Bad Jokes, Face Time, Tears and a Wardrobe Malfunction

In those few words, you have summed up my Christmas. 🙂

We had a wonderful time with the grandchildren last night and they were a constant source of giggles and joy. They all filed in, said hello and then promptly went straight out the back door toward the pool. Can’t say that I blame them since the weather was stinking yesterday. Whilst we sipped a glass of wine we watched the First Born, the Tween and four of the grandchildren play in the water with their floaties and pool noodles. We smiled and laughed at the appropriate times to the cries of “Watch me do this” or “Look at me doing that”. We giggled as the youngest (who wasn’t in the pool) couldn’t quite get the hang of the water pistol and kept shooting himself in the face before giving up and putting it in his mouth and drinking the contents of the clear plastic gun. We clapped when Miss Five swam a lap of the pool. And we applauded also when Miss Six showed us that she could swim without floaties.

Then out came the bubble wands and the fun in the back yard continued in earnest. After all this fun, we heard Santa coming up the street in his fire engine. Squeals of delight rang out as all children scrambled to get the bags of lollies thrown out to them by Santa’s helpers in the back of the engine. Only the adults noticed that Santa had very smooth skin under the beard and was well padded in her his chest area 😉 Inside for dinner and the children were at the table (before the adults had had an opportunity to gather their thoughts)  and working out the seating arrangements for everyone. The little girls decided to sit at the smaller table and socialised whilst eating their well balanced (!!) meals of cold meats and lollies. (It was Christmas so we weren’t terribly upset). Then the Christmas crackers came out. With the cracker pulling (every single one from the box found was pulled by the young ones) came the bad jokes. All of which were read out by Miss Six. Most of the jokes were groan worthy but Miss Six found them hilariously funny. Miss Almost Five just kept grinning her mischievous pixie grin. Master Three decided that playing games and chasing the cat was more fun than eating and Mister almost Two toddled off to join him. The night heard squeals of delight and lots of thank yous and “Just what I’ve always wanted”. (Love you Lils) around the Christmas Tree afterwards. And then they changed into their pj’s to listen to the Tween read an Aussie Night Before Christmas whilst holding their battery candles. (Except for Master Three who had two and put them against his eyes and made scary monster noises). *sigh* After kisses and hugs, they all went home and peace descended upon our home once more.

I woke at my usual time this morning (just before 5am), remembered it was Christmas Day and went back to sleep. I got up just before 8 to a silent house and went around opening up to let in the morning air (that was already heating up). I found the Tween in the lounge room unpacking her santa sack. She decided to try some of her new hairclips on the Diva and our giggles bought out the Garden Gnome. The phone rang. It was the middle child. We decided we would Face Time and set a time for a couple of minutes from now. Since I was in my nightie and just out of bed, I raced to my walk in robe to find something to wear and brush my hair. Finding nothing I quickly ironed a loose cotton dress, threw it on, made a cup of tea and then spent time with my children on Face Time. We shared jokes, showed him our Christmas tree, the Tween showed off what was in her santa sack, checked out my DIL’s sewing skills (love the colour of the dress she made) and enjoyed time with each other on Christmas Morning before signing off. Then we handed out the presents under the tree. The Tween was over the moon at her gifts. The Garden Gnome loved his framed photo of our HZ Holden and remote controlled speed boat (for the pool). And I cried. I cried because I was given the most gorgeous gifts that I knew so much thought had gone into (the Tween gave me some wooden words about peace and harmony. I also received a beautiful little charm that is a book from the GG. He wanted to get a book charm because of my love for books and writing. But that wasn’t when the tears started. The tears began when the gift giving was over and the Tween left the room and returned with a bird cage holding a canary for me. I’ve wanted a canary for a long, long time. The Garden Gnome had even installed a hook into the roof of the rumpus room/bar to hang the cage from guessing that I wouldn’t even notice it with everything else going on. (He was right). The Diva was miffed because she thought the canary was a gift for her and spent the next hour or so working out ways to stalk the cage and attempt to catch ‘her’ gift before giving up and snoozing. No doubt gathering her strength and thoughts for another attempt later on. The tears continued when I read the Christmas card from the man I love. But they were all tears of joy.

