You know that tradition of getting everyone to stir the Christmas pudding mixture and to make a wish when they do it? I never make the pudding so I have always done the stir-and-wish thing with the cake. Now the family is scattered to Sheffield and Boulder, and there are four grandchildren as well as the three 'children' plus two daughters-in-law and a son-in-law, it's not possible to have them all here at the same time to stir and wish.
So for years I have been doing it remotely. I get the mixture to the point of needing a stir, and then ring up the three households in turn and get each family member to come on the line and have their silent wish, while I stir for them. I'm sure they all think I'm batty but they humour me. Dave is here, of course, and comes when called to make an unconvincing pretence at wishing, while he tweaks the wooden spoon. Either before or after or both he says 'I don't understand this,' which is fine.
Last Saturday I knew that at least two of the households were having fraught weekends, and it was not a good time to impose my whimsy, so I stirred and wished for all 11 family members individually. I didn't wish for what I thought they might wish for, and I didn't wish for things. I wished for what I thought they needed. It was a piece of cake (sorry) for 10 of them, but for one of my grandchildren I was stumped. I dote on this grandchild, and I know them well, but I could not think of a fragility that they might need help with.
I've been puzzling about this since Saturday afternoon. Is it that they are bulletproof? or is it that I don't know them well enough? It must be one or the other, because no-one is 100% robust through and through, are they?
2 comments:
So nice to know all’s well with that particular person, long may it continue. Perhaps that should be the wish.
I like the way you're thinking...
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