Resolutions, no. Word, Yes!

I have to say I wasn't ready for New Year this year I spent so much time making the lead-up to Christmas something exciting and memorable that I didn't really think past the 27th. I don't make resolutions but like many people I normally turn over a new leaf as the calendar turns to January. I make sure all my Christmas junk food has been scoffed so I can start the new year with my good health in focus, there are exercise and weight loss goals on the agenda and for the past three years I have chosen a 'word' for the year a la Ali Edwards as well. This year I just wasn't ready. I had narrowed my word list down (although the word I have settled on wasn't on the short list) but that's as far as I had got. And with the kids rooms and other stuff to do around the house I wasn't prepared to stop and look inward. As January went on I didn't feel like it- I was on holiday, I was away, I had other priorities, I had Will, and my new year hadn't really started. In fact it never really does till school goes back that's when I feel like it all starts back. So I waited till now. That's a good thing because I'm not sure I would have gone with the word I have chosen if I hadn't had time to grow comfy with it.

In 2008 My word was Focus (because I am always pulling myself in multiple directions with my mind racing off on tangents and side bars). In 2009 my word was Healthy and I set 9 goals in three different areas of my life. Now is as good a time as any to review those.

Part 1: Me

1. Eat Right. Some of the time, not always, not enough. Fail
2. Drink More. Yes I did. I drank more Fraps and more coke than ever before. Fail
3. Move Daily. Um nope. Fail

Part 2: Home

1. Organised and Tidy. Still working on it but YES! Pass
2. Clean(er). No change. Fail
3. Comforting. Improved 6.5/10 Pass.

Part 3: Money

1. Spend Wisely. Nope, but I do have a much better awareness of which dark holes swallow up our cash. Not a total Fail.
2. Repay Debt. Yes and No. We did put actions in place to speed up some dept repayment. But we also got more debt. So: Fail.
3. Save for the future. Wah-hahahahaha. Fail.

2 and a bit out of 9 sounds fairly crap but it's better than zero and I'm pretty sure we've had years like that.

So this year? My word is

'Brilliant'

And that's what I am going to be.

I learnt a new way of looking at my word recently I was ready a blog post which talked about choosing a being word rather than a doing word. The post suggested that if you practice being the thing you want to be then the things you want to have will come to you. Rather than the opposite i.e. if I Do things to be healthy then I will have a better body, a healthy bank account and a healthy home and I will be happy/content etc.

So I'm going to be brilliant and as a result of being brilliant I'll have some cool stuff and I'll be doing things that I want and need to do... I haven't explained it really well and I can't find the link right now so hopefully you get the idea... or perhaps you think it's a bunch a baloney. Anyway this way of thinking was what brought me to the word 'brilliant'. To be honest I thought it was a bit audacious- kind of cocky and arrogant. But it stayed with me, coming back into mind every so often to the point where is now feels comfy and pretty much worn in.

Brilliant. I am Brilliant. I'm going to have a Brilliant life from here on in. That is Brilliant.

I decided among other things that I would try and create one brilliant thing every month (more if I can) not just one of my standard scrapbook pages but something that I really put some time and effort into- where I pay attention to details, maybe try some new technique(s) and out-do myself.

I also chose a sub-word for our family...

'Thrive'

I think this is really appropriate considering the year ahead-

1. Kieran's last year at Primary School and a year in which he will take a trip with his rugby club to Japan for 10 days (with no family in sight).
2. Merenia's first year in home school.
3. Another year of important growing and learning for Will.
4. We will also have another small person in our midst a friend's baby, Jake, whom I hope will also thrive in our care.
5. It's time for Les and I to thrive as well. More than just survive and make it through.. really live well.

The ugly truth is that I weigh 104.2 kg and my blood pressure is 130/80 which are both MORE than when I ended my pregnancy with Will (and about twice as much as I should weigh). I've been to the Dr and got some instructions which I am going to gradually phase in and I've got some blood work done so I have a baseline and a way of seeing improvement other than the scales. Les weighs even more than me and he's ready to start losing it as well.

We're going to start small. For February;

• From today not a carbonated drink, nor alcohol will pass the front door of our home. Nor will Les and I partake out side of home. Les has already given up Fraps and I have severely cut back.
• Merenia and I are going to walk daily with the littlies along for the ride to get fresh air and observe the world.
• I'm going to look after my teeth a lot better.
• We're going to let Merenia ease into home school.
• And I'm going to turn off the computer during the day so I can really focus on the wee guys.

Feel free to keep me accountable.

