A Christmas post and a half

I've decided that I quite fancy doing a bit of a Christmas wrap up. I know it's nearly February, but I also know how much I enjoy looking back on the memories.

So. Christmas!

This year was the first year that I had a beach Christmas. We spent a couple of weeks at the beach and to be honest, the whole Christmas holiday was a bit... interesting. Some of it was great, and other parts, not so much. I think Shane and I both came away deciding we will never try to have our 'holidays' over Christmas again. It's just so busy! We went to Noosa, which is probably one of the busiest beach destinations for Christmas in Queensland. But aside from that, it's also hard to lose so many of your precious holiday days with all the assorted Christmas hoopla. We are not really crazy shopping, busy-doing holiday people. Our idea of a nice holiday is a chance to properly unwind, and we didn't really get that. But, oh well, you live and you learn!

In saying that, some of the good times of the holiday were pretty great. Christmas day was spent with some of Shane's extended family. And Shane and I did manage to sneak away for a lovely Christmas Eve service at Hillsong Noosa. Very very, not what we are used to, but good all the same. Christmas day was spent opening so many presents (So early! Our kids were up at 4:30 am!).

So many presents!

Look at that tired face!

After the madness that was present opening, we all headed up to Shane's Aunty's house in the Noosa hinterland. Her house was all kinds of amazing, and one of the nicest parts of the day was the fact that the kids spent hours in the pool. It was a really fun time, especially because so many of the adults got in the water with the kids, and that always makes things so much more fun doesn't it? I remember how much I used to love it when my parents and Aunties and Uncles would swim with us when I was a kid, and I want to make sure I have fun with my kids. I think we did this Christmas, anyway!

 

 

All tuckered out

A few days after Christmas we headed inland to my sister's house to have our Christmas with my side of the family. That was a good day. I really like my family. 

It's a bit funny. The dynamics in my family have really changed a lot recently. I am one of four girls, and I just love it. It's so nice, but I've realized it's only as nice as you make it. For a while in our adult lives, we all lived in the same town. Which was so great, and made family relationships so easy. But sometimes it made them too easy, if that makes sense? It enabled us to be lazy with our relationships and take them for granted, because it was so simple and easy to see one another all the time. A couple of years ago, my sister Jenny moved away with her family, and now my sister Cathy has moved away too. And unless the effort is put into sustaining those relationships and making them a priority... we simply won't be as close as we once were. I don't want that to happen, so it's something I'm going to try to be mindful of in the future.

Our trip to see my family was a bit of comedy of errors. On the way inland it was pouring down rain, and while Shane was driving we lost a windscreen wiper. We ended up stopping at the next little town, and thanks to the magic of Google, managed to find a replacement wiper without too much hassle. Then, after we left my sister's house in the afternoon, we got a call from and realised we'd left Shane's laptop and my kindle at her house. But it ended up being a really good thing,  we turned back to pick them up. and met everyone at a lovely park, and had so much fun on a giant flying fox there.

 

We took the kids to Underwater world with Shane's parents, and cousin Cassi, and the kids really enjoyed that.

There was also one morning when Shane and I took the kids for a bushwalk up to a lookout, which was pretty amazing. The walk was only a kilometre, but it was uphill all the way, and was plenty long enough for little legs!

It really made me look forward to doing that kind of thing when the kids are older though. So beautiful!

Probably one of my favourite days, was the day we spent with my sister Cathy, and my nieces Isabel and Rachel. We took Charlie on a go kart ride for his Birthday, and then we went to an amusement park.  The kids had an absolute ball on all the rides. It was a really good day.

We celebrated Charlie's birthday with a cake that Charlie loved. It was only a Woolworth's cake that I repurposed to turn into an accident site. But he was really taken with it. 

My baby is three!!

I think doing the birthday cake thing has to be one of those real defining parenting moments. It is good. 

Goodness this has been a doozy of a post! Well done you if you made it to the bottom!

It was a very busy holiday. But I think we made a few really good memories.

29 and 11

I realised the other day that I haven't written too much lately about the kids. Which is a shame, because they are pretty great. So I thought I'd do an update on where my two cheeky monkey's are at lately.

Georgie. Where do I start? She is almost 2 and a half. She is bright and clever and independent. She is always a couple of steps ahead of me, and I swear some days I can just see the wheels turning in her little head. She is such a little mama. She 'mothers' poor Charlie to death at times, but she is also so incredibly helpful, and such a little mimic, and is terribly funny!

 

 She is on her way to being toilet trained, and wears undies almost all of the time now, and is only still in nappies when she sleeps. And oh, how she loves to swim! Every time we step foot in a pool I get comments about how good at swimming she is, how much she loves it, or how enthusiastic she is. I swear she is part dolphin. We have just started swimming lessons this term and she loves it! She is one of the very youngest in her class, but she holds her own with the bigger kids. She is getting very capable in the water now, and my only trouble is making sure she is not too capable. She does have a tendency to just jump in, whether someone is ready to help her or not! But she is a good little swimmer.

 

 She loves routine. She loves to dance, and is turning into a little chatterbox. She is also turning into a real little girl, loves to dress in 'pretty dresses' and is getting so beautiful. She is my girl, and she is lovely.

And Charlie. How I adore my boy! He is the most awesome little baby boy in the world!

He is so sweet, and cuddly. But he can also be a little ball of mischief as well. He is 11 months old now, (almost 1!) outgrowing a lot of his soft baby chubbiness and he is starting to get a lot more muscular. He is standing up on everything and his favourite thing to do is push around kitchen chairs, walking behind them and making a tremendous noise. He will be walking soon. He also LOVES  food with a passion, especially big people food!

