Hot lunch, hot days, hot husband...

HO HO HUM….

Christmas has come and gone, and of course, not with out drama!

Ours was full of food, wine, desserts, food, wine and desserts. Followed by a little food and wine, and a bit more dessert. A tanty here and there, a birthday celebration for my mum, lots of laughs, some gorgeous gifts and giving. 

The celebrations lingered on over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and then….the next night (whatever night that was!)

My gorgeous sister and her family came which meant lots of chatter and laughs and “In-jokes”!

I’m not sure whether we know what the other one is thinking, or we just both have the same stupid sense of humour, but we do laugh a LOT when we get together. 

This Christmas was a little weird though. Our two eldest babes spent the day with their partners families. 

I have always said I won’t be a mum who pressures the kids to be home at Christmas and I get that they have partners and are now adults, but gee I missed them. 

So instead of them being home for Christmas, we decided to hold a feast for Boxing night. At first it was just us, then we invited my sister and her crew, Scott’s mum, my mum and dad, and also some friends. 

NOW THIS WAS A BIG DEAL! 

We rarely invite people over. We enjoy the hermit lifestyle and our house is not really what you would call an “Entertainer’s Delight”. 

But the invites grew……

So the yard needed primping and priming. 

Boxing Day arrived and we were up and about early. The plan was to prepare the salads, tidy up out the back, then come inside and get the place sparkling. I even told my husband how hot he was when he was doing jobs outside! HOT!!! Famous last words……

All was going well…..until about 2.00pm when  our neighbour knocked on our door asking if we knew we had a fire in our backyard. 

SAY WHAT??????

I often think I’d like to be a runner. I’m not a runner, but I’d love to be one. 

Well Boxing Day 2019 was my debut as a runner. 

“Hot” husband and I both ran out the back to find the shed ablaze. And a couple of couches in the shed. And a wood pile on the other side of our fence. Like, a real FIRE.

Hubby had the hose on it and I  was running, yes RUNNING, in and out of the shed with a bucket trying to douse the flames. The adrenaline was pumping and so were my legs. Our daughter rang 000 and hubby was yelling something at me but I couldn’t hear. Something about needing water. I was swearing to myself wondering where the hell I would get more water from and silently telling him to use the hose he had, not realising that I’d cut off his water supply  trying to fill the bucket from another tap. Sorry babe, I’m not used to fighting fires. Apparently he was also yelling at me to grab him some shoes as he was barefooted, but didn’t hear that either. I was in survival mode….and running.

The smoke in the shed was horrendous so instead of running back in there, my brain told me to move cars out of the driveway. Lucky no one was in my way……might have been driving a wee bit more erratically than normal. Kept running. 

Fortunately the fire brigade turned up and I stepped back and let them take over in controlling the fire. Actually, I wasn’t really in control. Either was hubby. We were just doing what instinct told us to do and try like buggery to put the bloody fire out! No control whatsoever! 

Our daughter was at her house  and my sister was there visiting. She has the alert app on her phone from Vic Emergency and it buzzed, saying there was a fire in our street. “Better ring Mum and Dad” she joked. Don’t know what made her joke about that. OF COURSE IT INVOLVED MUM AND DAD!

Our 000 superstar daughter rang both kids telling them the shed was on fire and mum and dad were IN the shed so they may have also driven erratically, along with my rally car driving sister, to our place where they were very relieved to see us OUT of the shed.

Part of the shed is a mess, some couches were burned beyond recognition, and our wood pile destroyed, but thankfully no one was injured and neither was the house. So we were very lucky. Lucky we were home, lucky the neighbour spotted it when he did, lucky we can both run. Well, we can’t but we did. 

After all the firemen left we decided dinner in the backyard would still go ahead. I wasn’t thinking a BBQ was a great idea but hubby insisted. He did proceed to burn the sausages slightly, so the theme of the night was CHAR GRILLED. 

I think I may have been in a little shock, so it was decided that a few good doses of Pimm’s punch would be a good idea. And it was. Pimm’s calmed me down and the night was a success, despite a quarter of our shed missing and the lingering smoky smell. 

So I’ve suggested to my hubby that 2020 should be there year of no 000 calls. This year, we’ve made that call twice. The firemen knew the address seeing as we ( well, not going to name anyone) hit a gas main earlier in the year building a fence. Twice this year we have sent our street in to lock down  (sorry neighbours) so we are aiming for that not to happen next year at all. We dream big here.

And I may not ever tell him he’s hot again!

It certainly makes you realise how awful it would be to be living in an area affected by bushfires. It would be terrifying and my heart goes out to all those affected. It also makes me appreciate the Emergency Services who deal with these situations on a daily basis.

Was your Christmas as exciting as ours????

I think not. But It’s one we won’t forget in a hurry!

I’m starting on my things I want to change for 2020 and apart from no 000 calls, I have a few ideas!

Stay tuned for my next blog to find out what they are!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and spent it with those you love the most.

Love,

Cherie with a C.

Xxx