♥

Home is where the Heart is

This is the second last post for the Holidays in Hand series prompts and as I intend making the complete album sometime soon (I have started) I am finishing the journaling so that it's all done... I have to say my heart isn't really in it for this post.

So the prompt; Significance of home for the holidays- I'm not sure we actually have much significance for our home for Christmas. I guess if we were actually 'going home' for Christmas it might be different, but as we simply stay home it's not such a big deal.

When we look at our options for Christmas each year we consider 3/4 options (the first two of which is money dependent).

1. Traveling South to Christchurch; I never grew up in Christchurch so going there for Christmas is not like coming home as such and it's more about people than place- it doesn't feel like home.
2. Traveling South to Dunedin for Christmas; The last time we had a a Dunedin Christmas was at my uncle Mikes and though I remember one other Christmas there when Caity was not quite one it's not home either likewise a Christmas Day at Nana's Crib once again it's about people not place.
3. Traveling not so far south to Te Aroha for Christmas. Since Les' Dad died the divisions in Les' family have been a lot more apparent and on top of that there have been births and divorces which splinter the family even more. Christmas in Te Aroha is a juggling act of catching up with the various sections of the family. And it feels a lot more like duty than fun. Plus once again with Les' Mum having moved house since he left Te Aroha we're still not going home.
   
4. The final option is staying home in our home. On a good day I remember that we are incredibly lucky to have this place. It may not be what we would choose. But it is cheap, warm, has a great garden/yard and is just enough for our family of five. We live in an ok neighbourhood and are lucky to live close enough to some cool things and places. On a bad day it's too small, too dirty and mouldy and exposed to all and sundry. But it is our home and I think our family is happy to call it home. And often times at Christmas it's the best choice for us.

Obviously once we get posted again or Les leaves the RNZAF we'll have a new place so it's not like the kid's will be able to come home to the family home of their childhood for Christmas. I'm pretty sure I feel ok about that. But I do wonder what I would like for our kids in the future. Do I want one day for them to have a 'family home' for them to come home to?

Short of some serious financial good fortune I can't see that happening in Kieran's time at home and perhaps not even Merenia's. And when I really think about that I am ok with it. We've made a trade, if we had a mortgage I can see a bunch of items from my 130 list that wouldn't have happened- no doubt we would have still had the single most important thing- being together. But it's quite possible with a mortgage we wouldn't have the second most important thing on the list and that's being here at home to raise our kids ourselves. I'm fairly certain that when they are grown our children won't be saying "Gee I wish you had've gone out and worked Mum so we could have a house now". The trade off for some land and building materials to call our own vs. being a stay-at-home mum just isn't worth it. And then there's the extras with a mortgage Kieran's trip to Japan this year wouldn't be happening, Merenia would be heading off to school this year and much of our fun stuff would be no more.

So yeah I'm cool with no home of our own- I think it really is about people and not places. And when our kids are grown and have their own people we're not tied to feeling like we need/have to have Christmas in any particular place.

We are home, Les and I we are home for our children and Christmas can be where ever we are together and that's pretty darn significant.

♥

2009: The Good Stuff

Or: 130 Reasons Why We Are Incredibly Fortunate.

I'll most likely do a scrapbook page about this or something and it is also one of the last of 3 posts to finish up for 'Holidays in Hand". Here are the great, cool, good and simply awesome parts of 2009 (Each colour change represents a month change and the pink is a general category)

1. Catching up with Caitlin J.
   
2. Going out to Oratia with Ma and Kieley
3. Shakespeare Beach with the Brinkmans/Casbolts.
4. Valentines Lunch with Les at Waimauku.
5. BBQ with Tara and Family
6. Having a Day up at Scrapcamp.
7. Finding out some Shannon and Lisa were expecting
8. Getting flowers from the Nielson Girls
9. Attending Logan and Trudy's wedding together.
10. Nana Coming to stay and going up to Waiwera with her.
11. School Camp at MERC
12. Les completing the Mud Run
13. Hearing the news that Miss Wendy and Ashley were expecting.
14. Easter with the Raes
15. Kieran started playing Rugby
16. Will stared walking
17. Les went to Blenheim for Flt Sgt's Qual
18. I read Artemis Fowl 1-3
19. Discovered the blog 'Living Oprah'
20. Merenia got Player of the Day for Netball
21. Converted my scrap organisation to colour based
22. Kieran won a PS2 and appeared on Sticky TV
23. Our neighbours moved out.
24. The Cheifs made the finals and we watched the Semi at Dave L's with good food and good friends
25. We visited with Miss Lily and Miss Mannington
26. Machi and Camo came up and stopped by for a visit
27. Starbucks brought out Cinnamon Dolce Frappucinos
28. We got new vinyl in the kitchen
29. Friday night scrapbooking
30. Official St Johns Induction
31. Pyjama Party at home
32. Les got glasses (who knew he could be even hotter!)
33. I read all the lemony snicket books
34. The kids had Stage Challenge
35. Merenia played Rippa
36. We watched AB's Vs. France with the Raes.
37. Had Morning tea with Caitlin H, Natalia and Glenys
38. Merenia scored her first (two) goals in a match at netball
39. Les painted a Sea Sprite on the hangar doors
40. Les and Merenia went to the Thermal Thaw
41. Granny and Kieley took Merenia and Alyssa to the Mystics
42. Merenia started Mind Labs
43. Kieran started Correspondence Maths
44. Kieran represented the school at the Sci quiz and Hockey Interzones
45. Merenia and Alyssa saved our house from fire
46. We got all our stored stuff organised in plastic boxes
47. Got an A1 mat for my craft table
48. Watched a Mystics training with my netball girls
49. Kieran went to the transformers movie
50. Celebrated Les' birthday
    
