The Joy of Happiness

 

Happiness is a personal choice.

Have you ever stopped to think what a simple pleasure Happiness is?  It seems to me that it is so easy to fall into the trap of saying “I will be happy when ….,“  instead of appreciating the moment right now and taking joy in it.

Even when things look bad or when one is struck down with illness, there are still moments in life when we can choose to feel happiness.

A decision to find happiness and gratitude for at least one thing every day, along with a smile on the face, can help alleviate even the worst of personal suffering.  It doesn’t remove the problem, or make a situation any better, but it certainly makes things easier to endure when you cultivate a happy and thankful mindset.

The world we live in is a beautiful place.  Yes, awful things happen all the time, but that is not an excuse for us to stop seeing the beauty in our lives.

A baby or small child, sweet in all their innocence.  The chirping of birds, or the glow of a pretty sunset.  Patting a purring cat, painting your fingernails, the smile of a friend, the sound of rain on a tin roof, the scent of an unobtrusive flower – all these and so much else can bring happiness into our life if we allow it.

The Bible says “Seek and you shall find.”  It was speaking about our relationship with God, but the principle behind it remains valid when we consider choosing to be happy.  Seek out the joyful parts of your life and let them put a smile on your face.

May you blessed with a Happy Christmas this 2023, as you celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour 😊

Margaret.

 

Merry Christmas

 

It is Christmas Eve here now.  We have been watching ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy this afternoon – a bit of a tradition with Son, who also likes to watch ‘The Lord of the Rings’ on Christmas Day.  He may not have time tomorrow, as we are all going to be together here for the first time in years (so looking forward to it).

Wishing all my readers and blogland friends a very Merry Christmas. 

Stay safe and be happy 😊

Margaret.

 

Christmas at Woodlands

 

Just out of Hamilton is a small village called Gordonton, and just around the corner from there can be found the Woodlands Estate homestead.

Yesterday, a sister-and-law and myself headed out here to see their Christmas display.  I didn’t think it was quite as lavish as I remember seeing it several years ago, but we enjoyed ourselves wandering around the different rooms and looking at everything.

There were several Christmas trees of different sizes dotted throughout the various rooms.

The homestead was built in the 1870s and comes complete with a cellar and an indoor bathroom (not common in houses then).

I loved visiting the nursery, although the slanted ceiling meant I had to bend my head a couple of times (and I am definitely not a tall person!).

I’m sure, back in the day, this well-to-do family would have had much fun as they celebrated Christmas with all the trimmings.

The kitchen area had some model food on display.  I thought this cooked goose was rather cute (or is it a turkey?).

It was a lovely way to spend a morning and great to be able to catch up with this one of my sisters-in-law before Christmas.

Only ten days left to the Big Day, so I hope all your activities are going according to plan.

Margaret 😊

Postscript:  my apologies if I have created a misunderstanding with my post here.  It is one of those cases of different usage of language.  My daughter tells me toilets are often referred to in America as bathrooms, whereas we normally refer to them as a bathroom (containing shower and/or bath) and a toilet (or loo).  This house had a separate room with a bath (instead of just a bedroom wash basin), but the toilet was still outdoors.

Celebrating Christmas

 

It is now Boxing Day here and the day has dawned warm and sunny again. 

We had a lovely Christmas Day yesterday – quiet and peaceful and very relaxed.  The afternoon was spent sitting around talking and drinking lots of water as the temperatures climbed into the low 30s (Celsius).

Lunch was our main celebration.  As was befitting for a mid-summer meal, we had cold meat and lots of salads and finished off with a pavlova.

On the table we had ham and (moving clockwise) coleslaw, pickled onions, brie cheese, tomatoes, rice salad, lettuce and cucumber salad, green grapes, salad dressing, savoury eggs, beetroot, potato salad, and asparagus.  The centrepiece was the pavlova – a purchased one this year and not my usual homemade one.

For our beverage we chose Bunderberg Lemon Lime & Bitters, a slightly bitter very refreshing fizzy drink that suited the weather we were experiencing.

With a fair amount of food remaining, and temperatures forecast to reach the late 20s, today looks like it will be a good day to do as little as possible!

Have a happy day 😊

Margaret.

Merry Christmas

 

Here it is, Christmas Eve 2021.  It has been quite a year, one way and another.

I am glad I took a bit of a break from blogging.  I pulled back from other computer things at the same time, and have quite enjoyed my three weeks off-screen (well, mostly off-screen!).

Celebrating Christmas in 1956

It has been quite a busy time, sorting through old boxes and meeting up with old friends.  This last week Son and I put up our Christmas decorations, along with a tiny tree.

Decorated bookshelf, 2021

The Christmas Cake was made and iced.  I don’t normally ice fruit cake (it gets too sweet) but we had some bought packet icing (both royal icing and white icing) sitting in the cupboard from two years ago.  It was way past its expiry date (September 2020!) but there is nothing wrong with it at all so it got used.

No fancy decorations on the cake though.  I have been known to sometimes go to some effort to decorate the cake, but this year it will be eaten and enjoyed without anything fancy being added.

One very ordinary Christmas cake

My wish is that you all have happy times together with your families over this holiday season. 

Stay safe and be happy 😊

Margaret xx

Christmas Dinner

 

Christmas came early to our little household. 

Tomorrow, Christmas Day, I will be joining my brother and his wife for lunch, son will be sleeping after working a night shift, and granddaughter is going tonight to stay with her mother.

So last night we had a Special Dinner for the three of us.

Our little Christmas tree

We had Scotch Fillet steak (a real treat) with mashed potato, steamed carrots and broccoli, and cheese sauce.

