Greetings all,
I had a charmed childhood, i was truly lucky & knew nothing of unhappiness or wanting for anything - toys, travel, love, siblings, pets, friends - shockingly, we weren't spoilt brats, as good manners & appreciation was top of my parent's list of priorities. My parents were born in the Depression & instilled in us, if you have children, you make them feel so wanted & give them the best you can offer, if only your love, time & energy as sometimes that is all you have. Hell yeah, been there!!
Christmas can be a mass consumer explosion if you let it. We've lived on a tight budget for a long time & i don't think my children even realise we give them clothes & things they need as 'gifts'. Trust me when i say they needed the new bikes - it's freedom & adventure. I like the basics, the outdoors . . . do trampolines ever disappoint??
We went to Bowral on the weekend to visit my sister for an early Christmas. It has certainly taken the edge off Christmas day for me, i've seen some family & while it's another Christmas with my husband away at war, we can still have a typical Australian Summer of fun.
Those Australian Summers also include severe thunder storms!!
Not that it made any difference to the children - look at that rain!!
They had a huge seven-cousin-spa to warm up, then we opened presents. Fantastic - the entire Harry Potter book & DVD set. My darling boy started reading the first book in the car trip home (my children are keen readers, my husband is a voracious reader too, good for them, i'd rather be sewing!!)
I forced my children to surrender my sister's new pussy cat - her husband found this darling little creature at a work site, why are people so unkind, to animals?? This cat has won the lottery with my sister's 3 gentle animal loving children & kudos to my tough brother-in-law with his marshmellow centre.
Loving the new tyres on my 4WD as it poured the whole 400km trip. I knew it wasn't good when i saw an ambulance, then rescue truck, then police cars, then this mess - you can just see the blue sign, it says 'stop, revive, survive' in front of a car wrapped around a tree. It was a timely reminder how lucky we are to be alive. Full stop.
So grim. No point pretending bad things don't happen (we're realistic with my husband's line of work) so i used it as a lesson in defensive driving for my eldest, who will be on the road in a few short years. There are constant fears & hurdles to overcome with your children, driving has to be one of the biggest. In the meantime, very much embracing the joy of watching my children play & feeling so so lucky i have them this Christmas. Love Posie
15 comments:
Cool swimming in a thunder storm with cousins...what better fun. Glad you had a safe ride home.
What a lovely Christmas celebration! It is definitely more fun when you space it out a bit. Lovely that your kids have so many cousins around their own ages.
I'm on the ice and yours are in the pool in shorts......amazing! Posie it was 4:30 in the afternoon on the ice that night. we are in our darkness mode right now. After we got back home a poor little Bull moose who had been living around the neighborhood got hit right in front and the troopers had to put him down....so sad I just hate to see it and the poor driver ended up in the hospital I hope he's all right! Theres a long list of people and when this happens the state calls the next one on the list and you have to come and collect the meat (roadkill) This was the hardest having to little girls and trying to keep them busy and not wanting them to look out the window as they came to collect!
Another beautiful post Posie. All true!! The greatest gift we can give our children is our love and time. All the rest is just icing on the cake.
Looks like you all had a wonderful Christmas get-together.
♥ Kerryanne
Glad to know you are back safe and sound after the rainy thundery weather. How lovely your son has discovered HP - my kids spent many a year listening to the books when they were too your to read them. then reading and re-reading them, and once finished the books he can enjoy the movies! It always is the kids who make Christmas, until like mine, they are too cool for Christmas!
So lovely to have time with cousins. Glad to see another mother takes these opportunities for life lessons.
The kids look so happy and fulfilled after playing in the pool all afternoon. Glad you had a nice weekend, you have lots of love around you.x
Sooo lovely! But not the accident :(
Really heart warming to hear about your childhood -- and well done to your parents to have taken that attitude out of growing up in the Depression era. My dad grew up in that era too (in London).
Hey! I'm just re-reading the entire Harry Potter series myself. Love a bit of HP.
Your parents were right :-)
Hope you sort that GP out this week
xx
Such a good idea to spread christmas out instead of running around everywhere on the day, looks like the kids had a ball!
so great that you had a good family pre-Christmas! such a cute kitten! adorable!
Ive just caught up on the last few posts, and wanted to comment on your CTS misdiagnose.I bought a book by Kit Laughlin," Overcome Back and Neck Pain" he is from Canberra, when back and coccyx fracture problems were not being sorted by professionals, who like you said are still willing to take your money.The book has lots of exercises for all parts of the body, I recently found the neck exercises excellent for cricopharageal spasms in my throat after a really bad virus I got 5 months ago, and many antibiotics, misdiagnosis, and my own research, I worked out the neck and throat muscles needed massaging and stretching.Kit also does lessons as well.Another good book is "Three minutes to a pain free life" by DR Wiseburg?( dont be put off by the corny title) who has excellent wrist exercise that helped me when I had a gagleon? in the wrist. I know everyone has a "helpful" tip when you are in physical pain, though these two books have saved me money and pain. They are great for keeping joints flexiable etc. Good luck and thanks for the lovely blog, I too have dreams of owning a farmette as well, so it will be fun to see how yours develops. Also love seeing photos of Canberra, my Aunt and Uncle still live there and I also went to Uni there and loved it.
Christmas come early is always a beautiful thing. My kids love swimming in the rain as well, but Maxi is paranoid about getting struck by lightning. Which is probably a good thing! x
I love your parent's view on Christmas and being grateful for children. My parents were the same with us and I have to agree.
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