Look! Here comes a new year!

Another wonderfully crazy-busy day. Caught up with old friends in the morning and then had a BBQ with my cousin, her husband and their two boys in the evening. Xander had a fabulous time with Liam, playing with their new hose / slide contraption. Holidays are great!

Now I'm off to be completely tragic and go to bed, hours before midnight. Sleep is too precious to waste it staying up and watching fireworks! Happy New Year everyone. :)

GOMA

We went to Goma. It was fun, but I'm far too tired to write about it, so here are some pics.

Xander found this group of kids and started carolling for them - the song he was singing was Bucko and Champs' "Deck the Shed with Bits of Wattle". I don't think they knew what to make of him!

Another busy day... it was finally fine enough to take the Christmas bikes to the park. We met my cousins from Sydney, plus Sam, Katherine and Mum at the park, which explains why there are extra people in the park photos.

We had a fabulous dinner at an Indian restaurant that my dear grandfather hosted for his whole family. On the way home from the dinner Jeremy was singing Xander a song about him being a "Crazy Xander" and Xander very seriously told him "no, it's 'tired Xander'"! The kids finally made it to bed at ten. Ouch.

Family + friends = fun

We had a lovely morning this morning at my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party.

It was great to catch up with some old friends and meet their cute kids. Katherine very kindly made sure most of the food was coeliac friendly - it was a real treat for us to be able to have lots of options in the food department! The kids were so excited about the chocolate dipped cherries (YUM!) and ate ....um, let's just say... alot. I'm not sure Xander's hands and face will ever be de-stickied!

This afternoon we really enjoyed having an early dinner with some good friends who are going to be moving overseas soon. The kids had a fabulous time together. We'll miss them!

Boxing day

We went to Mum and Dad's to open presents on Boxing day - lots of fun!

We are loving having little Sam (and his mum and dad) up from Canberra at the moment. He's growing up so fast, but still loves cuddles and kisses, which the big kids really enjoy!

This is Miri's favourite way to 'sit' on someone's lap. I think it's because her enormous brain needs the extra blood flow. Or not.

Christmas craziness

A couple of shots from Christmas day. We had a very busy morning - at church by 8am, then home for presents and off to a lovely lunch at my grandfather's house (with assorted family members). Xander told Jeremy at bedtime on Christmas eve that what he reeeaaally really wanted was a Buzz Lightyear toy like Sebastien and Amos (two friends). This was the first mention he made of such a desire, and fortunately I had decided on a whim that that would be his main present... phew!! We've asked him not to wait till after the shops are shut on Xmas eve to let us know what he wants next year!

Xmas begins

We went to Lynn's place this morning to open presents. Miri was a bit under the weather with her (maybe) chickenpox, but we had fun!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

... and I have a fabulous new camera, so I have ALOT to say now!
Here's 3 from the last 24 hrs...

Xanderisms

At Miriam's birthday afternoon tea last week, Xander was struggling to open one of her presents (it was well sticky taped). After huffing and puffing for awhile he announced "There'd better be something worthwhile in here!"



The other day we had this exchange:

Xander: "I feel like a girl, but I know I'm not."

Me: (um.....) "Oh right. What makes you feel like a girl, Xander?"

Xander: "Because I have eyebrows."



Some responsible adult should really take that boy in hand.