HAPPY NEW YEAR

To everyone may you all have a Happy New Year and may all your dreams for 2010 be fulfilled.

a few of my dreams........
To be more compassionate & less selfcentred.
To travel lots with DH.
To be healthy all year through.
To have a happy, healthy family.
To see my overseas family.
To do the Alpha course.
To lose some weight before next Christmas.

Christmas Day 2009

Family fun & sharing Christmas 2009.

Family Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve

Its Christmas eve & everythings done that needs to be. Kylie cooked us all a lovely dinner, we all cleaned up & now its off to relax a bit, shower & off to church at 11pm. Its raining still and has been all day. Hope the sun shines tomorrow as we were hoping to set out the tables outside, otherwise its a bit of a squash but we'll manage it.

To everyone a blessed Christmas full of love, joy & peace.

RELAXING

Yip its that time of the year when we as a family can relax. Its wonderful to be able to sleep in & have coffee in bed leisurely. Normally we are all at work before 7am & its so good to not set alarms and have no staff waiting for us.
Yesterday the whole family went out to lunch to Ballito, it was a late fun relaxed lunch with a wonderful view of the sea. Why ? because Mark is missing the sea being in Joburg & we had to make sure he enjoyed his view. Alan & I commented on how the family really enjoyed being together & it was just a fantastic opportunity for us to see our grown up family laugh, joke & tease each other. We are off to Umfolozi on the 27th as a family for the day - leaving at 3.30am !!! in a hired caravelle (all 6 of us or 7 as there are always friends) this is at the request of the kids......... and back to Durban in the evening. It takes us two & a half hours to get there so it'll be fun.
Today all my boys are off fishing, while Kylie & I check on laundries & generally relax.

Holidays at last

Steven's pride & joy " Nkunzi ".

Holidays are here. My DH officially closed today, all staff are off & yay we can relax. Well as much as you can when you run your own business, as DH still gets calls & makes sales but its so relaxed & we just chill. Laundries are running smoothly so heres hoping for late mornings & quite lazy days walking on the beach & in the pool.

As i catch up on all my last minute Christmas cards etc & overseas parcels ( yip they will be late again ... sorry its just me.) DH is doing his last wrapping up of gifts & watching James Bond at the same time. This is good normally he does it on Christmas eve.

Mark & Steven are off fishing tomorrow( if the rain & wind hold off) & that means we are likely to have some very nice fresh dorado or shad. Steven's boat is called Inkunzi - which means young bull & I really think he loves that boat more than anything else !!! Its so nice to see our boys off together & enjoying the outdoor life we have.

I am off to bed & the thought of sleeping in tomorow is just blissful. Good night.

Christmas is Coming.

Festive feelings are definitely growing in me ! I am usually singing carols & decorating everything, baking etc by mid October.
Well this year it just hasn't happened, not really sure why except maybe its been too many changes & not my normal routine. Still sitting on my bed wrapping gifts last night I was getting into the festive mood, maybe its the case of our tree is up & DH & I sit in the lounge with just the tree lights on mmmm.
Today is a public holiday here, so I am off to get my last 2 gifts & then I can relax & start planning Christmas lunch. This year we will go to Christmas eve church service & we are having a houseful on Christmas day. Its tricky because my SIL is orthodox Jewish but this is her second year of spending the holidays with us, so it takes careful planning & we manage well. She stays with her son in a B & B around the corner from us (a Kosher one) & we have 2 fridges so seperate things & we get pretty paper plates etc. Yes we do do a gammon on the weber outside & it doesn't get carved inside & my SIL helps in everyway. My nephew David eats everything & so its fine. To me having them with us is worth it.
Our one business closes on Friday & that will be a relief, as I can close the office too. The laundries are busy but we all pitch in if needed & they run well under Kylie's management so we all get time off now.

Wishing you all a wonderful, happy & healthy, love filled Christmas. May you be blessed with peace and God's love.