51. Merenia went to the Hannah Montana movie
52. Watched Waikato play for free at Massey RFC
53. Kieran went to the All Blacks Road show
54. Les got his long-service medal
55. Three people we care for announced they were expecting babies in Feb 2010
56. Les went flying in Matamata and got 2nd place
57. Got an email from an old friend
58. Scored some cool stuff via trade me, the sally army store and scrapbook outlet
59. Scrapped 26 pages in a weekend
60. Miss Wendy brought us cupcakes
61. Had a great day out with Aneil at Mt Vic and Devonport
62. Granny and Kieley took Merenia to see the Silver Fern's Vs. The World
63. Kieran represented the school for Cross-country
64. Friday night scrapbooking
65. Grey's Anatomy Quiz Night with Lyn and Daniella
66. Had a neat Starbucks trip with Daniella
67. Celebrated Merenia's Birthday
68. Celebrated 11 years married to the loves of our life
69. Got a lovely bunch of flowers from my netball girls
70. Read all the Harry Potter books
71. The kids went to Christchurch for the holidays
72. K and M got great Maths reports
73. Merenia improved her Cross-country placing by 3
74. Kieran's rugby team got the Club Sportsmanship award
75. Kieran got ideal player for his team
76. Merenia got third in her first St Johns Comp
77. The Clematis flowered for the first time
78. Kieran invented YUMMY baked potatoes
79. Made a cool book for Les for fathers day
80. Finished collecting the years Power Play cards
81. I completed our 2009 Week In The Life Album pages
82. We got a new DVD recorder
83. Aneil brought us steak for dinner
84. I celebrated my birthday
    
85. Les cooked me a yummy meal
86. Put in a new raised garden bed
    
87. Brunch with the Corsans
88. Trip to the Takapuna Markets
89. Went to Ambury Park Farm Day
90. Kieran went to an AB's Training session
91. Enjoyed some cool movies on DVD
92. Tiny (Vienna) arrived
93. Ehren arrived
94. Got some cool stuff on Ebay thanks to an opportunity from Jan and Joe
95. Scored some cool stuff at Hasbro, Sally Army and Spotlight
96. Celebrated Kieran's Birthday
97. Kieran had a patrols trip to Rainbows End
98. Spent three cool weekends with the Dawson kids
99. Les went to Cambridge for Armistice and was then winched out of a Seasprite at Waitakere Stadium
100. Had dinner with the Carringtons
101. Kieran went to a couple of movies
102. Les had a weekend of glider flying
103. Merenia spent a week at Timatanga
104. Will got a prize in a colouring competition
105. Merenia got a basket of goodies in another colouring competition
106. I got some starbucks Christmas decos from two super ladies and some vouchers from one of them as well
107. We set up our paddling pool for the summer
108. Met Baby Jake
109. Celebrated Will's Birthday
110. Got a great big sandpit to enjoy
111. Got a new photo printer and a set of tiny deer
112. Had yummy summer food; ice creams, gucamole and fruit salad
113. Watched Elliot read his speech at Graduation
114. Celebrated Sally and Kevin's wedding
115. AucklandSoar BBQ
116. BBQ at Aneils place with friends
117. Trip to Kiwi Valley for Merenia
118. Merenia participated in the Kumeu Christmas Parade
119. Heaps of cool stuff in the lead up to Christmas
120. Merenia had what will hopefully be her last day of primary school
     
121. Celebrated Christmas
122. And enjoyed the school holidays
123. Completed a 365 album
     
124. Enjoyed the companionship of some great family, friends and neighbours
125. Enjoyed a truly abundant life
     
126. Got to raise, enjoy and love 3 of the most incredible children who ever lived
127. Spent countless hours in the company of each other
     
128. Ate well
129. Laughed often
130. Loved much

♥

Cards on the Mantle

Each year we send out Christmas Cards to our nearest and dearest and we also include our take on a Christmas Letter. Here's this years version.....


