Three days of Christmas

For the last three days, we have celebrated much, ate much and enjoyed family.

On Christmas morning the kids got up at 5.30 to sneak a peek at their pressies from Santa - even checking out Jonty's and then put everything back in the sacks, while they waited for Simon me and Jonty to get up.

At 11am the family arrived and the crazy fun began again.

It wasn't all crazy though - Collette came up with a new family tradition that we write on a piece of paper, a gift we would like to give to Jesus during 2011 and we put it in a special box and put it under the tree as our gift to him. Just something we would like to work on in our lives this coming year to show him that we love him and to show the kids we love him more than Santa ;)

Simon had to work ( it's sad that people need the police on Christmas Day but that's the reality of it) but it was great that he could pop in (there's some advantages to living next door to work) when it was quiet and enjoy some lunch with us.

I prayed and hoped that the day would be nice and sunny because there's no way we could fit 16 people in our little house, and it turned out to be beautiful, not too hot and no wind, and so we were able to eat out on the deck. (I really hope the police department don't mind that we built a deck at one of their houses because it has been the best thing ever!!!)

It was lovely having Jess, Kyle and Bastian down this year to celebrate with us.

That night we put a tent up outside and Simon and the kids slept out there, Jess and Kyle took our room and Mum, me and Collette took the kids' bunks. You should have seen Mum trying to climb up onto the top bunk. Sarra doesn't have a ladder, she just jumps up but of course Mum couldn't manage that - it was hilarious!!

We tried to get some nice shots of all the grandkids..... yeah that worked!!

The next day on Boxing Day was of course Sarra's 10th birthday. She was only 7 days overdue and very considerately left Christmas Day for me to enjoy and came along on Boxing Day, after a 12 hour labour. She set the pace and all the kids since, have been overdue, so don't hold your breath for April 3rd.

I got Collette for Christmas, the game, Guesstures. We were first introduced to it when we went to Melbourne earlier this year. The best ever player is Kyle's Dad, Bobby Andrews, he always cracks us up and it is a given that whenever we go to their place we HAVE to play. You pick 4 cards out and have a set time-limit within which to act out the words for your team to guess. So after Sarra's birthday tea, we played it and laughed and played some more and laughed!!

Simon helped Oliver act out his words.

The little ones weren't all that interested and just did their own thing. Jonty loved Bastian and kept giving him cuddles and showing him his baby doll. (one of Sarra's old ones)

Today, being day three of our celebrations, we went to Dad's house to celebrate Christmas Day with him. The kids love going there and riding on the back of his 4-wheeler and running around outside.

And Dad's new water wheel that he built was a new hit. The kids played around it in the mud for hours and hours.

Now there's only one more Christmas Day to go, Christmas with the Triffitt's on New Year's Day this weekend.

The gift of giving.........

As I was reading through everyone's blogs today, Jonty came over to the computer with a smelly nappy. In a minute I said to myself, I will change his nappy. In a minute he was asleep at my feet at the computer.

I sometimes put things ahead of other things and not always for the right reasons.

But today I am SO grateful for the gift of giving that my fellow bloggers give to me. You make my day by sharing a piece of your day, and that's not always easy when life sometimes throws everything at you. And when it does, and you let me into your lives to cry and laugh and smile alongside you, with the small and seemingly insignificant things nestled in with the earth-shattering life-changing things, I feel privileged by the very fact that you are sharing a piece of YOU with me.

Over this year I have loved reading all your blogs and for your gift of giving through cyberspace, I (or should I say Jonty and I) :) say THANKYOU!!!!!

Starting small

This time of year, its easy to become self-reflective about the year that was and the new year ahead. It is also easy to fall into the trap of thinking about the things that weren't achieved during the year because they were put into the 'too hard basket', 'cant be bothered basket', 'will get round to it basket'......... you get the picture!!

For many years I have wanted to start a vegie patch and have a lovely flower garden. My dream home would always include a driveway lined with roses that were in a perfect row leading right up to the front door. But somehow life has got in the way.......the good, the bad and the ugly;).................sound familiar??

SO instead of once again relegating my vegie patch in the cupboard alongside the 'will get to it one day' scrapbooking box, I decided to start small and you know what, it feels great!!

The old vegie patch - very neglected..........

The new vegie patch - three herbs in a pot and some zucchini.......

And some raspberries and strawberries (Simon and Sarra take care of these)

And this is my flower garden.............in a pot.

One thing that is working quite well (probably because they take care of themselves) is our chooks. Our silky, Snowflake just had 7 chicks and they are so cute and cuddly. This time they all hatched well and are nice and healthy - it is always heartbreaking to have some only half hatch.

It may take me another decade to leave small and upgrade to medium in the garden, but that doesn't matter because there is a season for everything. I heard a quote once in the Ensign and I wish I could remember it fully but it goes something like, ' we don't try and sing all the verses of a song at the same time, so why try to do everything in life at the same time.'

And to top it off, Charlotte's rose has started blooming!! xx