Merry Christmas 2008!

Well, Christmas is over for another year. I hope you all had a great one.

We hope you all had a lovely time, and that you might have remembered the reason that we celebrate this special holiday - the birth of Jesus Christ, son of God come to the Earth in humble and meek form of a baby -to live among us, and eventually to die for us.

We all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus while at church, and reflected on the wonderful things He has done in our life this year.

Christmas this year was a little different for us. Instead of having Christmas Day with my family as we do most years, we were very blessed to have Greg's parents visiting this year, and so we had a Mardon Christmas. Jeremy came and my sister Shanyn also slept over and spent Christmas with the Mardons, as Mum and Dad were in Townsville this year. Shanny and I had fun watching and singing to the Carols and wrapping presents Christmas Eve while Greg was downstairs setting up one of the kids presents. I think Shanny enjoyed having all the fun of opening and playing with new toys with the kids - except maybe being jumped on at 5.30am coz she was sleeping in front of the Christmas tree!! It was really special to have her with us - love you Shan.

The day started with the kids looking at the Christmas tree, and being allowed to play with a few things that were unwrapped. They were then allowed to open one present before church. At church I was singing, and we had a birthday cake for Jesus. After church we came home and I prepared most of the lunch (a new thing for me!) while the kids played, and while Sandy & Chris were picking up Jeremy from the other side of town. When they came back, we got out some nibblies, and sat around the tree opening presents together.

Then came lunch - nothing too fancy, but we certainly didn't go without - we enjoyed cold turkey and Christmas ham, crunchy noodle salad, potato salad and roast pumpkin & feta salad. And a little bubbly too - well for the adults! For dessert, Sandy and I decided to take the easy way when the Home Icecream van came by on Christmas Eve - perfect! Icecream! and Sandy made a beautiful Christmas cake too.

Then we did it all again on Boxing Day at my parents house, after they'd just returned from Townsville (poor Mum was pretty tired!). We feasted on BBQed steaks & sausages and a few gourmet salads, plus I made banoffie pie for dessert, and my sister made cupcakes.

The kids gathered around the tree, this time with my gorgeous neice Emmeson too. We did a Secret Santa with my family this year - for adults - so it made it easier to just buy for one person. I ended up wanting to make something for my sister and Mum too, so spent most of the day beading them bracelets and earrings!! Was fun though. :)

I bought Lani and Emmeson matching dresses and hair-clips to wear for Christmas, and oh they looked so beautiful together! Pity Lani was having a patty when I was trying to take photos!

The children received some lovely gifts (but not too many). Greg managed to get a big play kitchen on clearance when he worked at Toys R Us, and its been sitting in a box downstairs for about a year, but as my BIL was living with us last year we couldn't set it up. It turned out to be great this year because Lani is now old enough to enjoy it.

Jaidyn received just about everything I think they possibly make in Wall.E merchandise. Well, maybe not all, but a lot! I will have to take a 'group shot' of all his Wall.E stuff today! He was very happy :) He also got some books and clothes.

Eli received various things - some duplo, and various books, puzzles, toys from In the Night Garden figurines, The Wiggles and Tigger & Pooh. He loves all these shows/characters so he was happy too. And some clothes & shoes too.

Lani received lots of doll things - much to my delight! Now, I know I bought these for Lani, but after 8 years of boys toys, I am going to LOVE playing and dressing dolls!! Woohoo! Mum bought her Cabbage Patch newborn twins - so cute! Rory and Caroline. Takes me back to when I had CPK when I was younger... I want one again! Greg's mum is going to make Lani some dolls clothes, so we can have more fun! I might copy the pattern from her so I can make some too if the urge and time present themselves!

Greg and I didn't fare too badly either. We bought each other perfume/cologne - I got Ralph Lauren Romance, and I bought Greg Hugo Boss Energize. We also received 2 'How to Hose a Murder' games, which we LOVE, and can't wait to play with our friends again - hopefully they will oblige again. Some clothes and PJs too, and a bottle of chivas Regal for Greg and Baileys for me - nice!

We have a busy few days ahead too! We're off to Greg's Aunts for a swim and BBQ tea this afternoon, and then my gorgeous neice Emmeson's 1st birthday party tomorrow!! Its her b'day today, Happy Birthday beautiful girl!! Phew, we'll be busy!!

Hope you had a great one, and a big hello and 'we missed you' to my SIL Andrea in England!!

Jaidyn...

So I've just been reading a friend's blog, and realised I need to adopt her method of posting...

Short and sweet. One kid at a time. Then I might actually get some posts actually posted (instead of sitting in my draft box half done coz I don't have time to finish them!) So here goes...

JAIDYN...

Jaidyn turned 8 in November. At times I find it really hard to believe I have an 8-yr old! And at times I realise that the teenage years are not too far away... now that will be scary!! We didn't have a big party this year, just a little BBQ lunch at my parents house and an awesome b'day cake of course! One of Jaidyn's interests this year has been dragons, so I searched the net for the perfect dragon cake to make. We iced her blue so she could be a 'frost dragon'. And her name is Sapphira, named after his frost dragon toy, who is named after the dragon from the movie 'Eragon'...

For the last few months, Jai has been OBSESSED with anything to do with the movie Wall.E, which came out a few months ago (I think even last school holidays it would have been that he saw it). His obsession has not paled yet!! I don't know what it is about Wall.E that he loves, but he's completely hooked. He never tires of drawing Wall.E and the other various characters, he got a Playstation game for his b'day which he almost finished, then accidentally wiped, so he's going through it all again. He's also got a couple of figurines, if which he pretty much always has in hand, or making play-worlds for (usually out of my cups, placemats, books etc!). He has the novel, and the 'Intergalactic Guide' to everything Wall.E. Oh and we watch the movie from time to time too! He's hooked, and has asked for more Wall.E stuff for Christmas. He even turns into a Wall.E robot each night when he sets and clears the table. Its a bit strange... but cute... lol.

Jai did well at school this year. He's particularly good at his English (just like his Mumma was) and he acheived well above average in the English parts of his National Testing earlier this year, and still average or above on his Maths aswell. He got mainly Bs and As (effort), and Sounds and a High (academic) for his report this semester, and he was VERY proud of himself. And so are we. Wow, grade 4 next year, he's growing up so fast.

Having a little brother has it trials for Jai. They are at the stage now where they fight ALL the time. Poor Jai gets quite frustrated at Eli for wrecking his things sometimes, and Eli just wants to play most of the time. And they wrestle (play!) a lot.. but that's boys huh. Then there's those beautiful moments when Jai sets up a train set for Eli and they play nicely for a bit... before Lani comes and destroys it... lol.. never a dull moment in our house!

Jai has been a part of Boys Brigade this year and is enjoying it a lot. I think its really good for him to have that thing 'just for him', and the Christian program is great too. He's been away on 2 camps this year. A 'parent and son' camp earlier in the year with Greg, and more recently the State Camp... was his first time at a camp by himself. And he had a ball. His award ceremony was a few weeks ago, and we went along, as well as his grandparents and aunty Shanny, and he was so proud to receive some badges for his uniform. They performed their figure march that they did in a competition earlier in the year, and it was really good! I had a huge 'proud Mummy' moment watching them!!

I will need to get some new pics of Jaidyn. As he doesn't grow as fast as the other two, photos are scarcer around here... but I WILL get some over Christmas.

Love him xx