rivettingKateTaylor

As my kids rush around their aunty’s living room full of what Santa brought them this year, many memories come flooding back of what makes Christmas memories stick.

It’s not the latest gizmos that you remember 30 years later (although the movie star barbie (still in my possession) and the white and blue wooden tennis racquet do stand out), but the complete excitement; cherries. Macintosh’s toffees and balloons in the Santa sack (pillow case!), the eating of chocolate at 7am and stirring Mum’s Christmas pudding.

We had a tradition of the Christmas pudding not being the brandy soaked, made-10-days-in-advance Christmas pudding, but one stirred on Christmas morning by everyone who was going to be partaking in it at dinner time. Sixpences saved religiously through the year were individually dropped into the bowl by each stirrer – making a fervent wish for whatever was on their wanted list that year. It has to be sixpences, not five cent pieces, because they’re silver and don’t tarnish in the mixture. It also can’t be threepence, which are too small and likely to choke small children and grandparents!

I remember one year after a particularly good Christmas Eve party somewhere, Sister #2 and I had to lift our whisky-trodden heads from our pillows to have our turn – Mum had waited as long as she could to come into the room (obviously this is a few years down the track from the barbie and the tennis racquet!)

Nowdays, it’s Mum’s kahlua that makes us all sparkle on Christmas Eve. And this year, we had the addition of Brother-in-law Richard’s baileys (Dick’s Cream it’s called at duckshooting lol).

One memory from this year will be of the police variety, but fortunately not of the negative type.  We were sitting around the table telling tall stories when the phone rang. “Get the boys to the neighbours quick – he’s got poachers bailed up in the corner of the back paddock.”

I’ve never seen men move so fast! They were out the door and into the ute and up to the road before you could blink. We were left sitting wondering if they’d come back (well, that was me – having covered so many news stories over the years, I knew what could go wrong and so often does).

After being held at gun point, two police cars rushed in from Gore and took the two men away. What a story! Well, that’s what we told the kids  this morning anyway 🙂

So this year, here we are in Tapanui. My family from Hawke’s Bay complete with mother-in-law from Gisborne, Sister #3 and her family from Mosgiel, my mum and her husband and the hosts, Sister #2 and her family. Sister #1 is coming down for a family wedding (Sister #3) on Monday so we’ll all be together then. It takes too many chairs to have us together on Christmas Day now!

In case you hadn’t realised, I am Sister #4. The youngest of four girls. The Rivett girls. Legend.