Festive. Family. Fun. Frenzied. Food. Fabulous.

After a fabulous week at Nanny and Poppy's, we're home. Exhausted. Happy to be home in our space. It's been a *BIG* week. Lots of running and romping and twirling and just going crazy.




Happy highlights of our Christmas week:

* Watching R+M with my family. They really love being with Nanny and Poppy.

* Rain on Christmas Day. I'm sure there were a LOT of people who begged Santa for rain. Thanks Santa, good job.

* Watching R+M's happy little faces on Christmas morning. Ruby was overwhelmed (probably by the sheer volume of presents, good grief) but mastered the present opening gig pretty quickly. Max took his "Santa's Helper" job very seriously - giving everyone gifts, helping them open pressies (read ripping paper like a crazy man) and running back for more. He was very focused on the job. Very Max.
















* A lovely Christmas lunch which was calmer and quieter than the usually chaotic Christmas lunch in Moree. Seriously good. Thanks Mum. And thanks for all your cooking.

* A quick trip to Bellingen for Mark and I. Seriously love Bellingen. We stayed in a little B+B we've stayed at many times before. It was a treat to stay there because it's pretty much off limits for us now as they don't take kids. We definitely need to find a family friendly place to stay in Bellingen.

* Seeing my great nieces. Holy cow. GREAT nieces. There are 3 of them: Ella, Taya and Zoe. They were all in Moree this week. Hooray. Gorgeous girls. All very different. All very precious.



* I was happy I had a new 1GB memory card for my camera this week. I thought it would be more than enough for my happy snaps - it was, but only just.

About the only thing that sent me crazy this week was Max screaming hysterically for nearly 4 hours (maybe more) just after Mark and I got back from Bellingen. Man that drove me insane. He is such a mama's boy. Doesn't cope well with me going away (or being out of his sight for more than 2 seconds). :(

This is the best family pic we got on Christmas Day. I guess it's not soooo bad. Just makes me realise how desperately I need to lose weight. *sigh*



Christmas was good fun. But the kids are completely crazy. Waaaaay too hyped up. Still. I think we're all about to have a post Christmas collapse. Maybe tomorrow.

We hope your Christmas was happy and joyful.

peace and love
xxxx

A day just for us

The lead up to Christmas this year has been insanely chaotic, mostly because of work stuff. No fun. We've never felt more out of control before Christmas than we have this year. Still got way too many presents to buy - and less than a week to Christmas. It WILL be different next year.

Last year we agreed we would start some family traditions so the kids had something predictable to look forward to at Christmas. Other than getting a truckload of presents from Santa that is. We've decided to go into town each Christmas to see the Christmas window displays in Myer, ride the Santa train and admire the enormous Christmas tree in the city. We went in on the weekend and it was lovely. Wombat Divine is the Myer Christmas story this year and it is absolutely delightful. Much more child friendly than Polar Express (which was last year's).

We even saw Santa again - frazzled Santa this time. When we saw Santa in Bundaberg last weekend he was much calmer and more down to earth. Maybe the Myer Santa is frazzled and a wee bit cranky because he is in the city or maybe because it's a week closer to Christmas. Who knows.

Last week in Bundaberg Ruby asked Santa for a pony. Just a teeny tiny little one. And a pink dolly. Santa was smart. He talked about how much time and effort it takes to look after a pony. Love you Santa. Ruby said a puppy would do, instead. *sigh* Max wants a Percy train. Santa said that was easy. He even knew that Percy is green. Well done Santa.

Christmas tree by daylight:

and by night:

Yes. I have some work to do learning how to keep my hands still while taking photos of lights, at night, without a flash. But it's such a pretty tree. Love it. And I especially love the bright white reindeers at the bottom of it. Sensational.

We're counting down the days till Christmas. Can't wait.

with peace, love and joy (and a wee bit of madness)

xxxx

Apparently....

but we didn't see it. :(

Max didn't last the distance. It probably wasn't reasonable to expect a 2 year old - who likes to be in bed by 8.00pm at the latest - to stay awake all hours to wait for wild sea animals to crawl up onto the beach according to their own schedule. The first turtle arrived at Mon Repos at 9.10 and the first group of visitors went down to watch her lay her eggs. We were in the 4th group. Unless there was a rush of turtles (not likely) we were not going to see any eggs being laid at Mon Repos. We went back to "our holiday house at buggera near funderbird" (a ruby'ism) at 9.15pm. The kids thought they had seen turtles, so that was good. We had rare family time during our weekend at Bargara, that was good too.

We went to the beach, went to the movies, went out for lunch and just generally pottered around. When we were coming home I asked Ruby what she enjoyed most about the weekend away she said "swimming with dolphins". Okaaaay. We're not quite sure when that happened, but it was obviously memorable. For her. ;)

it was a lovely way to spend a birthday weekend

peace and love to you

xxxx

Pre Christmas panic

Yep, the panic has set in. It usually arrives about this time of year when I realise it's only a couple of weeks until Christmas, I've still got gazillions of presents to buy (and post) and hardly any time to get to the shops. I'm feeling a wee bit out of control. Situation normal for us I guess.

We're going to Bargara this weekend, to visit Mon Repos to watch turtles lay their eggs. Such an amazing thing to see. I hope the turtles show up - there's never a guarantee! And I hope the kids love it. And I hope we're not eaten alive by sandflies.

This time last year my baby became a boy and I turned 40. Both milestone events. I was looking back through photos from this time last year and discovered one of Max and I on my birthday. I love it so much I've scrapped it twice. This was the day Maxie rode the Santa Express on his own. Ruby was with with him but jumped out at the last minute. Max was only 14 months old. He couldn't walk, couldn't talk and was prone to flinging himself around. I thought he'd throw himself out of the train for sure, but he stayed on and was very still and very serious. He was there with all the big boys and he was pleased with himself. I think he loved it. He takes things so seriously it's sometimes hard to know if he's enjoying himself. Anyway, here's one of the layouts I've done with the photo. :)


I'll post some turtle pics next week.

EDITED TO ADD:
I've just realised how teeny tiny that photo is in the layout. Here it is without the layout :)

peace and love to you

xxxx

Christmas waves a magic wand over the world.....

............. and behold, everything is more beautiful. I still don't have a photo of our Christmas tree in all it's glorious tinselled splendour, but here are some pics of Santa's helpers on the job.

Smiling:

Kissing:
Resting with mama:We've had a fabulously festive weekend. Lots of good food and good times with friends. After starting the Tony Ferguson diet just 2 days ago, I've already ditched it. It's impossible to get enough motivation to diet in December. I'll start again in January.

peace and love

xxxx

Crazy about Christmas

Christmas fever has hit our house. The tree went up last week and is bedecked with beautiful decorations, including some very beautiful hand made Ruby-esque creations. The Wiggles' "Santa's Rockin" and the Barbie "Nutcracker" DVDs are on rapid rotation. There is a lot of talk about Santa sightings and baby Jesus and when the presents will arrive. The book of choice right now is "Twelve Days of Christmas".

I love Christmas, very much, and I love how excited Ruby and Max are about the whole Christmas thing. Sometimes Ruby just shakes with excitement when she talks about Christmas: what she'll wear, what we'll eat, what it will be like to meet Santa, what presents we'll get.........

I made this sweet little book last night. I really need to get cracking on making cards now.




Enjoy the peace and joy and chaos of December
xxxx