The day continued in a relaxing way. The Garden Gnome’s family joined us for a late lunch. The conversation was good and we watched the George & Mildred movie on TV and laughed at the old British humour before having dessert. (Yes, the fruitcake was a little dry and the fact I put in Cream of Tartar instead of Baking Soda doesn’t appear to have affected its taste at all).

It was as they were leaving and we were taking our goodbyes that I realised…… my dress had been inside out all day!!!!!

Have a blessed day 🙂

ps: I think I finally achieved my Zen Christmas! 🙂

Pets

Michelle over at Michelle’s Weekly Pet Challenge has a new challenge up this week. The rules say that you can show photos of your pet, those you feed or pets of family. I come from a family that loves animals and so does the family of the Garden Gnome. So beginning this post, I am going to share photos of HRH Princess Smudge a.k.a. The Diva. Of course I’ve talked about her often enough, it’s only fair that I show you just what a Diva she is 🙂

Before HRH came to live with us, we had an Australian Silky Terrier called Bundy. Sadly we lost Bundy just before his 14th birthday early last year.

We also feed birds in our garden. We fed them at our last home and now we feed them here. As you know I love birds of any kind. We have budgerigars in an aviary out the back but the wild birds are my passion. I haven’t managed to capture any photos of the Corellas and Galahs that feed at times also so you will have to be content with the Rainbow Lorikeets and King Parrots.

We don’t have room in our back yard any longer for chickens so we had to give our girls away. We also had a duck. All of our chickens had names (and personalities to match). Dibble the Duck was full of character. I still remember the morning that the next door neighbour was yelling for me to come outside because the duck was making herself at home on our roof.

We often have creatures visit our garden also. We regularly have Blue Tongued Lizards but this little fellow caught us by surprise. He stayed for about two weeks before moving on again.

Now I have to share my mother’s babies with you. Meet Missy (the long haired one) and Lucy. Missy is fickle and is friends with anyone who will play with her, pet her or feed her. Lucy is a one man girl and doesn’t like newcomers to her world. Although she doesn’t have front teeth, she will ‘gum’ the ankles of those who get close to her.

And I have two sister-in-laws who love their animals. The Goat Lady inherited goats with when she bought her property. Over the years, those numbers have fluctuated. I have a million photos somewhere but I’ve chosen to share just one 🙂

One of the Garden Gnome’s youngest sisters has a small hobby farm. Here are some of her animals, including Boxer and Hector (the dogs), Tammy the pig, Glenda the horse and the noisy rooster. Sadly, Hector is no longer with us.

And that my friends are some of the animals in my life. I have a photo of Jack (who was the dog of another SIL) but sadly I can’t find the photo and Jack is no longer with us either. All of these dogs we have lost were with the family for many, many years and it was sad to the whole family to lose them.

Have a blessed day everyone.

Take your foot off the accelerator….

Or for those in the U.S. … off the gas!

Yesterday I was driving home from work. (I could probably walk. It would take me half an hour or so but in the afternoons, walking is the last thing I feel like). Anyway, as I was driving up one of the streets on my way home, I realised I was doing over the speed limit as I was in a hurry to get home.

This morning I danced… and I will again tomorrow

This morning I woke up feeling awesome. It is a gift and not something that I recall happening too much in the past few weeks. I went about my usual routine and spent some time watching the birds. There were quite a few about this morning despite the fog. They warbled, darted and squabbled in the still morning air. The forecast for today is that it is going to be quite hot (and it’s only the beginning of spring) but  the morning air was cool as it caressed my face. I thanked God for the blessing. Of course I couldn’t stand there forever as there were things to be done prior to going to work so I tore myself away and padded off to the kitchen.

A Lesson in Gratitude from a Four Legged Diva

Meet my cat “Smudge”. Smudge is a British Blue shorthair. She also believes that she is descended from the English royal family. If not the royal family, definitely the aristocracy. Smudge goes about everything she does in her own time and hands out affection on her own terms. If we do the wrong thing by her (in her eyes) then she will meow piteously and tear around the house in a hair-brained fashion until she believes we have been punished enough. She lets us know when she is hungry by pulling magnets off the refrigerator and leaving them on the floor.