'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!'

Every day, each time of the year is what WE make of it.  Christmas can cause many sorts of stressors, but...why? There is no need for anything to be perfect at Christmas time OR any other part of the year because there is NO perfect.  Tinto and I have been over those thoughts for decades.

The BEST, absolute most divine fact about this particular Christmas was celebrating together in The Maxwell House.  This was our first Christmas in our home together since 2012.  That is HUGE.  Of course, we have celebrated Christmas jointly, overseas in England and Spain, but not in our own home.

Everything felt beautiful and as close to 'perfect' as it could ever be for US.  We went to little effort to develop and design the verandah as our Christmas sitting room.  Tiny, white lights spread across the wooden beams produced that glorious feeling of joy and contentment and created that warm, fuzzy feeling of happiness.  It does not take a huge effort to make a nice impact.  We assure you!

Friends and great mates gathered throughout the week and we remained in complete relaxation mode.

Tinto and I did not open gifts until tea time and we prepared Christmas dinner together.  Lovely.  I had found a Nigella Lawson recipe...then, discovered this very cheeky guy by the name of Tim, who boldly stated his recipe called for fewer ingredients than Nigella's and was not as fussy.  We got a laugh out of that and went with Tim's Christmas meal.  We breezed though the Christmas food preparations and enjoyed every sumptuous morsel.  I repeated the Brussels Sprouts from Thanksgiving because they were simply so tasty and (Ha!) irresistible.  Never thought I would type those words...

We thank our Kapunda mates for providing Christmas get togethers - always lovely to share this time with friends and a special 'shout out' to Peter for an outstanding Boxing Day.

Tinto received the grooviest shoes that were made in Portugal.  I have never seen a present suit his personality so perfectly.  He had a good chuckle and was in awe.  

Tinto snuck my engagement ring back to a jeweler and had it revamped - basically overhauled.  This poor ring was abused over the years of hard work at The Wheatsheaf Pub and had a good knock-around when I cared for my sweet Mother, too.  Tinto designed my ring beautifully and used tektite (or Australite) as the centre stone.  Tektite is amazing.  When a meteorite slams into the Earth, soil is shattered and catapulted into the Earth's atmosphere... falling back down to Earth in a completely different and lovely form - tektite.  Tinto found these gems while he was working in the outback - south of Marree...gathered only a few he liked, (apparently, they are hard to find), took them home and kept them for good use.  This ring is extremely special to me for many reasons.

He had one very brilliant diamond inserted on the side to represent one love.  I was amazed at his thoughtfulness and planning.  HE never ceases to astonish me with his love and support.  He is still, however, THE messiest, and MOST noisey man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Hope your Christmas season was filled with much joy.  Please let there be Peace on Earth in the coming year for everyone. 

Sending Christmas Love,
Cheers!
Tinto & Blanco of theroamingstevens - Roaming 'round our gorgeous region - MORE on that later!
😎😘❣️💕🎅💚💞🌲🌴💐

Sharing the joy in the Barossa Valley!
Contemplating Clare Valley...
Cheers, Dear Mate!
The Most Beautiful 'One and Only'!
OUR way of expressing 
an Australian Christmas...
Searching for a talented human being...
Try it.  We still do.
It ain't over 'til...
One of my favs featured 
at Seppeltsfield.
Hello Wonderful Person!
Love that face! 🙂
G'Day, Mate! 😘
Henry sending ALL the PEACE 
and LOVE he holds inside of that 
beautiful head of his!
Love THIS boy.
 Ring lovingly restored -
feeling grateful...
PS:  Please excuse any typos AND stay safe while you roam, especially during THIS time of the year.


  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HOTEL INDIGO ~ ADELAIDE, South Australia

Image
Hello, It has been a long time indeed since we've ROAMED properly.  This post, due to zero access to foreign travelling for fun, emotional or spiritual growth or curiosity, is basically for Australians! I truly get sick and tired - ANGRY and BEFUDDLED - at ignorant people who continue to state 'Adelaide is boring'.  If you think/believe Adelaide is boring...you BEST look in the mirror because it is quite evident:  YOU ARE BORING.  That's it in a nutshell. Tinto and I roamed into our beloved city in the middle of week, the 7th of April, for our 20th wedding anniversary.  We weren't looking for anything decadent...we simply wanted something away from our country abode where we've been working so frantically for the past few months. An interesting announcement popped up on my phone a few months back and it continued to do so.  As annoying as I find these pop-up advertisements, admittedly, when/if there is a story involved I'm interested in, I take the time to ...
Read more

Sculptures at Aileron Roadhouse in the Northern Territory

Image
Could not wait to share these pics with you.  THIS WAS ANOTHER VERY SPECIAL SPOT and I felt privileged to be there.  Tinto and I did not know anything about the sculptures, but I began digging and did a little research.  MIND-BOGGLING - MAGNIFICENT.  LARGER (in life) THAN YOU COULD IMAGINE!   Ted Egan calls himself a 'Bush man'.  He was born in Melbourne, but moved to the Northern Territory at age 16 and fell in love with the place.  Ted is a song-writer, singer, and has made 13 one hour documentary films titled 'This Land Australia'.  His son, Mark Egan, is the sculptor of these figures featured below and took the love his father had of the Northern Territory a step further by creating and sculpting these monumental figures representing Australia's First Peoples.  I was in awe. Tinto and I could not believe we had not been told about this spot before our trip!   Located on the Stuart Highway, north (135 kilometres) of Alice Springs...
Read more

Constance Gordon-Johnson 29.07.50 - 21.01.00

Image
Constance Gordon-Johnson, my sister and my only sibling, was a force to be reckoned with...from a VERY early age. Constance was hugely talented and winning art awards from the age of 12.  Plus, Constance was academically brilliant and was able to skip the 11th grade all together in high school. So, yes, it WAS very difficult living in her shadow, but as intimidating as she could be, I was always her secret admirer. Constance pushed everyone in her sphere to be a better person - a more intelligent person and she taught all around her to care about the environment, but...most importantly to take care of and protect every sort of animal that inhabits the earth.  In Constance's world animals were far more important than humans.  Constance was that kind of gal.  My Mom had a very old newspaper clipping from The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) that shows Constance with a pair of pliers getting a fish hook out of a duck's bill.  She was successful yet...
Read more