Because we send out cards we also get cards and the odd letter and photos as well. After Christmas I take the cards all down and use them to create a Scrapbook page like this....

If you can make out the stitching on the page you'll see that it is only on three sides forming a pocket which is where we keep the letters and photos we received from out friends.
♥

Taking it all down and our Boxing Day tradition

We leave our Christmas Decorations up for 12 Days after Christmas that means that everything gets packed up by the end of the day on the 6th of January. Until about 25 odd seconds ago I thought that was the start of Candlemas. But my Internet research has just revealed that it isn't. :-) So what I was brought up to believe was that the 7th was the start of Candlemas and that if you had any decorations still hanging about your home on that day that bad spirits would find them and you would have bad luck because of it. I didn't necessarily believe it but it was a good reason to have a set date. :-) Plus in this tiny house I get sick of the fuss and the busyness not to mention the imposing nature of our tree after a relatively short time so the 6th is really about my limit.

NB: Candlemas is actually dated as 40 days from the Nativity so therefore the 2nd of February. I think that the 6th of January date may come from the alternative date of the Nativity as believed by some Christians as in Russia where 'Christmas Day' is the 6th. They celebrate their Candlemas on the 14th of February. Religion is not my thing so don't quote me on this though, ok.

This from good old Wikipedia...

"Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe;

Down with the holly, ivy, all,

Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall"

Robert Herrick (1591–1674), "Ceremony upon Candlemas Eve"

As the poem by Robert Herrick records, the eve of Candlemas was the day on which Christmas decorations of greenery were removed from people's homes; for traces of berries, holly and so forth will bring death among the congregation before another year is out. Another tradition holds that anyone who hears funeral bells tolling on Candlemas will soon hear of the death of a close friend or relative; each toll of the bell represents a day that will pass before the unfortunate news is learned.

Last year on Boxing Day Kieran and I and at times Finlay watched a huge Dr Who marathon on Prime... this year much to our disappointment they didn't do that. We had planned to have a DVD watching day so we could also just relax and have a cruisy relaxing day but that didn't happen either instead we just fumbled about doing what ever took our fancy. I think that may have been my fault as I went to download the Christmas Day photos from the camera and ended up filling the Hard drive. That meant I spent the rest of the day weeding it out and freeing up some much needed GB! There's still more to go but I am getting there.

♥

Christmas Day in pictures

Christmas Day started at 6:30am....



6:50ish






9:00am-ish

2:00pm-ish

5:30pm-ish



8:30pm-ish

♥

Christmas Eve And Anticipation

Aaaarrrggghhhhh, motivation, energy, will, blah. I really want to finish the prompts for Holidays in Hand because I can REALLY see the potential for this work in an album in my minds eye. It's going to be the sort of album that we keep forever and refer to often and hand down and I hope it will motivate families that stem from our family to add some tradition and magic and fun into their own Christmas Celebrations in years to come. But oh my it's hot and it's holidays and everyone is home, energy is sapped and my mind is elsewhere!

Anyway, Christmas Eve. At our house on Christmas Eve there are the standard last minute preparations. The most important of which includes glazing and baking the Ham.


Our ham glaze is a non-reciped mixture of 'Bit on the side Apricot sauce", Orange Juice and brown sugar heated together to dissolve the sugar and then poured over the Ham and basted over and over as we bake the yummy flavour in over about 2 hours. This year we happened to have some fresh Apricots so I put those on as well.

We have a nice together family dinner of a Roast generally Chicken although we'd prefer it to be lamb! With gravy, stuffing, roast vegetables and fresh corn on the cob! I really like this as a tradition as there is the potential for the night to be rushed, stressed and full-on but knowing this dinner is coming we are sorted to sit down calmly.

After dinner we wait. This year we played outside and also spent some time inside watching the Norad site to see what Santa was doing. Once we can see that dusk is setting in the kids and I head out to check out the neighbourhood light displays. There's not a heck of a lot where we are and I recommend a pre-check without kids a few nights before Christmas so you can end the trip on a high. This year was Wills first- to be honest I didn't expect him to be out so late (10pm) so young but due to circumstance he had a late sleep and was a chirpy as a chirpy thing so we took him along.


