Present time

Some photos of the kids from this morning. Nathan will get his BIG present tomorrow. In the meantime, here he is playing with some of Nellie's.

Christmas family madness (video)

Christmas time is here again...

We have 3 families to celebrate Christmas with - my mom & stepdad, my dad and stepmom, and G's family. My dad & stepmom have 6 kids between them. G is one of 4 siblings, as is his dad. So you can see that we're part of a rather large clan. And trying to get them all together in one place is nigh on impossible. Hence, we have a 3 year rotational plan. This year it was G's family's turn to have us. They're a mad bunch, but in a nice mad kind of way.

One of the uncles traditionally organises home-made Christmas crackers. Each cracker contains a teeny gift, along with a forfeit. The forfeits range from having to read a poem, sing a song, reminisce about Christmases past, taking part in bizarre competitions, acting out some charade or other, etc. Then, there's the family forfeit, where everyone has a role to play in some sort of mini-play or tableau or carol singing thing.

This year, the theme was the nativity tableau. Every one was assigned a role, and then had to sing a song that went with their role. The catch was that they had to all sing their bit at the same time. I had a really hard time trying not to laugh while holding my phone.

I'll post the video in a separate post, cos it's large (nearly 7MB). Enjoy the madness that is my family.

Take one boy, and add ...

What do you get if you mix one toddler, one pond and one toy trolley with wonky wheels?

One VERY wet, smelly, green, frightened, crying baby.

What do you get if you mix one VERY wet, smelly, green, frightened, crying baby and a shower?

An even wetter, clean, HOWLING baby.

I didn't have the heart to take a photo of him, so you don't get to see it, but I'm sure you can imagine it. It was hilarious, but I don't think he saw the funny side of it at all. Poor thing!

Day 10: Someone you wish you didn't know

I'm one of those people who has never really had heroes, or idolised others - apart from my parents and older siblings, that is. I don't go all weak-kneed at the thought of meeting Bono, for example, or Sting, although I absolutely LOVE their music. I just don't see the point in worshipping them - I mean, they're just people, after all.

Similarly, I don't really have people I wished I didn't know. But I guess there are a few people I wished weren't around, which isn't the same thing. It's not that they're not nice people, but I get the feeling that they don't like me, and that makes me uncomfortable around them. That, or else they strike me as being in competition with me for something, which also makes me uncomfortable.

What I find so awful about the whole situation, though, is the way it affects me. I avoid places, or places at certain times, because i don't like feeling uncomfortable, and I can't see a way to resolve the situation...

A boy in a river (kind of...)

My dad has a fabulous pond in his garden, which has a little bridge over it. Nathan loves bridges - we have one in our garden that goes nowhere, and he still ADORES playing on it.... So he loves this little bridge that actually goes somewhere. His latest trick is lying on the bridge trying to catch the fish. Sigh! Boys will be boys, I guess.

A boy and his dog... or two

(Thanks to the UK cousins for taking these.)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

'Tis the season to be jolly... fa la la la la, la la la la....

I've been to 2 Carols services so far this year, which is 100% improvement on last year. The school had its first Carols, which was nice (but lots to improve on for future years), especially given how last minute it came about. The second was our church's service. That was really fabulous - for me, anyway. I'm not sure the kids enjoyed it as much. The carols were all VERY rocky, which was lovely. I can't ABIDE singing 'Hark the herald angels sing' and falling asleep in the midst of it. I mean, c'mon - if Christmas is such good news, and we're supposedly BURSTING with joy, then why are the carols so... dour, dismal, boring?? So I had a fabulous time.

The kids got to dress up for the church carols. Nathan was too young to have any say, so Mommy dressed him as a shepherd. Of course, given the time of the service, the little man was asleep even before we got there...

But then woke up part of the way through the service, and just wanted to run around...

Despite the fact that there are no fairies in the Christmas story, Nellie insisted on dressing up as a fairy. (Blink. Stare.) She's still gorgeous though.

Day 09: Someone you didn't want to let go

Isn't it odd how some friendships entrench themselves in your psyche and your heart, and no matter how you try to let go, you find you can't?

I had a friend - a really good friend, or so I thought. We were friends all the way through high school. Then we got to varsity, and suddenly, everything changed. While I tried to maintain our friendship, I felt that it was all one-sided. To me it felt like her new friends were more important, and that she had little time for me. I tried not to get upset about it, because, after all, people grow up and grow away and our circumstances had changed, and blah, blah, blah. But it didn't work. In my heart of hearts, I was devastated.

Then we moved overseas, and although I still tried to keep in touch through email, I heard never a word from her. Now I know that some people are not good at correspondence. And she clearly is one of those. But it felt like yet another nail in the coffin. It seemed obvious to me that she didn't want to be my friend, and that hurt like hell. I then vowed not to care about it, but to just let it go.

If I'd been able, in university, to just let go, then all would have been fine. But I couldn't. Instead, our friendship just drifted, and that hurt more, I think, than a sudden, final cataclysmic ending would have done. It felt more like a festering wound than a clean surgery.

Now we're back in Cape Town, I see her around from time to time. And every time, without fail, the old hurts resurface. Outwardly I manage to be civil, I manage to be friendly, I manage to take a polite interest in her life, but inwardly... inwardly it breaks me all over again.

Day 08: Someone who treated you badly

Hmm.... this one's tougher.

All of the examples I can think of are school related. There's the kid who tried to slam my fingers in the window (and partially succeeded), or the kid whose parent decided to defame me for trying to enforce school policy, or the "best" friend in junior school who abandoned me for another girl, or the boy on the bus in high school who used to bully me...

Other than that, I can't really think of anyone who has made my life hell. I guess I should be grateful. My life could have been far worse!

Day 07: Someone who has made your life worth living

That's easy - all the people I love.

My dad, my mom, my hubbie, my kids.

Most particularly my kids. When things really get me down, as they have been doing recently, and I think how nice it would be to just disappear completely forever (and not half jokingly either), the thing that most often helps me to pick myself up again is the thought of my kids having to go on in life without me. I love them too much to do that to them.

But on a more positive note, the people I love bring joy and happiness into my life. When I think about what my life would be like without them, it brings tears to my eyes. I can't bear to think about life without them... they make my life worth living.

Day 06: something I hope I never have to do

I hope I never have to watch one of my kids die in pain.

I hope I never have to be in a position of choosing which of the people I love will live or die.

I hope I never have to be reliant on someone else to feed me, or wash me, or dress me, or take me to the loo.

I hope I never have to see my children go hungry.

I hope I never have to see my parents with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

I hope I never have to find out that my husband has had an affair.

I hope I never have to tell my husband that I have had an affair.