Christmas & Everything After

Of course I was going to be the last of the stragglers with my Christmas post. Because that's just my style, innit?

It was a better Christmas than what I had anticipated, with a few things I was really thankful for, not least of which was the fact that I didn't have to cook. Or wash dishes. Awesomeness!

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's place and stuffed our faces with all sorts of tasty things. There was gammon, a salmon/avocado roulade thingy, fresh salads and a strawberry pavlova for dessert. I was so stuffed I could barely walk to the car when it was time to go!

After dinner, we exchanged gifts with my mom, my gran and my sister and then just chilled out for a bit until I started getting too uncomfortable to be decent company anymore and we went home.

I made us cheesy omelettes for breakfast on Christmas morning, then we exchanged gifts and let the kids at theirs. There was happiness and satisfaction all round and Megan was thrilled with the skateboard!

I then finished up a bit of last-minute baking before we bundled the kids into the car and set off to David's folks' house for Christmas lunch. Once there, we exchanged gifts once again and the kids went off to play - Michael started immediately on the Bakugan puzzle Granny and Grandad had bought him, while Megan took her skateboard outside.

Ten minutes later, we heard a scream from Megan and David went outside to investigate. I followed immediately after, having heard David go "Oh, shit!" at the sight of Megan's face, which was bleeding profusely.

And so, while everyone else was eating Christmas lunch, Megan, David and I spent three hours at Unitas hospital's emergency room, paying through the nose for seven stitches in Megan's face, just to the right of her right eye.

She was very brave throughout the whole saga and didn't fuss while the doctor did his thing and we had a little chat about how even the world's best skateboarders started off with a few cuts and bruises... She didn't take too much convincing and was back on the board the following day, knee and elbow pads and helmet on, showing off her "battle scar" to all and sundry. Tough cookie, that one. Mother's child! ;)

When we finally did get to have lunch, it was delicious and very, very welcome!

In terms of material gifts, this Christmas was not our greatest. But I think it was a success nonetheless. Here are a few of the things that made it a better Christmas than what I was expecting:

- I got to spend time with almost all of the people that matter to me. Would have loved to see my brother, too, though.
- The kids had a ball and loved all of the presents they got. At my mom's place on Christmas Eve, Megan went to shake my gran's hand after we'd all exchanged gifts and said to her, "Pleasure doing business with you!"
- I love that my kids aren't the kind of spoilt brats who think they're entitled to whatever their hearts desire.
- I think my parents and sister in-law honestly liked the homemade biscuit assortments I made for their gifts this year. I went and bought them each a huge, glass cookie jar and decorated each one with a pretty ribbon. They really looked lovely, if I do say so myself.
- As mentioned earlier, I didn't have to cook or wash any dishes.
- I was introduced to a family member I'd never met before: My grandmother tracked down a long lost sister this year and she spent Christmas Eve with us at my mom's house.
- It was a good time for taking stock and looking at what we're doing, where we're going, stuff like that.
- I've just generally been enjoying my husband and our kids and feeling all smooshy inside. Very unusual for me to be all soft and lovey, but I could get used to the displays of affection and feelings of wellbeing...

And there you have it. Christmas wrapped up, ripped open, gutted, devoured and digested. What's next on the menu?

And Counting...

Three days til Christmas and we have yet to buy Megan's present. She really, really wants to do the paintball thing and I really, really don't want her to. Because, like her mother, she has quite a temper on her. And I can totally see her shooting paintballs at the other kids in the complex when they piss her off. Which is every day. Not to mention having to placate irrate parents whose children's clothes/houses' walls and windows need cleaning/replacing...

She's not a girly girl, so none of the High School Musical and Hannah Montana stuff will fly. And I'm worried about the scrapes and potentially broken bones that will result from a skateboard.

What the hell do they have out there for tomboys these days?!

We also still need to get something for Jack, but I suspect we won't have too much trouble there. David and I will get someone to sit for us tomorrow afternoon so we can go and find Meg and Jack's presents.

Michael is going to love his Bakugan gift, since every second word out of his mouth these days is "Bakugan" (where, oh where have you gone, Ben 10?!)...

Meanwhile, the baking is going okay, although I've decided to revise my prices in January. So everyone who's ordered cookies from me recently will still be getting them at the original prices. Merry Christmas!

In other news, I think I have finally decided on the new baby's names! I'm very excited and totally relieved, because I was beginning to think it would never come to me. And, as with Jack, I'm not sharing just yet because I can't be arsed to listen to anyone's criticisms. It is what it is and, as I've said before: You want to pick a baby name? Have your own baby!