When we got home we checked Norad again, the kids did their teeth and then after the big kids put their personally purchased presents under the tree and then headed for bed.

Before Les and I hit the hay we set up the video camera to record Santa's Visit. This is some thing we have done for years. Santa of course is incredibly fast so that you can't even see him but you do manage to see the presents as they build up under the tree, it's amazing. Unfortunately it's recorded on VHS so I can't upload it but now that we have a DVD HD recorder perhaps we'll be able to digitize and upload it. Santa does the stockings first I believe and then the tree, he wishes us Merry Christmas as he leaves and if you listen closely you can hear the sleigh bells jingle.

Do you remember as a child going to bed on a school night during the summer, especially in the first week or so back after the holidays? You could see that the sun was still high outside, the bedroom was light as day, and you could hear people still enjoying the day outside your window. It was like fun and excitement was just on the other side of the wall but you couldn't get to it. I think Christmas Eve feels like that, it's so close but yet so far.... and even though you know it's just there you still have to go to sleep to get to it.

♥

Stockings

Today's prompt for Holidays in Hand relates to Stockings do we hang them? Do they have special meanings? traditions? contents?

So... our kids all have felt stockings with their names on them, made be me in time for their first Christmas (yes even Will's). We hang them on their door handles or on their beds and then Santa fills them up on Christmas Eve and leaves them on the ends of their beds. The stocking contents have been known to vary in size depending on the tidiness (or not) of the recipients bedrooms- I do wish Santa was a bit more of a hard arse in this respect though. :-)

On Christmas morning the kids come into our room (not before 6:30am or 7am if Will is still asleep- he's still in our room at the mo) and open the contents of their stockings and inhale the chocolate there within.

They always get Chocolates in the form of Santa's and gold coins and such and some other varied lolly supplies, a small can of Pringles chips and a new tooth brush. Then they get a mixture of stuff like mini bubble baths, glow sticks, and in Will's case rubber stamps and stickers and other little bits and bobs.

♥

When I was a kid...

From left to right; Tara Taylor, Berri (Berinthia) Binnie, Me, Kerri Cleaver, Suzy Duncan. DIC Santa circa 1990/1. As an aside I remember Berri once said that she had a dream that she died no one who came to her funeral wore black except me and that, that didn't count because I always wore black. :-)

The HIH Prompt for the 22nd was Name one Holiday ritual you practice because it reminds you of childhood. What specific recollections do you have of the ritual that stand out in your mind?

I'm not sure if these are rituals so much as traditions but here goes...

I can't remember a year in my life that I didn't visit Santa and I think most times we would have got a photo although I don't have the evidence to prove that. We always do with our kids in fact we did it on Monday see....


We always get the kids an Advent Calendar... this year is advent calendar madness; We have the homemade muffin tin ones we made with the Dawsons, the kids each have a very commercial Chocolate Calendar and likewise commercial Lego and Littlest Pet Shop Calendars for K and M and finally Kieran has a school made calendar also with lollies. Personally I'd much rather they had the ones of my childhood that had lovely glittery traditional Christmas Scenes (Oh which one to choose!!??) and each door opened to reveal a little picture of mice, or pixies or some other sweet thing.

And we have in the past few years instituted a tradition of having a nice meal (Roast Chicken usually) on Christmas Eve which was something we did in my house when I was a kid though it was normally a VERY nice cut of beef or lamb - not sure how that was afforded on top of everything else, one of the perks of a butcher in the family maybe?

♥

Light

(Not our house... do love that 'Christmas Whale' though!)

The HIH Prompt for day 21 asked about; the significance of light, traditions relating to light.

I don't believe that light has any significance as such for us at Christmas but we do definitely have traditions.

This year we started a new one which was to have sleep out under the tree the kids watched a movie by the light of the tree and slept in the lounge in front of the tree all night. In the future I hope to make this the night when we first read the years new 'Christmas Book' but as Jake was visiting I skipped the stories as 'uncool' (yeah dumb I know!).

Other than that we generally don't have our Christmas lights on till Christmas Eve so I guess that's a tradition... I think it helps build the atmosphere and excitement of the event.

Finally each year on Christmas Eve we go out just before dusk and check out the light displays on local neighbourhood houses just me and the kids (except the year Will was born due to the post Caesar driving ban) when we get home Les has the house lit for Christmas. I would love to have an inconspicuous camera or voice recorder in the car during these trips as the conversations are classic. One year the kids came up with 50 odd reasons why the Santa doubters were quite obviously fools (Merenia still believes, Kieran is a half believer... I know he's real I read his blog). We invariably think that we may just have spotted his shadow across the sky or heard the Sleigh bells which provides an excellent reason to head home at max speed and head quickly for PJ's and bed... I mean after all if 'he' catches you awake you'll miss out on the good stuff!

