Are you ready to meditate with Cori?
Make sure that you hop up into your bed and you get super comfortable.
Make sure that the light is just right so you can relax your body and let go of your busy day.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya were very excited because Grandpa Walter was in town.
They called him Grandad,
Grandad Walter or Grandad Wally.
Grandad Walter was from England and he was staying at their house for two weeks.
And they always loved it when he came because Grandad Walter was just awesome.
He was one of those grandads that had a really big belly,
Which was extremely fun when you ran at it and bounced off it.
That's what Cherry liked to do.
She likes to wait till he's sat down all comfy on the sofa and then she runs at him and bounces on his belly and then runs off,
Which he thinks is very funny,
Luckily.
But yeah,
Grandpa Walter has a big belly.
The rest of him is quite skinny.
He likes everything about England.
He loves being English and he talks about England all the time.
They were all in the kitchen and he was teaching them how to make a Christmas pudding.
Grandad rolled up his sleeves.
He had a checked shirt on.
That was kind of what he always wore,
Checked shirts and jeans.
And today was no different.
He rolled the sleeves up on his checked shirt,
Put on an apron,
Clapped his hands and rubbed them together and asked the cats if they were ready.
They were all there in the little aprons standing around the kitchen island,
Watching him do what he was doing.
Grandpa Walter said,
Well,
First of all,
I have to tell you about the history of this,
You know,
Because there's a history way,
Way,
Way,
Way back,
Back in the olden days.
They used to put a sixpence in a Christmas pudding.
While he was talking,
He was getting flour,
Sugar,
Eggs and then this kind of thing that looked like white fat that they weren't sure about what it was.
It looked like butter,
But it was white.
It was pretty weird looking.
And then raisins and sultanas,
Cherries,
Candied peel,
Walnuts and rum and also brown sugar.
Cherry was confused because she was expecting pudding,
You know,
Like vanilla pudding or banana pudding or chocolate pudding,
That runny stuff that you eat with a spoon.
Why was he using all these weird things?
She thought to herself.
She pulled on his apron and said,
Grandad,
What on earth are you doing?
Like I thought we were making pudding.
Grandad Walter said,
We are,
We're making Christmas pudding.
But why are you using all that weird stuff?
Said Cherry.
These are the ingredients,
Cherry.
This is what you do when you make Christmas pudding.
Cherry jumped down off a chair.
She went over to the fridge and pulled out a tub of chocolate pudding and brought it over to Grandad.
Grandad,
This is pudding.
Grandad took the chocolate pudding from her,
Looked at it suspiciously and said,
OMG,
Cherry,
That is not pudding,
My love.
Cherry's cheeks went a little bit red because she always liked it when Grandad called her my love.
He put the pudding down on the side and said,
Watch and learn,
My little peeps,
Watch and learn.
He was adding flour and suet.
He said it was called suet.
That was that white stuff that looked like butter,
But it wasn't butter.
It was actually animal fat.
Suet comes from cows.
When he explained this,
Veya was absolutely appalled.
Oh,
Oh,
She swallowed deeply.
Oh,
Um,
Grandad,
That just doesn't sound right.
Why would you put something like that in a pudding that's supposed to be dessert?
That sounds so gross.
Cherry said,
Gross?
Gross is not a strong enough word.
That sounds absolutely disgusting,
Grandad.
And did you know that sometimes we are vegans?
How are we supposed to eat Christmas pudding when it's got cow fat in it?
Grandad said,
How about you don't worry about that right now?
How about you just watch and learn and see what you think at the end of it?
Heidi said,
OK,
OK,
Fair enough.
So we put the suet and the flour and the rum and the sugar and the cherries,
The nuts,
The raisins,
The sultanas and the candied peel.
And he basically kind of mixed them all together with milk and some eggs.
And yeah,
He was mixing and mixing and mixing.
And then he stopped and he said,
Bob's your uncle.
That's the basic of a Christmas pudding.
But now here's where the magic comes in.
Years and years and years ago in England,
They used to call this year pudding sixpence pudding,
Not Christmas pudding,
Sixpence pudding,
Because sixpence was what you put inside of the pudding.
Cherry said,
Grandad,
What's a sixpence?
Grandad explained in England a long time ago,
They used to use as money.
There was one pence and sixpence and off a bob and it was like Grandad was talking another language.
Heidi,
Cherry and Freya have got no idea what he was talking about.
But basically he was explaining to them about what they used to call different coins,
Different amounts of money.
