Dreaming Of A White Christmas……..NOT!

Do you know how many years it has finally taken me to be comfortable with saying this? I would have to say a good 7. I never really had a white Christmas growing up in Louisiana but I eat white Christmas at Adam’s sister’s house when we go for Christmas celebrations.  I am pretty positive she will have a batch ready for us to take back home with us after our next visit which will be this weekend. Just encase you don’t know what White Christmas is, it is rice bubbles, glace cherries, and Copha mixed together sometimes with nuts if you like for texture. I know I am missing some other ingredients. It’s a lovely sweet treat. Oh Rice Bubbles is called Rice Krispies in the States because this cereal goes by other names. I never had this treat until I came to Australia.

Some people may think that what I am saying is a sacrilege. I know a majority of my readers are in the Northern Hemisphere and relish having a cold Christmas. Australia has a tendency to follow British tradition with a hot baked dinner but sometimes they do their own stuff. I love listening to Australian Christmas carols. I remember fondly my very first Christmas in Canberra with Adam’s family. I was so excited to be able to go swimming in the pool. I could never do that in the states it was too bloody cold. The pool wasn’t exactly warm but I was game to do it. It also helped I was tipsy too and determined to say I was in the pool on Christmas Day. Adam’s Dad got a great laugh when I came back in shivering and tipsy but ever so pleased with my dalliance in the pool. Adam refused after he put his toe in. He stood outside with me and listened to me while I splashed around. I didn’t stay in very long but I did boast to my sisters’ when I rang them on their Christmas day that I did swim on Christmas day.

This Christmas will be a quiet one. We are having our good friends the Jary’s come over for Christmas lunch. We’ll probably head down to the beach for the dogs to run on Mullaway beach. It’s suppose to be a very lovely day. It will be nice to be home for Christmas for a change. I have only had 3 Christmases in my own home since I moved to Australia. I am not complaining but there is just something special about being in your own house. 

I have never been one to really like cold weather. I know I was born in Alaska but we moved when I was 6 weeks old. I was then a southern raised lass. First two years were in San Antonio, Texas and then we moved to Leesville, Louisiana which I gladly call my hometown.  The majority of my life was in the South. Now I can really claim to be a Southern because I live in Australia which is in the Southern Hemisphere. All my seasons are opposite to what I was raised with and I can drive north to visit Adam’s sister but be reminded of Southwestern Louisiana where my dad grew up and we visited as a child as I pass the sugar cane fields heading up past Grafton.  I could almost imagine myself near New Iberia if it wasn’t for the dang mountains covered in Eucalyptus trees in the background.  It’s as if I was graced with everything I ever dreamed of since I discovered this great Southern Land which gave birth to my dream man and took me in with such love and compassion.

So no, I am not dreaming of a White Christmas that Bing Crosby sang about but I am dreaming of a White Christmas made with love for me and my darling by his beautiful youngest sister and her darling boy Jack. May you have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

I leave you with this lovely Australian Christmas Carol I found on youtube!

Party on Garth: December Peace Challenge

I am not exactly the best party planner around but I do like to be in good company with family and friends around the world. I was thinking to myself about  New Year’s 99 and how the Today Show in the states showed the year 2000 coming into the world across the time zones. Wouldn’t that be a fantastic way to have a party for peace! I certainly think so! If we could have parties for New Year’s Eve, wouldn’t it be fun to have it for Peace.

This is my invitation to the world to bring in Peace one time zone at a time. We can all participate and play our favourite artists. I would like to have my family and friends around the world connect with me via Skype for some quality one on one time. If you don’t like skype, just put out positive vibes on 31/12/2013. We can bring about a change for peace one moment at time. We can savour being in good company and promoting peace together.

I will leave my Skype open all day on 31/12/2013 until it is 1/01/2014 in every part of the world encase you would like to join my peace party on-line! Email me at yaussiechick@damorris.com to let me know that you would like to participate in my party for peace for my Skype id!

Party on Garth! Party on Wayne! Party on for Peace!

Here are a few of my favourite peace party blogs:

http://lauriesnotes.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/b4peace-monthly-challenge-a-gathering-of-kindred-spirits

http://www.kellykuhn.com/2013/12/a-family-peace-party/

http://everydaygurus.com/2013/12/02/monthly-peace-challenge-party-on-garth/

http://appletonavenue.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/december-blog-for-peace/

Pity Factor Makes Me Cringe

I just finished reading a blog that was reblogged by a good friend of mine. I was supposed to be moved at the beauty behind the blog but to me it read like a cliché. It had the feel of a chain letter to it. I guess it’s the cynic in me that is winning instead of the optimistic, cheery feel good lady.

Maybe it was the fact that it featured a blind boy in it sitting on a step with a hat and a sign stating the obvious “I am blind, please help”.  A kind stranger stops puts a few coins in the hat and changes the sign. After this kind stranger leaves, the hat begins to fill up with change. The stranger returns later in the afternoon. The boy recognizes the stranger’s footsteps and asks what the stranger wrote to find out that he had written  “Today is a beautiful day but I can not see it.”

The cynic in me is screaming: firstly most blind people who I know don’t go begging. They might be buskers but they don’t beg. Most blind beggars aren’t really blind. True blind people want to be paid for their talent not because they can’t see. Secondly, why would the boy let this person take his sign without querying about what the stranger was doing. I can’t suspend my disbelief that this boy would recognize the strangers footsteps. Contrary to the misconception that blind people’s hearing are acutely better than sighted people, it is not true. Just think about all the people you are introduced to and you can see their face but you may not recall their name. It’s exactly like that for a blind person who hears things because they might be introduced to people but if they have only spoken to them a few times and a person comes up and say hello remember me? Do you honestly think they are going to respond oh yes you are Dick. No, I don’t think so!

I get so tired and sick of people taking pity on people with disabilities. I even get angry with Agencies for the disabled that are trying to target the able-bodied to feel pity for the other people who are disabled because they want money. Instead of showing how funding the agency helps the person with disability, they try to play the pity card which is usually an utter failure to me because it just gets my ire up. The recent campaign that Guide Dogs NSW paid for didn’t make any sense to me, but they were trying to use the pity card to the sighted people. I can think  of a few different ways they could show how they help but showing a man with his guide dog walking down the street after a guy gets on the bus just doesn’t cut it with me. I even showed the advert to my sister in the states and she couldn’t get it.

People who are blind want to be treated equally just like people who are deaf, or confined to a wheelchair. People who are disabled who have something that isn’t so apparent want to be treated equally too. We all desire to be valued not pitied. People who have a disability are just as capable as any able-bodied person. They have to do things different ways and can even teach able-bodied persons valuable lessons if they are willing to be open to learning a different way.

Maybe I am too sensitive to the blind because I have good friends and loved ones who are blind. I just wish we could think outside the box at times when we are trying to give a moral story or trying to open our eyes to injustices in the world. I know that was the true meaning of the story that was reblogged but it really got me fired up and not in the best ways.