 He is a practically perfect baby and has been sleeping the night through since he was about 6 months old. He has basically ruined me for another baby, should we ever have one. He tends to be quite cheerful most of the time, and rarely gets grumpy. Mind you, when he is grumpy he will sometimes hit and pull hair and lash out a little. His philosophy seems to be "If I'm unhappy, I'm going to tell the whole world about it and make them unhappy too!" It will be interesting to see if he sticks with that one as he gets older! It's definitely a good thing he is rarely cranky! Before I had him I wasn't too sure about being a mummy of boys, but he has made me so incredibly grateful to God for a son. Because I love this kid to bits.

We have been jogging along steadily. We are hanging out for holidays, and a break. This last week has seen a bit more limping (it's been a rough week). But for the most part, we are doing okay. I am doing much better, and my bad days are not so bad. And, though we have our struggles and our difficulties, life with these guys is pretty good.

Something worthwhile....

Tonight we had the Watoto children's choir come do a concert in our town.

Wow.

Watoto Children’s Choirs have traveled internationally since 1994 as advocates for the estimated 50 million children in Africa, orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS, war, poverty and disease.

These are children who know suffering. They know pain. But they also know Jesus. You can see it all over their faces, hear it in their beautiful voices. They really, really love God. It's wonderful to see.

I almost didn't go. Shane is still quite sick, which meant I had to go alone. It was on at 7pm, and at 6:30pm I was still not sure if we were going. I fed Georgie, bathed them both and packed them in the car, but I was still in two minds about going. We were running late, an excellent reason to turn back. Charlie was hungry and I was not excited at the prospect of trying to feed him there. I was almost going to turn around and go home as soon as I parked the car. There were just too many cars there, and it had already started. But then I saw my sister arriving with her children and thought 'What they heck, just try. If it just doesn't work you can always go home.' But we stayed. I parked Georgie on Jenny's lap (because she's wonderful like that), and just stood up the back with Charlie next to my friend who was there rocking her baby girl... and I just took it all in. And I am glad. It was amazing.

You want to see Joy? You look at the beautiful smiling faces of rescued Ugandan orphans. They know Joy.

 

It was like a drink of water when I have been so thirsty. These children, who have suffered through far worse than I ever have, reminded me about the joy of the Lord. They just absolutely love Jesus. It's not just a show, it's not an act. They are so in love with God, and it just radiated from them.

I know the blogosphere has been abuzz about Africa ever since Eden went there. And since then I have not written so many posts because they seem so trivial, and insignificant and unworthy. But this is worth talking about.

It's not about comparing. My pain, my problems, they are still problems. They may not be the biggest problems in the world, but they are still my problems. And they are still valid. But it does give some perspective. If these children can worship and praise and love God so much, despite all their circumstances, surely I can too? And if I can do something to help more children to rise up out of horrible circumstances, then why don't I?

Kate, at Kate says stuff recently had her sister share on her blog about her experience in Zambia. In it she mentions how vital it is to support the smaller less visible organizations. I think that the Watoto group could be one of those, The work they do, and they way they do it, looks pretty amazing. I don't normally do this on my blog, but if you want to, go check them out, and see what they do!

Listography - Cartoon Characters from my youth

I decided to link up with Kate Takes Five for her Listography linky when I saw what the theme this week was. Cartoon characters from your youth? Fun times. So after lots of YouTube and google- I have found them! Some of mine aren't cartoons, but they all are the TV shows that I used to watch as a child.

1. Gumby

It may have taken me a while to find this little guy, I thought his name was Gumpy. Regardless, now I look back, this green dude is seriously weird.


2. Mr Squiggle

That theme song. I can still recite the whole damn thing. This show was pretty awesome. When playing with Georgie, I will often dangle her by her legs and chant 'Upside down! Upside down! Everything's upside down these days!'. They should totally bring Mr Squiggle back.


3. The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible

This was a direct-to-video series produced by Hanna-Barbera. It was about three adventurers. Architects, Derek and Margo, and 'their nomad friend Moki' who used to travel back in time to watch biblical events unfold.

My Grandma had the videos and the show really reminds me of rainy days spent watching TV in her lounge room. I have no idea how factual it was but as a child I enjoyed it. This show evokes so many memories.


4. Captain Planet

Captain Planet, he's our hero.... gonna take pollution down to zero. I used to LOVE this show. It's really quite dodgy, and it was quite ahead of it's time if you think about it. A show in the 90's all about taking care of the planet? I'm surprised that they haven't brought it back. My cousins and I used to run around my backyard playing it out. We used little bathroom o-rings as our planateer rings and my cousin Emma and I both always wanted to be Linka (Oh yeah, we were cool).

You know what really ticks me off about this show now though? There wasn't a planateer from Australia! They had 5 kids from all corners of the globe, which should be one from each continent, but instead they had two from America, one from North and one from South. Rude!


5. The Secret World of Alex Mack

Again, this is not a cartoon. But Alex Mack is just the show that was my pre-teen and young teenage years. I wanted to be her. She was just so cool. Remember her quirky hats? I used to try to dress like her, and in my secret fantasies I was totally like her. Good times. Before vampires and werewolves and wizards and witches. Just classic 90's dagginess at its best.



So that's my list. So many memories. Why not link up with Kate and share your own?

But before you do, could you please pop over to the Circle of Mums page and vote for me?