A Grand Passion by Anne De Lisle

Author:Anne De Lisle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Published: 2007-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

CHRISTMAS, PUDDINGS AND FLAMES

ANDREW AND ANNABEL are both still overseas. Annabel is travelling Europe and working as a ‘granny nanny’ – a live-in home help to elderly patients or to people recovering from operations. Andrew is still teaching in Venice. We have five children for our first festive season.

With Benji’s help, Ian and I have scurried to finish one of the big bedrooms so that we can set up a kids’ dormitory. This is the only room in the house in which a philistine hand has painted over all the cedar joinery. Scraping so much paint off is too daunting so we repaint it all, including the mantelpiece and hearth surrounds, in a buttery creamy colour. The walls we do in ‘Blue Larkspur’, which is a soft lavender blue. It all looks very French and pretty and I finish it off with a little chandelier I’ve found on one of my treasure hunts. There is a queen-size bed and two singles in here; accommodation for four. It becomes known as the Blue Room, for obvious reasons.

It’s been a while since we’ve had extras to stay, with the chaos of our renovations reaching epic proportions. But with the Blue Room complete, we ease off the pace and focus on our rapidly approaching first Christmas.

We know that everyone’s going to feel a bit weird. We don’t expect our children to all become best mates just because Ian and I are together. The children have known each other slightly since childhood but are different ages and have vastly different interests. Ian’s son, David, is a keen sportsman and rugby fan. My sons, Robert and Andrew, would rather hang out at an art gallery or literary evening than sit through a rugby match. Come to think of it, they have never in all their short lives sat through a rugby match.

The girls have more in common. Certainly Georgie and Elizabeth are both needful of the Babies’ Room when they stay. Though this Christmas, Georgie shares the Blue Room with Dinie and David. Elizabeth gets the Babies’ Room and Robert, with his plethora of musical instruments, is happy on his own further along the corridor.

We discover both families follow a similar routine when it comes to important rituals such as present opening, and adult children on both sides still expect to receive stockings from Santa. It augurs well for an easy time.

We place the tree in a corner of the living room where it can be seen from the bottom of the staircase and all the way along the corridor, then cover it with the usual angels, stars and lights. A big old house like Baddow, with so much dark wooden panelling, has a distinctly English feel which might be at odds with its tropical setting, but seems very appropriate for Christmas. I only wish we could conjure up a bit of snow.

With so many people involved, the mound of presents under the tree is tall and teetering. Georgie’s present to me is CD-shaped. I have no trouble guessing it will be The Bangles.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.