And that's what they were called in the olden days.
And a sixpence would have been a lot of money back then.
Then he explained that traditionally you would drop the sixpence into the Christmas pudding mix.
And you would all take a turn at stirring it.
And then he said,
So that's what we're going to do,
Kitties.
Everybody get your spoon.
Everybody starts stirring.
And when you stir in the mixture,
Make sure that you're putting all your good wishes,
All your love,
All your good intentions,
All of your happiness.
No whiskers,
Please.
Aw,
Fur.
Cherry started laughing with Grandad because that was a good Grandad joke.
They were stirring and stirring and stirring the Christmas pudding,
Putting all their intentions,
All their good intentions into the mix.
And as they stirred and stirred and stirred,
The coin that Grandad threw in there went around and around on the bottom,
On the top,
On the sides,
All over inside of the mix.
Cherry said,
OMG Grandad,
I hope you wash that coin.
Because that's pretty darn gross,
Really,
If you think about it.
Grandad said,
Don't you worry yourself,
Chuckles.
I washed the coin.
Then Grandad picked up the big bowl and poured it into a smaller bowl.
And then he put a bag around it and he tied the bag and then he put it in a big pot of water.
He put the lid on top of the pan and he said,
That's it.
That's it.
Clapped his hands together.
Now all we have to do is wait 10 million hours and then it'll be ready.
And then later today,
I'll show you what you do with it next.
Heidi said,
Did you leave the coin in there?
Grandad said,
Yes,
That's the whole point,
Heidi.
You put the coin in because later when it's cooked and I'll show you what you do next,
I'll explain it all to you.
It's very magical.
The cats and Grandad took off their aprons,
Washed up,
Cleaned up the dishes that they had dirtied and then went in the living room.
They all sat round with a cup of eggnog and listened to Christmas music while they did a jigsaw puzzle together.
After a while,
After Grandad had fell asleep on the sofa for a bit and snored really loud,
It wasn't until then that when Grandad woke up and looked at his watch,
He said it was time to go and do the next thing.
They went into the kitchen and Grandad pulled out the bag that was inside the pot of hot water.
He took the bag off and then he turned the bowl upside down on a plate and the pudding popped out.
Christmas pudding looked like cake.
It looked like fruit cake.
Cherry said,
Oh,
Gee,
Grandad,
Why didn't you tell us you were making fruit cake?
That stuff's absolutely awful.
Grandad said,
Never you mind yourself,
My little love.
You'll love it,
I promise.
Watch what we do next.
Grandad got out a bottle of brandy.
He explained to them that they never,
Ever,
Ever do this without an adult being around.
In fact,
It would be very,
Very,
Very dangerous unless an adult was doing it.
Now they were intrigued.
Cherry actually was very excited for the first time that day because that mixture that they were making looked pretty darn gross.
But this danger,
Excitement,
That was more like it for Cherry.
Fea said,
Um,
Grandad Walter,
Should I should I take my dress off and go change because it's very flammable?
Grandad chuckled and said,
No,
Fea,
Me little sweetheart,
You just stay back over there.
She was saying that because Grandad had got brandy and a lighter in his hand.
Then what he did was he poured a cup of brandy.
And Cherry said to Grandad,
Grandad,
Don't you think it's a bit early for that?
And then she started laughing.
Grandad said,
Oh,
It's not for me,
Funny bones.
It's for the Christmas pudding.
He poured the brandy on top of the Christmas pudding.
And then he set it alight with the lighter and it did this big woof of blue and orange and red flames.
Cherry said,
Woo!
Really loud.
Heidi stood back.
She rubbed her glasses thinking that she was seeing things at first,
But she wasn't.
Grandad had set the Christmas pudding on fire.
Cherry said,
Grandad,
Are you losing your marbles?
I know you're old and everything,
But do you think all your brain cells have fell down to your tummy?
Grandad thought that was absolutely hilarious.
He said,
You cheeky monkey.
No,
This is what you do with Christmas pudding.
You set it alight.
Cherry said,
Oh,
How strange.
Oh,
You know what,
Though?
I have seen one time before,
A long time ago,
Right?
We were watching this cooking programme and I think it had that one that's really nasty.
I really like him.
He gets angry at everybody in the kitchen for not doing the things right.
Gordon Ramsay.
That's it.
I really like Gordon Ramsay.
He's so handsome.
Anyway,
Yeah,
So we were watching it,
Right?
