Good Morning on Christmas Eve!

[tiredmommy]

Good Morning!

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and Happy Thursday to those who do not. We've planned a quiet day and will go to the 6pm church service at which Duckie will be an acolyte. She's growing up so quickly! Then it's off home to read a story, have cocoa and set cookies out for Santa.

After that, the real work begins, lol!

I'm awake so early because my husband woke me up when he came in at 2:30. We both went out for awhile but I left earlier to pick up Duckie and get her home and in bed. I'd be annoyed except that he really doesn't get out often and he had a designated driver. Besides, I'm pretty sure he'll be in rough shape tomorrow. And, we were saying good-bye to good friends that are moving cross country next week.

So I took this opportunity to write my Christmas letter to Duckie. I've done it every year so that she has something to look back at her childhood. It's part yearly newsletter and part love letter. I place it in her Christmas card. I struggled with getting it started this year because she been rather gfgish the last month and, frankly, it was hard to be positive. But I got it done.

So anyway... I'm wishing all us joy, and peace, and serenity. And may our difficult children truly show themselves to be gifts.

 

[Marg's Man]

Gday from Oz,

As my sig says it's already (almost) tomorrow here.

It's late Christmas Eve, easy child has just arrived. She and SIL1 have just arrived for the next two nights to have Christmas with us before heading on to Melbourne for the New Year with old school friends.

Star's card that we got the other night said it was a balmy 76, our NIGHT time temps aren't getting that low now (it's 26/80 now at 9PM) after a maximum of 30/85+.

I was up early to get the minivan that Marg drives mainly to the mechanic by 7:30 and have 'words' with him. It hasn't been right since we had it serviced for easy child 2/difficult child 2's wedding. Yesterday I found out why when I had new tyres put on. The tyre people found that the new front wheel bearings they had put in hadn't been adjusted properly and our steering was wonky. Dangerous if you know the winding bush road we drive along to go the mainland.

I was back by midday and spent the rest of the day doing odd jobs for my mother and Marg.

You can tell your kids that Santa is on his way. He came past our place earlier this evening. He was wearing red boardies and crocs underneath his lightweight suit. He'll get the furs out for when he is over your way but it's HOT here. He uses a special sleigh modified for sand in Australia hauled by six white 'old man' kangaroos called boomers. Here's a performance of a song telling the story
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FdVXca9hys&feature=related"]YouTube- Six White Boomers - A Rolf Harris Tribute[/ame]
Rolf Harris wrote it for his English audience.

I took some photos of Santa. He had dragooned the local Bush Fire Brigade to give the boomers a rest before he started the main delivery run.

Marg will give our Flikr link when she posts later and tells you everything I should have mentioned. I haven't uploaded the pictures yet!

Have a great Christmas everyone!

Marg's Man

 

[Marguerite]

OK, difficult child 3 & I have been packing bags of biscuits for our friends at church. easy child expressed concerns that the Christmas Day service would hopefully not be as dreary as it has been the last few years; at our church people take turns in leading the services and the couple that have done Christmas for the last few years have killed it for her, she said. SIL1 isn't too keen on going to church (long story) but was attending for our sakes; this year he didn't want to endure more of the same as last year. So I discreetly rang someone to find out (along with other stuff) who was "on duty" tomorrow. And yes - the same people.

So husband & I will be going, so will mother in law and difficult child 3, but SIL1 & easy child will stay home.

A lot of people from church were handing out Christmas cards last Sunday, maybe they already knew who was running tomorrow's service?