♥

Blessed

I am a little behind for my Holidays In Hand prompts not because the holidays aren't in hand, they very much are. But in fact because we been taking some time to do 'not much'. Things like talking and reading and kid watching, and crafting and such.

In case you were wondering these prompts will go together to make an album or albums... I haven't quite decided on the format yet. Probably an album which I'll give the working title "Christmas Stockley Style" and a whole bunch of pages for the album I have that is called; Gypsy- Collected Stories (A 'book of Me' album for those of you who are scrapbookers out there).

So the prompt from the 20th..... Something I feel incredibly blessed and grateful for;

Well Duh!
Les, Kieran, Merenia, Saskia and Will.
Extended Family
Les
Friends
Les
The opportunity to be at home to really raise our kids.
Les
The Defence Force and Les (they pay for our lifestyle and provide our home, relatively crummy though it may be, and give our kids the awesome gift of being 'Airforce kids').
Coming to my senses about the state school system.
Les
Scrapbooking and other creative outlets.
Les
Books.
Les
Food
Les
Sleep
and most of all Les.

How have the holidays changed since I had children; They are relatively the same but more expensive and the workload has shifted. :-) And I do kind of miss the mystery and excitement that you get as a kid on Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning.

♥

Passed On

Yesterdays prompt for Holidays in Hand was: Write about an object or holiday item you inherited. If there is a specific instance in connection with it. Or why it is significant.

I do have some Christmas decorations from when I was a kid but I'm not sure as to how I got them because I sure as heck wasn't gifted them in any nice hand-me-down sort of way so I figured I might skip this prompt. :-) It did make me think about what we might do for the kids in the future as I'm quite attached to my decorations so I'll have to figure what we might hand on at some future point when that becomes appropriate.

♥

Good Will

Every year we buy a gift for the K Mart Wishing Tree. We did try and buy something for a child the age Saskia would have been each year but after we discovered the Hasbro Sale the opportunity to buy a super cool present at a super cool price was just too good to pass up. So now we buy whatever is going that will make someones day- this year we got a big Tonka truck for some wee dude out there.

Last year for the first time we donated gifts to the Women's Refuge both for kids and a grown-up. IN that situation you actually get the age and sex of the child you are buying for which is cool.... but also meant that I went a bit over the top. It was really cool to buy for a grown-up too though... nice to know that someone who was obviously having a fairly crappy year would have a little high point. We haven't done it this year but will certainly try to again in the future.
I try and make sure that we put some good stuff into the food bank bin each year around this time as well. I like to do canned fruit because it's yummy and good for you and I always wonder about some of the stink stuff that you see in there sometimes!


The same goes for the SPCA a couple of cans of cat or dog food don't go a miss especially as this is the height of kitten season and pet abandonment time!

In the last year that I taught at school we did a term where we looked at ways to give back to the community. The kids went to a rest home to sing carols and gave out hand made cards to the residents taking a bit of time to stop and chat. They also reprised their Chocolate Brownie business raising money to buy gifts for the Salvation Army to give out- we were lucky to get a good deal from Hasbro for that as well. And they volunteered their time at a location of their choice- some just helped out in classes at school and some made a big effort to go to places like the SPCA and do some volunteering.

In Dunedin their was a 'Grant a Wish' Scheme faciltated by the local paper older members of the community rang in their wishes and these were recorded and then other citizens rang and got the details of the wish or wishes they could grant. Among other things I recall taking Cat food to one lady and home baking to another. A third wanted to go out for a drive on Christmas Day and so I went and picked her up and took her for a big drive including up Mt Cargill from which you can get 360 deg views of the whole district and city. I gave her a present as well before dropping her home.

When the kids are older- perhaps even when they have fled home and we have Christmas just the two of us we'd like to go and volunteer to help do Christmas lunch at the City Mission or some other similar organisation- it would be good to do with the kids when they are older to give them an insight to just how good they have it as well as engendering in them the will to help others.

Of course there is also the option of giving goats and chickens in lieu of gifts to poorer communities in Africa etc. But I actually prefer the idea of working through Kiva. Through Kiva you can loan money to people in poverty and give them the opportunity to help themselves and improve their life and that of their community. You can loan as little as $25 you choose exactly who you want to loan to and you get a background on the person and what they want to do with the money. Kiva has a 98% repayment rate and once your money is repaid you can choose to get it back or you can reinvest in another person or group. It's pretty cool I reckon.