And he set his steak on fire.
And I was like,
OMG,
Gordon,
You don't have to be that angry.
But really,
He wasn't angry on that episode.
He was actually really nice because he was jolly.
He was being jolly for a minute,
Which is very unusual.
I was thinking to myself,
I wonder why he's so happy today.
I wonder if he had a nice morning with his wife or something,
Or maybe he had a nice breakfast or maybe it's his birthday.
Anyway,
I remember being distracted by thinking about why Gordon Ramsay weren't shouting at everyone.
And yeah,
He lit a steak on fire.
And then I was like,
Oh,
That does look so fancy.
Is there something like that,
Grandad?
Grandad nodded and said,
Yep,
That's it,
Cherry.
My little cherry noodles.
That's it.
Yes.
So you set it on fire,
Right?
And it has this whole like dramatic effect in the middle of the Christmas dinner table.
But also at the same time,
It gives it a lovely flavour.
Oh,
It's like,
Oh,
It's just delicious.
And then this is the special magic part.
This is the bestest part.
When you cut up the pudding and you divide it for everyone so everybody gets a piece in a bowl,
Then what you do right is you wait to see where the sixpence is.
Who got the sixpence?
That's the whole magic of it,
Kids.
It's the whole magic.
The sixpence,
Right?
If you've got the sixpence in your bowl,
In your piece of Christmas pudding,
Then you will get good luck all next year.
Good luck and possibly lots of money coming your way.
Good luck and good fortune.
That's the whole tradition.
That's the whole thing about Christmas pudding.
You make it and you put all your good wishes in it and you stir it and stir it and put all your love in it and all the good juju.
And then whoever gets that sixpence,
That lucky fella who gets that sixpence has all that good luck,
All that energy,
All that love for the next year to come.
Now,
Don't you think that's blooming lovely?
All the cats looked at Grandad.
Yeah,
Said Cherry.
That's really nice,
Grandad.
OMG,
I want a piece!
Grandad divided the pudding up with a big spoon.
You don't cut it like a cake,
You divide it like a pudding,
Like a hot pudding with a big serving spoon and then you serve it with brandy butter,
Custard or a sweet white sauce.
This is what Grandad was telling them.
Veya said that she didn't want to get drunk so she would have custard because brandy butter sounded a bit too alcoholic.
Grandad explained that you wouldn't get drunk off brandy butter because how they make it burns off all the alcohol.
But still,
Veya didn't want that.
Cherry said she wanted custard because she'd tasted all three of the things that she had an option for and custard tasted the nicest.
They all tried the pudding.
Cherry did not like it at all.
Veya actually liked it and so did Heidi.
Grandad had two bowls of it but no one found the sixpence.
They had to wait till Mum and Dad came home for them to have a bowl of it.
No one found the sixpence.
There was no pudding left to give out and yet no one had found the sixpence.
Cherry panicked.
OMG!
Grandad Walter,
You're gonna kill one of us!
We've swallowed the sixpence without even realising it!
OMG!
Grandad!
Grandad started laughing.
I doubt very much that you'll have swallowed the sixpence without realising.
It would be like trying to swallow a whole apple.
Cherry said,
Well what do we do then?
Where's the sixpence?
Grandad said,
I bet I know where it is,
Me little love.
He went over to Cherry's plate where her leftovers were and rummaged through.
He pulled out the sixpence with one of his fingers and his thumb and turned around and said,
Aha!
Cherry said,
OMG!
I got the sixpence!
I got the sixpence!
I'm gonna have a lucky year!
I'm gonna be so rich!
I'm gonna be so rich,
Grandad!
Grandad said,
Well I don't think it counts when you didn't eat my pudding.
Cherry went over to the side and gobbled down the pudding as fast as she could.
Now it counts,
Me little love,
He said and patted her on the back.
That night they all watched a Christmas movie together.
They snuggled up on Grandad's big fat belly.
The nice thing about sleeping on Grandad's belly instead of the big soft comfortable bed was that it moved up and down and it was nice and warm and all three of them managed to fit on it.
They all kind of curled around each other.
He was a bit like Santa,
Thought Heidi as she was falling to sleep,
Except he didn't have a white beard and rosy cheeks and he wasn't wearing a red outfit.
He was wearing his check shirt that smelled like Grandad and he was all nice and warm and cuddly and Grandad loved them very much and that was their most favorite thing about Grandad Walter from England.
The End you you you you
