Christmas Turkey

Growing up in Canada we always had turkey for Christmas, regardless whether Christmas was at our house or at my aunts. To me turkey is synonymous with Christmas and to not eat turkey during this time, well it's just not Christmas to me. Now some families eat roast duck or goose and some eat roast beef but my family has always eaten turkey and of course ham. Ham I can do without but not turkey.



For the first seventeen years in Malaysia I have celebrated Christmas without turkey. When my husband died and the kids and I were unceremoniously kicked out of the company house we were staying in, I started to cook turkey at Christmas time in our new house. In the beginning the cost of a turkey weighing in at almost five kilos was affordable but as the years went by the cost of turkey kept going up until I was paying between $160.00 to $180.00 for a lousy turkey. The last year that I had invited around seventy people over for Christmas, I had had to buy two turkeys as one wasn't enough.That year I had forked out almost RM400.00 just for turkey. There was also the year a shortage of turkeys was being forecast and the price escalated, so this year I was beginning to think that we would not be enjoying turkey for Christmas, after all its not steak we are eating its just turkey.



The reason why I say just turkey is because in Canada turkey is cheap. This August when I was home in Canada my brother in law deep fried a whole turkey for us when we went to his place. My sister informed me that she had bought the turkey on offer for less then a dollar a pound which would make the cost of the turkey less then $10.00 Canadian or around RM30.00.
Turkey in Canada is the center of a meal for Easter and Thanksgiving as well. Everyone enjoys their roast turkey with a good home made stuffing and I have to admit that I make a good kick ass stuffing. Well at least my kids like it. Unfortunately paying almost RM200.00 for a turkey just did not sit well with me.



At first I couldn't find a turkey but this past Sunday I spotted in the newspaper that turkey was on offer in Giant for only RM18.99 per kilo for that day only. Of course I quickly got my hiney over to Giant to buy my turkey. By time I got there there weren't many left and I managed to get a bird weighing in at 4.7 kilos for only RM89.15. I grabbed one. This year for Christmas we will be having our turkey and stuffing and I can't wait. I can see myself now preparing Christmas dinner with a glass of whiskey at my side or a Bailey's Irish Creme, two excellent choices and once again Christmas will be saved.

Christmas is almost here!!

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old mans hat

If you haven't got a penny then a half penny will do

If you haven't got a half penny then god bless you

Yes once again the Christmas season is upon us and all I can say is "Bah Humbug"!!! I never used to feel that way, I remember as a child celebrating Christmas with snow all around and the excitement of knowing that Santa would bring us presents. My sisters and I were mercenary little things, we never thought of Christmas as having any other meaning then that, even though we knew that Christmas was the celebration of Christ's birth. No to us Christmas was about all the loot that Santa would bring us. We would wake Christmas morning at 4 am to wake our parents who had only just gone to bed after a night of a little too much Christmas cheer. We of course would get yelled at to get our asses back to bed and not to wake them again until at least 7am. We waited in our rooms in anticipation sneaking out to the kitchen once in a while to check the time. Those three hours sure did pass slowly but at least we where allowed to take our stockings to our room to check out the treasures. So there my sister and I sat on our beds eating candy impatiently waiting for 7am to arrive. No wonder we both had stomach ache every Christmas.

Christmas eve was either spent at our house or at my aunts house. I can remember the year that my father decided to climb on the roof and stomp around so we kids would think that Santa was up there. Big mistake, oh we thought it was Santa, its just that dad was drunk when he climbed up onto the roof and after stomping around for a few minutes he fell off when trying to climb down again. Lucky for him there was a pile of snow to cushion his fall not to mention that his drunken state had left him in a state of jelly. It must be true god takes care of little children and drunks.

The first eleven years of Christmas in Malaysia sucked big time. During this time we had lived with my in laws who didn't celebrate Christmas and didn't really know what it was all about. The myth of Santa was quickly destroyed when my dumb ass youngest brother in law informed my kids that there was no Santa. My kids would still be excited about the loot they would get. They were lucky that I was an early riser. During this time I hardly drank so I was not hung over. We would quickly unwrap our presents, shower and dress, take the family Christmas photo which would be sent to my family and then we would take off to one of the malls in Kuala Lumpur, walk around all day then eat Christmas dinner which was not turkey.

When we finally moved out of the house Christmas was better. We bought a bigger tree to replace the table top tree we had used year after year which had been sent over by my family. After my husband passed and we moved to another house I would buy a turkey and cook it at home and invite my in laws. This was ok until my fat ass sister in law and her fat kids started eating most of the turkey before anyone else had a chance to eat some. Not long afterwards I stopped inviting them over for Christmas. The last Christmas with my husbands family I had had to buy two turkeys to cook which is an expensive endeavor. Other then this little blip on Christmas cheer I enjoyed Christmas.

So this past Sunday we put up our tree to lack of enthusiasm. My eldest now has her own family and lives in her own place. My kids are all grown and one daughter works in Singapore. I put up the tree strung the lights and added a few gold pine cones and just sat looking at it. I didn't feel like finishing it. We went out for dinner came back watched a movie and still the tree stood there undecorated. I finally manage to rally the three who are still at home into decorating the tree.

As we all do our Christmas shopping the phone calls are incessant with questions of "What do you want"? "What size do your wear"? "What colour do you want"? The mystery of Christmas is gone and so is the Christmas spirit. Not to mention that most of us are broke. But I rally around doing my shopping and come Christmas day I'll cook the turkey and all my kids will be home. After talking to my family in Canada and a little Christmas cheer that is Canadian Club Rye Whiskey or Bailey's Irish Cream I'm sure the Christmas spirit will come.