The Last Christmas Pudding

The last Pudding

This here is the last of the Christmas Puddings and the death of a tradition. For the last few years we have kept the presence of my nana alive during Christmas by pulling out her recipe and making the pudding. This year when I checked that my mother had the fruit soaking I was met with a can't be bothered attitude. Not being here for Christmas last year I was looking forward to the traditions of my Christmas and was devastated. In the end she very reluctantly made it (by-passing several steps and ingredients in the process) and left it cooking in my kitchen for the required 7 hours while she went off to see the new Almodóvar film. Of course, after keeping an eye on it for several hours I got a bit distracted with a painting I was doing and let the water evaporate and smoked the pudding somewhat. I hung it outside and later joked with my daughter about how funny it would be if we had to tell grandma that the possums had got the pudding- and then I promptly forgot about it. In the morning I contemplated over the agile abilities of the possum's tail as I brought in the remaining pudding and preformed surgery on it and wrapped it all up again beautifully.
My son asked why we went to all this fuss to make a pudding that no one really ate (I only ate it as a child because there was money in it and as an adult because there is nostalgia in it) and I knew the writing was on the wall- some traditions just have to be let go of. As long as my children are feeling the magic of Christmas then the details don't really matter and they will find their own memories as I have mine. Last year we were far far away and the year brought many changes into my life. Next year who knows where we will be, but as long as we are all together we can choose our own traditions, even if we keep them only for that year...

Merry Christmas to all...