Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas with the Family

You know how it is when you look forward to something for so long? Well that's how I felt about 2/3 of my kids being with us for a long weekend just before Christmas. I kept going to the shops and buying more food (heaven forbid they should starve) and cleaned the house from top down - even painting the upstairs annexe in case they thought it wasn't up to scratch. 1/3 of the kids and wife arrived on Thursday evening and the next 1/3 arrived Friday evening with Best Grandson Ever! From then on all was a chaos of food, washing up and everyone trying to please each other! Jack decorated the tree we had purchased specially with all my matching baubles (bought specially!) and we piled the prezzies under. Grandpa wanted them opened on Sunday morning but was voted down (Gee, I guess HE knows just where he stands now in the Greater Scheme of Things!!!!!) and we ripped and unwrapped contentedly on Saturday evening before stuffing ourselves with prawns done to perfection on the braai by Golden Boy. Oh yes, Golden Boy has been having issues in his head (apparently for the last 30 years) and decided to unburden himself to me on Friday morning. I won't go into it all here as it really is very serious to him but after making me feel like The Worst Mother in the World (I promise he didn't mean to but somewhere in my roots I must have Jewish blood as I immediately imagine ITS ALL MY FAULT!) I was quite glad he got a nasty bit of sunburn on his feet, knees and arms where he sat on the rocks by the river unburdening himself! My poor baby, all I can say is we really do our best as parents but Hell it's not easy, especially when the parents are not in step with one another. It took Daughter No.1 to make me feel better about myself - she, with all her problems in her busy life, picked me up, dusted me off and took all my baggage away!

On Sunday Golden Boy and Golden Wife left and the rest of us relaxed while a storm crashed in the mountains above the house - hardly a drop of rain fell on us but the soak area of the mountain took a pounding. 10 minutes later the river came down in flood with tree trunks and topsoil turning it into a dark brown stew of roiling water. We watched as helicopters circled above the kloof upstream, imaging all sorts of horrors. Heard later that a climber had fallen and got stuck between the rocks, breaking a shoulder blade as he did so. He was finally rescued and taken out at 5am next morning!

On Monday Daughter No1 left for work, leaving us with Beloved Grandson until he too left on Wednesday. Suddenly it's all over and the house is eerily quiet and empty. We are back to our usual slobby selves, eating too much, resting and reading too much (IS there such a crime?) and back to the gym to try to futilely work off some of the wibbly wobbly bits.

Oh Yes - Forgot!!!! Grandpa asked Granny to marry him in May 2011 and she answered YES!!! Must be mad but what the hell, I always was a sucker for lovely man!!!

God Bless All who read my Blog and may 2011 bring all you wish for - within moderation!