Sunday 13 December

• Our Christmas tree is up & looks good - we always have a live tree its family tradition so had to wait for Mark to come home for the weekend to pick it out.
• We always get it from the Round Table Charity sales so as to help them help someone not as fortunate as us. Always takes us awhile to choose the "right one."
• Mark is at the airport & waiting for his flight back to the big city & our house is very quiet once more. Kylie & Steven back at their place & its just Alan & I. Must admit its nice but we do miss the kids.
• Alan & Steven should finish off their leather sales on Friday but the laundries work right through except for three days over Christmas & a couple of days over New Year.
• This year our charity choice will be a the Stella Road Presbyterian Preschool - we try & choose a worthy cause & make a committment to the chosen for three months of the next year. This little preschool feeds & schools only poor children - who very often don't have any other food except the breakfast, snack and lunch at the church school. The mothers (mostly domestic workers) give their time by keeping the school clean, cooking at the school etc & its a most incredibly happy clean place with a retired head mistress giving her time in running the school & helping the teachers etc. There are 78 children & we are very impressed.
• Alan & I are off to church at six and looking forward to that, I love the festive feel right now & the fellowship.
• I had school lunch on Friday, enjoyed the company very much was a bit unsettled after I came home & I think I must not attend so many school functions next year. I was snippy & horrible at home afterwards & not sure why.
• Alan & I did a big grocery shop to tide us over this crazy period as I do not like shopping with hordes of people & especially at this time.

Monday blues

Why do some days just get worse & not better. Today was sunny for Durban absolutely wonderful but my day just collapsed in a series of silly & minor problems but they just seemed insurmountable at times, my pc went on the blink (business one that generates invoices etc) so it was manual invoices & moans from everyone. The printer then went on the fritz - so no bank statements downloaded etc, then the new bed for our guest room which was going to arrive at 9am didn't till much later holding all kinds of things up.My DH left for Ladysmith at 4am this morning & it was a beautiful morning it just did not live up to its promise after realising that I was making everything seem like a huge catastrophe I decided to just pray for patience & serenity. My pc was fixed & the printer, the bed arrived & looks great in the room & my DH came home early than expected. I am a person who likes my plans to fall into place & am very impatient ...... I need to learn to not sweat the small stuff & pray for patience. Needless to say we all are up to date and ready to go .

For the last three days its been all hands on deck at our family laundries, the rain has kept us extra busy & boy had I forgotten what it was like to fold & pack laundry.....especially for six straight hours. Our laundry ladies are great & have no problem telling me its not folded right, we had lots of fun & very sore feet by Sunday afternoon. We all help when its like this especially the closer we get to Christmas, we get very busy & its quite nice to see brothers & sister, mom & dad all doing their bit & we do enjoy it, as I say our ladies enjoy us being there and on Saturday we were singing & working & giggling. We have a tradition of doing our bonus & gift day on the 15 December as the 16 is a public holiday & one of our older ladies asked me if I would bring my camera & take some photos of the staff with the family. Its a great afternoon we all finish the work early have a Christmas tea & give out gifts & of course the more important bonuses but every year we try & think up new ideas to wrap the gifts in, last year it was material bags from Kruger National Park which they loved. This year I have hit a blank !!! help its next week Tuesday, the gifts themselves are wrapped but what to put them into.....

Rain rain rain

Ok I know we need the rain but lets say just abit of sunshine inbetween would be great. Its a bit like our world is damp & grey in Durban at the moment.

Dh & I have to set the table for 2 ! Its very weird but exciting too. Cooking is very easy & thats a plus.

There is an uncanny quiet every evening now.

We are cleaning out our old wall unit in the lounge as its a bit damaged but we have salvaged a lovely scrap cupboard for me too & will move it tomorrow & pack into it. Really pleased.

I have wrapped some of our Christmas gifts so am pleased with that. Trying to be more organised this year.

We were invited to the childrens "house" tonight & Kylie cooked us dinner - very nice & we were pleasantly surprised at how they have settled so quickly. Its a super feeling to see them so independent & capable (which you know really but have to see it in action.)

Off to have my hair cut tomorrow - really looking forward to that. Then off to make table gifts for school Christmas lunch on the 11th of Dec - 34 or so of them. So now I am off to bed.