Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

We've had a very enjoyable with friends and family. In fact, we had such a good time that I completely forgot to take photos. Facebook is currently full of beautiful family photos and I do wish that we took one too. Never mind, we have the next 12 days in scenic New Zealand to capture more than a few good family photos. Thats the hope but I just checked the weather forecast and it looks like it may be a little wet for the rest of the week. Fingers crossed that it'll clear up by the weekend.

So, I'm off to make sure that we have packed for every possible situation. I did toy with the idea of pretending I was some travel blogger but it was a fleeting thought so I'll only be back blogging after we come home and I've had that mini-holiday after a holiday.

Happy New Year!

Quiet Christmas Eve

Its been a very ordinary Christmas Eve. I went to return some library books in the morning and then did some last minute grocery shopping. The time at home was filled with easy cooking and cleaning as we'll be having some people over for lunch tomorrow. Aaron and Adrian had a relatively calm and restful time at home and even the presence of presents under the Christmas tree didn't seem to get them excited.

In the evening, we went for an early Christmas mass that was packed with a million children. This is one of the only times in the year that I dress them in shirts instead of t-shirts and look how grumpy Aaron is about it.  We'll have to work on this in 2013.

For the first time, we had some children sitting behind us that were even more restless than Adrian. I didn't gloat but I did feel a teeny bit happy when I heard the mother use Aaron and Adrian as the examples of 'good' children. It was a mass for families with children so the homily was very short. And yet, I seem to have forgotten most of it already - oops!

The one message that I have retained is that God will not be found in calm or peacefulness but instead, God will be present in noise, stress and disorderliness. Those weren't the precise words that the priest used but that was the general message and he was definitely speaking to his audience.  The immediate thought I had was "YES! Good one to use on my parents". We all live in the same house but while I have accepted that my daily life is going to filled with often annoying levels of noise, I can see that it sometimes drives my parents into hiding. They are understanding about it and, I'm sure they'll be good sports too when I tease them with this.

Aaron and Adrian are in bed and I'm about to put out Santa's gifts for them - identical notebooks with pens. I've stuck with the semi boring presents from Santa from the start and saved all the cool presents for Richard and I to give them.

To Hug, or Not To Hug.

The Christmas season is a very confusing time for me because there are always many get togethers to attend and, inevitably, a lot of wishing of 'Merry Christmas'. I like hugs as much as the next person but I can never tell when I'm supposed to give a hug, or just stick my hand out, or when its meant to be a no contact 'Merry Christmas'. For people that I don't know very well, I usually move to shake hands and let them decide if they want to convert it to a hug or not. For the people I do know, and who I know are huggers, I usually give them a hug straight away. Sometimes, there are kisses thrown in to confuse me even further! Am I supposed to give them a kiss too? Is it meant to be an air kiss or a real peck on the cheek? And lets not forget the confusion of one, two or more kisses.

Obviously, I've consulted the internet on what should be done. It hasn't been extremely helpful but I came across a few interesting articles.

Pocket Cultures has a short article entitled Kiss, Hug or Shake Hands? It summarizes the types of greetings that are commonplace in Argentina, Brazil, Great Britain, Romania, Singapore and India. Its not just about the hugs and kisses, there is also a guide on what the usual response should be to the simple question of 'How are you?'

This article from the BBC is lengthy but offers a quick guide on the number of kisses:

Four: Paris

Three: Brittany, Netherlands, Belgium (if other person 10 years older), Egypt, Russia, Switzerland

Two: Spain, Austria, Hungary, Greece, some parts of France

One: Belgium

Close friends and family only: Germany, Italy, Middle East (except between male friends)

Don't try it: Japan (bow)

And finally, there was this funny article from The Australian. Its written from a man's perspective on the confusing air kiss. This isn't the only article that mentions it, but it looks like social kissing in Australia is a fairly recent, 'fashionable', behavior.

Anyway, there are three days left to Christmas so I'll be putting my hugs into practice. I don't think I'm advancing to the social kissing level yet but who knows, maybe next year.

Wordless Wednesdays - School Holiday Fun

For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit My Little Drummer Boys.

Cheeky Monkey!

Look at this face. Isn't he cute? 

I thought that this was going to be my 'easy' son. He was cheaper (public hospitals and all immunizations were free). He slept really well, up until he was 3 months. He was always happy. Rarely gets angry. No tantrums. Responded in a sweet voice even when I was mad at him. 

BUT. 

Lately, he has increased the cheekiness level by 200%. He gets into everything. One evening, I found a big hole in the middle of the backyard, a deep one! And just now, he unraveled the entire spool of thread that was on my sewing machine. He still uses that sweet voice when he tells me that he can't do whatever it is that I'm asking him to. This little guy needs a lot more training than Aaron did. He's finally good at tidying up but thats only after I manage to presss the 'ON' button  on him to get things going. 

He's in bed now and looking as sweet as ever. In the evenings, I always think that I've been too hard on him but in the morning and should try to enjoy all this cuteness more. But in the mornings, usually around breakfast time, I'm bound to be less sweet than he is. 

Wordless Wednesday - One Of A Kind Christmas Cards

Aaron has been hard at work making these cards for some of the friends he has made in my clogging classes.

For many more Wordless Wednesdays, please visit My Little Drummer Boys.

Remembering Conversations

I have thousands of photos to remember how cute my children are and what they got up to. However, they also say thousands of funny and sweet things. They are chatterboxes that speak non-stop from the moment they wake up every morning. How do I keep a record of those moments?

This is what I heard at bedtime tonight. Aaron was in his room and I was in mine with Adrian.

Aaron : Good night, Mama
Me : Good night, Aaron
Adrian : Koko (thats what Adrian calls Aaron), Good night.
Aaron : Good night, Adrian
Adrian : See you tomorrow

There was silence for a long time and I thought Aaron was asleep until...

Aaron : Love you a lot, Mama
Me : I love you too Aaron
There was a bit of a pause here. 
Adrian : I love you, Koko
Aaron : I love you too, Adrian

Now isn't that sweet? It was such a simple conversation but was so endearing to listen to. I wish I could have recordings of these little exchanges to go along with the thousands of photos.