And that is my idea of Good Will at Christmas!

♥

The Big Guy: Santa

Traditions and Preparations for Santa;

Each year we go and get a Santa photo taken.... it's a terrific record of how much the kids have grown and just how much weight we've put on!

Christchurch With Sam and Caity 1996- the first year Les and I were together at Christmas

Hamilton 1997 Kieran approx 4 weeks old

Merenia's First Santa Photo

Dunedin with Caitlin

Will's First Christmas- 4 days old- yeah that's me 4 days post major surgery!

On Christmas Eve we put out food and drinks for Santa and the Reindeer, and that is the sum total of our Santa Prep.

This year I was also looking at getting the kids to write a thank-you to leave out for him as well. In years past the kids also wrote letters to Santa. Then they started doing them at school (which as a scrapbooker annoys me because I'd like a copy (if not the original) of the letters). I remember one year I believe it was Merenia wrote Santa a letter and in it asked if Santa had taken the Christmas Cake that they had made at Kindy. The kids had been told that they'd have some at the Christmas Breakfast but for what ever reason that didn't happen. Because Santa came to the Kindy Christmas Breakfast and after that day the cake wasn't where it had been Merenia thought he took it and if my memory serves me she asked him to bring it back!

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Gifts

So today's prompt asked me: What am I most excited to give this year?

Are you kidding me? Why in the heck would I want to talk about that BEFORE Christmas?

So I decided to go with what I have enjoyed giving and what I have enjoyed getting....

My number one all time favourite gift to give is books. I LOVE books! Books are the most amazing incredible thing you can ever imagine. Books Rock.

Miss Caity J's first Christmas... I got her books before she was even born!

It's also fun to give yummy food, and big gifts that are true surprises. I'd love to be able to give Kieran one of those huge mega expensive Star Wars Lego sets. I'd love to be able to give Will a 'Mouncey-Mouncey' (aka Trampoline) and I'd love to be able to give Merenia a horse and a stable hand to look after it! I'm stuffed if I know what I'd like to get Les he's hard to buy for. :-(

I don't really like getting gifts from people that I wouldn't normally buy for it makes you feel pretty stink. I remember getting a gift set of some flash liqueur once from someone in the family and I'm pretty sure we hadn't got anything for them or if we had it was about 1/5th of the price of their gift. I also hate getting stuff that I really would never in a million years want especially from someone that we are close to it just makes you wonder what they were thinking... and also wish that you could have just got the cash. It also bugs me when people get gifts for the kids that their parents might not necessarily choose... drums, guns, war games, anything with a million tiny pieces (esp if it involves glitter), pets, Bratz and/or stuff that the parents themselves couldn't really afford to buy.

My most memorable Christmas gifts as a kid were both of my bikes particularly my 10 speed. Which I got when I was about 13. A fake record player that I got from my Auntie Suzanne it played the same four plastic records (over and over) it was plastic and pink and I loved it!! And my camera which I believe took this photo of me and Tiger (the worlds best ever cat!).

The second part of the prompt asked about wrapping and giving traditions. We wrap our gifts in a fairly standard manner. Although I do remember getting seriously creative one Christmas and sticking lollies and all sorts of cool stuff like plastic bugs and such on the outside of the gifts and going nuts with the ribbon. But now days the sheer volume of pressies with three kids and the cost of Christmas food wise makes getting posh with the wrapping not a happening thing!

As for gift giving; Santa leaves the kids stockings on the end of their beds and they come into our room and open them on the bed together scoffing chocolates as they go and then we all get up, get decent, go to the loo and calmly head for the tree in the lounge where we take turns to open the gifts- we don't have a specific person hand them out or anything. We do try and make sure that the person has finished unwrapping before the next person gets their present... but that can be a little hard at times. Then once it's all done we leave the mess and go get breakfast sorted while the kids enjoy their stuff.

If we had more money I'd like to institute the tradition of buy the kids all new PJ's and giving them to them on Christmas Eve to wear to bed that night. But I'd like to think we wouldn't get them much more than we already give them now.

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Hope

I have been putting this one off I wasn't too sure to handle it the prompt is talk about the idea of 'Hope' as it applies to the holidays. And how as the promise of hope changed since I became an adult?

