recession christmas = best. christmas. ever.

New Year's Eve. I can hardly believe it. Seems like only a year ago we were scrambling to get the bubbly open and missed the midnight mark because we were too engrossed in the movie we were watching... Moonstruck, I think, for the ten thousandth time and still one of my favourites (is it only an Italian thing?).

Into 2009 I take with me a raft of lovely gifts from the holidays; A couple of DVDs including Mr. Magoo's Christmas and Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (brilliant and brillianter); A spanky new Italian dictionary AND an Italian verb dictionary. They are the best editions I've ever had and I shall conjugate verbs until the cows come home; Scrabble! Monopoly! And Tiddlywinks!! There's boardgames in the house!!! I'll not be coming out in the evenings for the rest of the winter!; Apple Training books (I'm a NNNEEEERRRD!); My Bachelor of the Arts Diploma was finally forwarded to me and I will be framing it and hanging it post haste;
A one year adoption of a little donkey in the Holy Land whose ears and tail had been cut off (and a cuddly effigy of him, whose ears were kindly taped back instead of cut); Several unique origami and paper-folding kits, because I'm obsessed with folding paper; Excellent reading material, including this brilliant book about growing up behind the iron curtain and a huge book with everything I ever need to know about sewing (I feel a home-made dress coming on); Some of my Mommy's freshly made, GORGEOUS ear candy (stay tuned about her new jewelry business); Wellies! Wellies!! WELLIES!!! With butterflies on 'em! No more muddy shoes!!

On top of all that, I've been soaking up all the back-to-back free movies on the terrestrial channels which are entirely watchable because, unlike the US, they don't cut out the naughty bits or dub over the language, they aren't edited for time, and there are few ad breaks. Also, the daily walks have included climbing up all the highest spots around where we live (there are a few). Never mind the benefits for the dog, I think a monster hillwalking addiction has taken over my family. Normally I'm the one instigating, but yesterday I was pressured and dragged out against my will.


Something about this holiday has kept us out of the orbit of people in financial trouble, and it's been nice to step away from all the worry about financial trouble and keep to ourselves. We've tightened our circle and had drinks with our immediate neighbors at home instead of mixing at the pub, we've been taking advantage of the fact that it's not raining and getting outdoors, and we've managed to waste none of the turkey by making all manner of soup, curry, and I might try turkey fajitas, and it's been delicious. It can't all be bad. But like everyone I know who didn't ride the tiger into oblivion, there's not as much to worry about when you haven't outspent your means... in fact, with food retailers discounting the disparity between Sterling and Euro pricetags here, I'd say we're almost doing faring better. And when we DO want to eat out, we can actually get a table because the Captains of Industry and their entourages have all absconded to Spain or ceased coming out for fear of being mocked. What's not to love about recession?

...I mean, what's not to love until I get sick of dark and cold Ireland and curse the heavens because I can't afford to leave it? But that'll undoubtedly be another day's blog.

So bring on 2009. Let's rock this last year of the naughty noughties and really see what the new world order will be. Me? I'm going to go play in the mud in my new wellies.

Happy New Year, all!
love, the mollyblog