We're in for a fairly quiet Christmas tomorrow, it will be all spread out with the other kids not arriving until late afternoon/evening. I think we'll take some DVDs down to mother in law's place and watch movies and play Wii while we wait for everyone else. mother in law loves a house full of people - easy child & SIL1 have chosen to go down there tonight to give her some company.

difficult child 3 & I went down to the beach after the worst of the sun was past. It was windy by then but thankfully there was a touch of coolness in the breeze to relieve the worst of the temperatures. Tomorrow should be cooler, or it may take until Boxing Day for the weather to change - a cyclone up near Darwin headed inland and toned itself down to a tropical storm. What is left of it hit the Red Centre today, Uluru and Alice Springs got a welcome soaking. Hopefully it will continue south enough to put out the fires in South Australia before it heads over our way.
It was odd to look at the weather map today and see such an intense wet patch right in the heart of our usually very dry country.

As husband said, Santa drove round the town tonight in the fire truck. We went out to wave, I was wearing my Mrs Claus apron because I was cooking dinner. I'll be wearing it most of tomorrow as well, I'll be pottering a lot. Here are our photos from this evening, Christmas Eve in our village.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bundeenapix/sets/72157623061479778/detail/

I noticed husband stuck in the photo of me at the front gate - I'm not posing, I'm doing my physio exercises to strengthen my hip muscles!

I've still got a bit of food preparation to do tonight before I get to bed. Almost done, though. It feels good to relax and know everything is under control - mostly because we chose to do very little this year and simply not fuss!

Enjoy your Christmas, everybody.

Marg

 

[timer lady]

Good morning all,

TM, sounds like a busy day for you & yours. Hope you can slow down enough to "smell the poinsetta".

Marg's Man, a wonderful Christmas to you as well - I'll be checking out that video shortly.

Marg, you're looking good, my dear. (I know that exercise - knew exactly what you were doing.)

We had 6 inches of snow overnight combined with the 2 we had yesterday afternoon; it's to stop for a bit today & then we are to be dumped with another 8 inches tonight & 6 or more inches tomorrow. It's turning out to be quite the holiday storm.

I have everything I need here in the house. I doubt my friend, whom I had invited for Christmas Eve dinner, will be able to make it. AND I don't want her out driving in this crazy, dangerous weather.

I plan on a quiet day; sit & watch the world go by, do some writing in my journal. Paint a bit, play piano & just enjoy the peace in my home.

If you're traveling be safe out there. A happy holiday to my cyber family.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

Happy Christmas Eve to my fellow Celebrators!

Happy Thursday Morning to all the rest!

TM, sorry you were awaken so early! Sounds like a lovely day for you all today.

Marg's Man and Marg, what a tag team you are. Tried to look at the pics but my computer is not behaving this morning - couldn't even load the smilies for this post. Enjoy your family on Christmas.

Linda, there is something to be said for peace and quiet! Wasn't wm supposed to come today?

I've been up for a couple hours this morning. Getting ready to get in the kitchen and prep some stuff I'm taking to my mom's today. We'll be leaving around 9:30 or 10 so I do have some time - although easy child is coming over at 9 because she wants to straigten my hair so I'll have to be showered and ready by then!

We hope to leave mom's by 5, pick up difficult child at bonehead's on the way back and then make 7:30 service. After that, I've some friends over at 9. All the food and prep is done for that!

Enjoy your day, I hope it is a peaceful one.

Sharon

 

[Wiped Out]

Happy Christmas Eve,

TM-I love that you do the yearly newsletter for Duckie; it's something she probably already loves now and most definitely will treasure in the years ahead.

Marg's Man-I'll be looking at the video in a bit. I'm glad you were able to have "words" with the mechanics. Seems to me they should be reimbursing you. Merry Christmas!

Marg-The beach on Christmas Eve-sounds wonderful! Glad you made it there today! I'm sorry the people running the church are "keeping" people at home.

Linda-Sorry you are getting dumped with snow. I'll be there with you in spirit tonight. What's for dinner?

Sharon-Sounds like a busy Christmas Eve but a fun one.

The weather can't make its mind up what to do here. We started with a winter weather advisory, switched to a winter storm warning, and are now back to a winter weather advisory til noon.