To be honest as a teenager I was a regular viewer of Days of Our Lives. I would tape it as did my friend Suzy Duncan. When we got to our respective homes each day after school we'd cue the tape to the starting moments... "as the sands through the hour glass so are the days of our lives".....then one of us would call the other and we'd sit and watch it 'together' over the phone. Shocked, wowed, amused and sometimes just plain frustrated. So what comes to my mind when I think of Hope...

Mmmmm-mmmm rocking out that head gear!!

I've come to the conclusion that I don't really do 'hope'. I mean sure I hope we win Lotto. I hope Will will have a day time sleep without me. And I hope the weather will hold off on the day we've planned a picnic at the beach.

I also dream. I have big dreams and small dreams... houses, holidays, scrapbook rooms and cherry liqueur chocolates (where oh where can they be??).

And I also do. I just get on with it. If you spend all your time hoping then you are unlikely to ever get what it is your hoping for.

As for the promise of hope since I became an adult.... First of all I think this question really relates to God and the hope that Gods and His son Jesus gave people. I don't really do God I respect that there may be a God and I respect that people may want to follow God. But I am not going to depend on some future hope of utopia when I can enjoy my life NOW. And I'm also not going to rely on one great Saviour to give me strength when I already have it in myself and I think I'd feel a lot prouder of using my own strength than of having to depend on God's especially as it seems to me that He is not usually forth coming just when people need Him most.

So I think since I've become an adult I put less energy into hope because I now truly have the independence, ability and strength to just do for myself rather than to hope for some higher power.

Oooohhh that ended up a bit deeper than I thought. It's funny though- I sound just like Hope- that's what she'd do... go out there fight Stefano, save Marlene and discover John Black's true identity and find a way to get back with her true love. Who knew I'd learn one of lifes great lessons watching Days of Our Lives?

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I'll be back later with a post about gifts in the meantime we are off to get Ice Creams it's the Holidays let's celebrate! HoooooRAY!

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Christmas People

This Christmas it will just be us five. In the past we have hung out with both of our families in Te Aroha, Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland, and the last two years we were fortunate to spend the with the Rae's.

We both have a bit of an issue with it just being us 5 it feels a bit like a glorified Sunday with good food and new stuff. But as I've said before travelling south isn't in the budget. We're not really in the mood to do Les' family and friends and neighbours up here all have their own things going on. So it'll just be us and we'll probably head out at some point and do something special.

As a kid we always had my grandfather with us from around mid morning. My maternal grandmother didn't live in the same city as us from relatively early on so we generally had lunch at home with my grandfather, and two aunties, Rach and Lou as well as me, my Mum and Dad. Then we'd head to Nana's where It'd be at the very least: Nana, Poppa, everyone who'd been at our place for lunch, Aunties; Brace, Bronny and Wendy, Uncles Robin, MB, Tony, and Graham and Cousins; Danny, Toni-Marie, Steven, Michael, Anna and Thomas.

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The Tree

If you had have told me when I was 18 that I'd have a fake Christmas Tree one day I would NEVER have believed you. When we went to Australia trees were $40 for a twig. FORTY DOLLARS hello? We spent $110 on a fake tree. that was in 1998 so that means we have now put it up for the 12th time meaning that's it's cost us less than $10 a year and it's still going strong. I do REALLY miss the real Christmas tree smell and if we won lotto I'd most certainly go back to real especially as they are so flash and pretty up here in Auckland! But I'm happy with the fake- the needles were a pain to vacuum and we invariably ended up with sticky gum on the decorations and it never really looked all that hot by the time the big guy made his drop.


One particularly memorable tree getting occasion happened around 1995 my friend Micheal and I drove the triumph up to the Kilmog Hill and scoped out a nice looking self seeded pine on a bank on the side of the road. Micheal, saw in hand, jumped out of the car and made his way up the bank to the chosen tree. I parked up the car a 100 or so metres away up the top of the hill. I couldn't see Micheal but I could see the violent shaking of the tree. After it fell I looked out for a space in the Motorway traffic, tooted my horn and drove down the hill. At the same time Micheal dragged the tree down to the side of the road- we stuffed it into the car and headed home laughing. :-)


Now days it's a short drive to the garage on base for the tree and out to the shed for the decorations. Les puts up the tree and then together we put on the lights, tinsel and garland type deco's. Les does the top half and I do the bottom. We make sure the lights are spread out evenly and then it's all on. There's no real method it's all just madness. Everyone does put their own decorations on the tree but other than that it's open slather. This is the first year that Will has had a turn decorating so there were three branches down the bottom of the tree that all had about six decorations each. But since Sunday he's removed most of those in his total fascination with the tree and it's and I have put them all back a little higher- so those bottom branches are now looking a little bare.

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