Steak and Veggies for Christmas Dinner

Dessert was a mini-pavlova filled with cream and served with canned boysenberries.  Very decadent!

Our delicious dessert

I hope all of you, my dear blogland friends, have a very safe and joyous Christmas/holiday season 😊

Margaret xx

Christmas Shopping - Done!

 

When I woke up this morning I really had no intention of going out to the shops, but I changed my mind while eating breakfast.  A woman is allowed to do that!

I visited one department store with the idea of having a look at what was available for Christmas presents for my grandchildren, and ended up buying almost everything I wanted.  A visit to the supermarket and I have completed my shopping, except for wrapping paper.

This beautiful tree was erected in downtown Flagstaff, AZ, for Xmas 2018

I purchased nothing very expensive, just a few little things that hopefully will add joy to the day and not pander to avarice (it saddens me that so many folk seem to place more importance on getting than giving).

I gave up buying expensive presents many many years ago (in fact, for several years I never even observed Christmas), and still feel that too much emphasis is put on the commercial side of what is really meant to be a religious festival.

I also bought a small artificial Christmas tree for my room and will decorate that in the next few weeks. 

Have a happy day 😊

Margaret.

Back Again

I hope you all had a most enjoyable Christmas.  I certainly did J

I joined one of my brothers and his wife for lunch that day, along with their daughter and children.  I loved it when the youngest one greeted me with a “welcome to the party – the Christmas party!”

For my contribution to lunch I took a platter of savoury eggs with a centre of finely shredded lettuce and halved cherry tomatoes, garnished with parsley and decorated with a marigold flower head.

Son made himself sandwiches for his lunch.  He worked all day, as well as Boxing Day, and grand-daughter is spending the week with her mother.

Boxing Day was spent quietly at home.   Friday I braved the supermarket and it was still busy, busy, busy.  I guess it is the time of year where food takes centre-stage in people’s lives.  The supermarket was only closed for one day but it would be easy to believe they had been shut for a week!

Our weather has been rather pleasant, except for a strong wind the last two days.  It has been warm and dry during the day, and the night temperatures have still been dropping low enough that sleep is still possible. 

We have been having some spectacular sunsets from the smoke in our atmosphere from the terrible bush fires in Australia.

Only a couple of days now until we enter a new decade.  When I was at Primary School in the 1960s our teacher told us that many of us would no doubt live to see in the new millennium – and now here we are twenty years after it!  Time surely does go by.

Margaret.

Christmas 2019

A big Merry Christmas to everyone!

I hope you all have a great day filled with much joy and happiness.

Stay safe,

Margaret

A Pleasant Saturday

Today has mostly been sunny with a few fluffy clouds around and a little bit of breeze.  I spent the morning writing emails and doing the laundry, which was dry within a couple of hours.

After lunch I drove grand-daughter and a friend across the city to the Waterworld swimming pool complex, where I left them to enjoy a couple of hours swimming and hydrosliding while I visited the supermarket for a few forgotten items (just like all the other people!  I broke my own rule on avoiding shops, but at least everyone seemed to be in a happy mood).

The supermarket foyer was welcoming with a Christmas tree on display.

As I still had a while to wait for the girls, I found a shady street to park in and settled down to a little snooze.  The road I chose was the back road to the racecourse, so I figured there would not be much traffic on it.  Wrong!  There was a race meeting this afternoon and quite a lot of taxis and horse trucks were going up and down the road.  So, no snooze but it was interesting watching the traffic.

The girls enjoyed their time swimming, and I enjoyed my cup of tea when I returned home.  I purchased a box of Christmas fruit mince tarts, so had a couple with my cuppa.  Very nice but also very rich – even though they are small, I think one would have been more than enough.

All in all, it has been a rather pleasant day.

Margaret.

It's That Time Of Year Again

In New Zealand, being summer, Christmas is not only a time of festivities but also a time when most of the country goes on holiday.  Many businesses close completely for two weeks, and schools shut for six weeks before they begin again in February.

It is the time of year when our coastal populations swell to capacity, as folk from all walks of life head to their favourite beach destinations.  Camp grounds will fill to overflowing and holiday homes that have stood empty for most of the year will be humming with activity.

Whangamata Beach (1971)

The mass exodus from the cities is expected to begin this evening as people finish work for the week.  It will reach its crescendo on Boxing Day, as those who chose to celebrate Christmas at home head off on holiday.

It is my belief that this combination of Christmas and Holidays is why things become so totally crazy at this time of year.  Not only is there presents and Christmas catering to cope with, but preparations must be made to stock up on food to take away and purchase all those little things needed for a good holiday.

Camping at Waikawau Bay (1997)

In this week leading up to Christmas, I do my best to avoid the shops.  The roads are busier than at any other time of the year, the malls are packed with shoppers, it is near impossible to park the car anywhere, and everywhere it is push-and-shove and rush, rush, rush.

Retailers love it! 

Margaret.

Pottering

The rain we were promised this morning never eventuated so after breakfast it was out into the garden to do some watering.  I usually water in the evening, but didn’t last night because of the rain that was meant to arrive.

It was a bit of a potter-around day, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that but nothing that important.  I was telling one of my sons about disposing of more books, and made the comment that I was trying to only keep those that “spoke” to me.  His reply:  “You might need to stand there for a while, then, and see which ones go quiet!”

With Christmas fast approaching I thought perhaps I should put up some trimmings, and decorated my bedroom with a few little baubles.  Grand-daughter bought a small artificial tree and has decorated it with a string of lights and a few ornaments.  It looks very pretty.

Hope your weekend is going well,
Margaret