COOL YULE

Happy Christmas to all our friends. The Croziers have been a little preoccupied in recent weeks with various medical appointments and preparations for the Christmas holidays. Since we try to make as many home-made or locally produced gifts as possible, it takes up a lot of time in the kitchen or devising packaging. I had already decided to get small gifts from local makers or craftspeople rather than large stores with only partial success. We have been to a couple of craft fairs in the local villages, which are always good fun and where all the ex pats and local traders get together to sell their wares.

On top of this the weather has been stunningly good. Not warm exactly, but with deep blue skies, sparkling sunshine and gleaming snow on the mountain tops; lungs full of the fresh air each morning gives everyone a glad-to-be-alive feeling. It was too good an opportunity to miss getting heavy items washed, dried and aired and the house swept and mopped before earning some quiet time for contemplation or a “cup of coffee moment” on the terrace where it is warmer in the sunshine than inside the house.

Art School closed unexpectedly for a few weeks over Christmas, but the Makers Group organised a Christmas Meal in Rethymno for a staggeringly low cost and we had a chance to exchange cards, swap news and enjoy a large procession of meze dishes with a glass of wine and still be home at a respectable hour!

Building on last year's experience, I prepared a large dish of cakes and Father Christmas chocolates to have handy in case carol singers turned up as they did last year with lots of children, adults and tinkling triangles in the street outside the door. Predictably, this did not happen this year, so we have a large dish of cakes and chocs which I have covered up and will try not to eat in case they come at New Year instead!

We fitted in medical appointments all on one day in Rethymnon and K saw the Ophthalmologist and Urologist for eye examination and three-monthly injection. We are trying to get the process set in motion for his cataracts to be dealt with but it will be a while before he is ready. After several weeks of enquiries to Amazon, a box containing an aid to help with socks and stockings arrived, which helps with the putting on of things, but is no help at all in getting them off! The effort for both procedures is like an hour in the gym! We need a concerted Crozier effort in the innovations department as K wants to get as independent as he can.

Meanwhile, the fine weather has meant that the olive picking has continued and all the farm buggies and trucks set off early each morning and return when the sun is going down and the Olive Mill is humming until late in the night. A few small presents to our villager neighbours promoted many bags of eggs and litre bottles of the most beautiful olive oil, all fresh from this years crop (along with other offerings of home made wine and raki … help). Our friends Kostas and Angelliki seem to like English chocolates and a visit by the English Grocer to one of the Christmas Fairs, meant that I could get them a big tin of Celebrations – utter luxury for them! So the commonplace for us is in stark comparison again. All our friends enjoy Christmas here. There are no crowds, traffic jams or heaving shopping centres. We have been given gifts of chutneys, pickled onions, home made biscuits, hand made knits and beautiful cards. No one has much money, but all the creative efforts were lovely and very thoughtful. Our hosts for Christmas Lunch put on a most beautiful meal and laboured over home made gifts too! Other guests had made up Red Cross parcels, wrapped in brown paper and string and which contained an assortment of small items, similar to a Christmas stocking! It was lots of fun!

We have had some heartfelt prayer moments too. Not only to see and hear Christmas celebrations from round the world via on line programmes, but some CIC friends have the husband (Tony) in the intensive care unit in the local hospital due to pneumonia and they have induced a coma, done a tracheostomy and all the same procedures that K went through a year before. What a Christmas for his wife (Gianna) and how I sympathise with her! So we have made our way to the local church to light candles and pray for a swift recovery. I know that coming out of ICU to a normal ward in the hospital will be even more difficult for his wife and hope she will keep in touch with us. At least they are nearer to their friends in Rethymnon.

The sound of running water has stopped me in my tracks; it is now pouring with rain, so Boxing Day will be different from Christmas! We send you love and greetings for a joyful time and a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.