well but he had to learn to walk again correctly and sometimes had balance troubles. In our house was only one staircase leading to the basement and garage and that was one too much. The garden which was rather small suddenly seemed to me like an enormous park with shrubs all around, and a lot of work to do. One day I talked with a girl from our painting class and she told me that she had sold her house and moved into an apartment and that she is very happy now. She has no worries with tax declarions, insurances, reparations, gardeners, etc etc, once a month she pays a rent and everything is done by the owner. I talked to Mr. G. first he was reluctant, he is a man who loves his habits and routine,  while I am the opposite. 

But the good sense won and  we moved. And now looking back I think I did a step in the right direction because now, we are both very happy in our new home.