Monday, January 02, 2006

Christmas Memories - Lisa M

Rules: '..post a comment here on my blog with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL CHRISTMAS MEMORY of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE.'

You can find all 28 memories here.
It was an idea I picked up from Oldoldlady.

And then I made it bigger!

At my Crazie Christmas Party the other night, without telling them what it was for, I had each adult give me a number between 1 and 28.
So there are 6 memories!

and so to number 28.....the last one chosen by my Crazies

Lisa M said...
We've known one another for years, so this is an old memory. We were having a sleep over party the week before Christmas at your house, we stayed up really late talking and giggling, we got hungry and wanted to go eat raw hot dogs from the fridge.

We were big enough to get our own food, but not big enough to cook it. On our way past the tree, and giddy with raw hot dog, jam and egg nog, we decided to open all of the Christmas presents early.
We tried to rewrap them, and then when our parents asked us what happened to the presents, we blamed Santa for the mess.

Ah - the joys of listeriosis..!

Lisa and I were - oh - only about ten. We were having a sleepover, us and four girlfriends. Mar was there, Wendy came, Margalit and Mar-see-ah. We were all fooling around with makeup and dressing up. It must have been about 11pm and we decided we were hungry.
'Let's raid the fridge!' yelled Lisa.
'Good plan,' said Mar, leaping out of her sleeping bag.
'shh, you'll wake the house,' said Wendy, barely looking up from her copy of The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe.
'I'm in' said Mar-see-ah, tying the belt on her dressing gown. I was envious of her outfit, dressing gown, pyjamas and slippers all in the most gorgeous pink colour.
I led the way downstairs and Margalit brought up the rear. She'd been around my family long enough to know this was a really bad idea. She was peering nervously over her shoulder for any sign of my rather disfunctional family.

The kitchen was dark, so we felt our way to the fridge and opened the door. Boy, did we jump! We forgot there was a light in there! We didn't half feel foolish.
Anyway, we chowed down on some cold turkey, redcurrant jelly, eggnog. Lisa found some hotdogs.
'They're raw' complained Wendy, briefly looking up from her book.
'They're not,' Lisa said as I craned to look at the label. 'They're just cold, I think. Anyway, doesn't matter - they won't kill us!'
So we made a decent hole in the raw hotdogs. Then we raided the cookie jar and the cake tins, to take some emergency rations upstairs.

We were half way across the dark lounge when I saw the tree, all prettily lit with coloured lights. I turned to the girls.
'Christmas early, girls?' I asked, half joking.
Mar and Mar-see-ah slid across the floor and began peering at the presents. Margalit and Wendy followed. Even the temptation of presents couldn't drag Wendy away from Narnia. Lisa and I started shaking presents.
'This is for you,' I said, passing the present to Mar. 'From Aginoth, that boy down the road.'
Wendy briefly put down her book as she was presented with a large box and said 'It's from our babysitter, that one we call The Old Old Lady.'
Mar-see-ah pounced on a gift in pretty pink wrapping. 'It's for me,' she squealed and read the label 'Mar-see-ah, from SID. Oh yeah, he's that funny Irish guy at the corner shop!'
'This one's mine,' Lisa picked up a small gift. 'It's says Happy Christmas! From Carmi.'
Margalit quietly picked up a box with her name on it. 'It's from Uisce,' she said 'I wonder who that is?'
I found one with my name on and smiled secretly as I peeked inside a small box.
Mar got a new ski hat, all purple and furry - she thought it fantastic.

Lisa got a book on art in photography.

Mar-see-ah unwrapped her gift too find a pink purse with her initials on it.

Wendy got a model Narnia, complete with bag of 'snow'.

Margalit got a joke book with a health warning in the front page.

We heard noises and voices from upstairs, so we hastily re-wrapped our gifts and put them back under the tree. We stumbled quietly upstairs and fell into bed.
Several hours and many, many visits to the bathroom later, morning broke.

'Who's been fooling around with the presents?' yelled my dad, when he saw the mess. Us six girls looked sheepish, all except Wendy who had got to the Chapter where Aslan is sacrificed and couldn't tear herself away.
'Santa?' suggested Lisa. We all choked back our giggles.
'Who ate all this food?' my mum's voice came in from the kitchen. 'And don't say Santa, Lisa Anne!!'
My dad marched us into the kitchen and sat us all at the table.
What with Uncle Frank, burning chimneys and missing food - this family doesn't do Christmas very well. Is the food why you were all puking through the night?'
We nodded solemnly and little Mar-see-ah burst into tears.
'No tears, love,' said my dad. 'I'm a little annoyed but not angry. Now, let's open these presents properly while mum tries to find some food you might have missed - although you six may not actually be that hungry!'

I sat to one side as everyone ripped open their presents. The girls oohed and aahed properly over their lovely gifts and my dad came over to see me.
'What's your gift, cq?' he asked gently.
I held out the small box. He opened it and peered inside, then looked into my eyes with soft eyes.
'You deserve it, sweetie.'

No one knows where the gift came from, no one claimed it. It just 'appeared' under our tree. And what was in my box? A list of names. A long list of names. In fact, you can see it to this day - just over to your right now.

Blogbuddies! What a wonderful gift!

With Christmas over for another year, I want to thank everyone for making my first Blog Christmas a lovely affair, even with Hurricane Charlie to contend with.

Here's to 2006!

cq

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good times. I think I still have that book. :)

WendyWings said...

I am all verklempt now. That was great blog buddy ;)

OldLady Of The Hills said...

That was hilarious and perfect, CQ...But..which of those presents mentioned came from your babysitter..was it the Narnia Living Snow Forest???
This last one (Was this the last one??) was so great because you got in such great stuff about many of your bloogy boogers..OOOOPS I mean bloggers!!! Truly Inspired..the whole nine-yards!!!
You Are A Genius,My Dear!

Anonymous said...

Simply wonderful, cq dear! I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed your story (and my purple furry hat!) Thanks so much! Now I just have to aks Wendy if I can borrow that book, I HAVE to read it, first thing coming back.

Marcia said...

what a fabulous story!!

Jean-Luc Picard said...

What was an excellent story, CQ!

We all like our blogbuddies!

WendyWings said...

I love the picture !!
Mwah Mwah air kisses all round !

Unknown said...

Aw, I've got chills running down my spine. What a wonderful story, and the pictures are so great, but how come MAR got that cool hat? I wanted the hat! It's so not fair (she says in a whiney voice). She always gets the best presents.

You outdid yourself. I just LOVE this story. And you're so right, nothing like blogging buddies to warm the cockles of my heart.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Just came back to say....I think I'm losing my mind..("...Or am I losing my mind?....thank you mr. sondheim...)
Cause I wanted to so the pictures once again, having forgotten what they looked like..already!! "Oh Yes I'm losing my mind..."
...great stuff CQ...Much Much fun!!