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.)