We have some new snow, have had freezing rain, and now it is simply raining. There is suppose to be a mixture until noon today and then turn to all rain (our temp is suppose to hit 35). I'm a bit worried all of our snow, which is plentiful right now, will be all gone by tomorrow and we won't have our white Christmas.

difficult child is upset because he thinks Santa didn't come. It took us about 15 minutes to get him to understand that Santa doesn't come until Christmas Day; apparently he went to bed last night thinking Santa would have made his visit.

I am hoping to get to the club this morning but who knows with this weather? It closes at noon so it's this morning or not at all. We have to go out to buy some pizzas today and the lasagna for tonight's dinner is already put together; it can bake while we go to the 6:00 Christmas Eve Mass.

Wishing everyone a day filled with smiles

 

[Fran]

Good morning my friends. Lots of hussle and bussle for the preparations for the holiday.
TM, hope you got a nap in. The letter for Duckie sounds like a wonderful momento for her. Cute about husband having a bit of holiday cheer. I'm the same way about my husband. He so seldom goes out and just relaxes that I'm happy for him to enjoy himself.

Marg's man, you are a busy guy. I wish we knew more about cars. I always feel like I am getting taken for a ride as they say here.

Marg, loved the photo's. My husband plays santa every year for the little one's in the area. The firetruck picks him up and goes to the center with horns, whistles and lights going. It's adorable. Have a pleasant day with your m i l, children and their spouses. I love your apron by the way.

TM, oh no about the snow.I hope your holiday is peaceful. My baby sis is heading down this way next week. Keeping my fingers crossed that snow won't be an issue for the entourage flying.

LDM, please give your children a Merry Christmas from me and the puppies. You have a full day that's for sure. Have fun and enjoy.

We had a friend over for dinner and didn't realize how fast the time went.
Today will be quiet. Everything is done. Since in laws aren't coming we decided to go to our favorite Italian restaurant for our typical meatless Christmas eve dinner. Then we wait for Santa.
Hope you hum a bit of a christmas carol as you go through your day.

 

[SRL]

Thanks to you all for sharing your Christmas plans. I seriously love to read how other families spend the days, as well as the various holiday traditions.

It's been more low key than usual with me recovering from surgery. Yesterday was the first day I felt comfortably mobile during the time I was up so that was a relief. All of our Christmas preparations were done before I left for the hospital and it felt so odd these past few days that I finally put the kids to work baking cookies so at least there was something festive happening.

It will just be us tonight and we'll prepare some easy appetizers and watch a holiday movie. Tomorrow the kids will go for the stockings first and take them back to their rooms until everyone is up to open gifts. It was a trick I learned from and older mom who said it made the morning so much easier and she was right. I wrap everything to keep them busy and include a book, comic book or magazine to keep them occupied.

In the afternoon my husband and kids will head to my inlaws for a big dinner and I'm going to hang here with my mom since I'm not quite up to the trip or long day plus my doctor was strict that I limit possible exposure to H1N1 until my shot kicks in. I'd hoped to order carry-out Mexican food but nothing is open so I'll probably break out a nice roast beef I have made up in the freezer as well as some homemade applesauce, etc.

It should be a quiet--and hopefully a nice--holiday.

 

[Fran]

SRL, I didn't realize you were done with surgery. Sorry about that. I'm glad to hear you are up and mobile.
Your preparations seem very well done. It's good that you stay home and just rest. It will be a nice break for you and give your body a chance to recuperate.

Merry Christmas to you and Wiped out(who I missed earlier)

 

[SRL]

SRL, I didn't realize you were done with surgery. Sorry about that. I'm glad to hear you are up and mobile.
Your preparations seem very well done. It's good that you stay home and just rest. It will be a nice break for you and give your body a chance to recuperate.

Merry Christmas to you and Wiped out(who I missed earlier)

Yup, I'm all done!.

The hysterectomy, hospitalization, and the first week was really tough going, but as of yesterday I started feeling more like my old self. Right now I'm homebound until my H1N1 vaccine kicks in, which is probably fine since I was severely anemic and need the rest more than anything.