And on the subject of babies - CONGRATULATIONS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN to Louisa on the birth of your gorgeous, gorgeous Nicola!!!

Meanwhile, the time is a-ticking and I have a bajillion cookies to bake, including finishing up @AngelsMind's order for this afternoon, so I'm off again.
But do stop by @Jenty's blog and have a look at the awesome photos she took at the Bloggirls breakfast on Sunday. Especially that beautiful shot of my Michael - isn't he devastatingly good looking? I have big worries about what's going to happen when that boy discovers girls. Seriously.

Random List of Stuff

Yeah, I'm doing a point form spiel because I've had quite a few random, not necessarily related thoughts over the past week or so. And because I can.

- Is it just me or are there really only 5 days left 'til Christmas?! HOLY CRAP!
- We had a great time at this mornings blogging/twitter girls breakfast. Go see some awesome photos over at Gina's blog. Thanks to Wenchy for the organizing and the invite!
- There seems to be a bit of a "grown-up" theme about this festive season and I find myself feeling inspired by Laura and ExMi's tweets about summer dresses and dinner parties. I'm in the mood for a bit of dress up and romance myself...
- On Friday, I happened to be at the right place at the right time and won me a voucher from Cappucino's at Carlswald Lifestyle Centre. And I'm going to take the first available opportunity to ship the small people off to one of the grandparents' houses, put on a dress and some make-up and have a real, honest to goodness grown-up evening with my hubby.
- I also recently won tickets to the Spongebob musical at Carnival City, and David and I will be taking Megan and Michael to see it tomorrow evening. I'm really looking forward to it - thanks again, Angel!
- Some of the plans we were making a bit over a year ago and which were scrapped when I was retrenched appear to be creeping back onto the agenda. It's one of those bizarre coincidences for us that we end up making huge life changes every time we have a baby. As if having a baby isn't a big enough change on its own.
- I was pretty sure I had a whole lot more to say when I started this post. Now I can't rememeber any of it. I hate it when that happens.
- I can't decide how I feel about this past year. It certainly hasn't been the easiest we've had. But I can also say with some certainty that it hasn't been our worst.
- I'm 28 weeks pregnant today, which means I have officially entered the third trimester of this pregnancy. I can't believe there are only about 84 days left before this little guy is supposed to join us. In some ways, it feels like it's been forever and in others it seems like it was just the other day Jack was born...
- I watched a short documentary on Makhaya Ntini's cricket career yesterday. It made me cry. It's stupid how easily things make me cry at the moment. And David thinks it's hilarious, of course.
- We watched Sunshine Cleaning earlier today. I really liked it. It made me cry, too.
- 2010 is supposed to be a big year for me. I'm hitting the big Three-Oh in January, having baby number four in March, possibly (finally!) starting up my very own business for reals and maybe, just maybe, even finding some direction.

And that's all I've got for now. Keep checking back, though. I'm slowly working my way toward being here more often - promise!

Wishlist

Before I knew that December was going to be a particularly rough month for us, I drew up a list of possible things for me to get David and the kids for Christmas this year. I also tried to think of a few things I might like myself, but couldn't think of any.

And then I started seeing all kinds of interesting and awesome things on other peoples' lists and decided that perhaps there were a few things I wouldn't mind receiving after all.

So, in a perfect world, here's what Santa would be leaving in my stocking this year:

1. Tonight's R20 million Lotto Jackpot. So very, very many things I could do with this!
2. That awesome rolling pin with the cookie cutters inside it from Boardmans.
3. Lindt Lindor balls – especially the milk and/or dark chocolate ones. Because any occasion needs these.
4. A new, slightly bigger purse, because mine won’t close when you put anything in it.
5. A day at a spa, including a Brazilian, a new hairdo, a manicure,a pedicure and a hot stone massage...
6. A good quality icing kit.
7. Kitchen scale and a good set of mixing bowls.
8. Lancome “Miracle – So Magic” or “Hypnose” or Clinique “Happy” or Estee Lauder “Pleasures” perfume. Because every girl should have perfume.
8. A shopping voucher to spend on stuff for the new baby.
9. Books on silk screening and/or sugar craft.
10. To get my tongue/belly piercing or both redone.
11. A mini holiday someplace nice, with kid care sorted, so hubby and I can spend a bit of “us” time before new baby arrives.

I'd be thrilled to have any of the above. But at the same time, I'm quite happy to do without them as long as my family is strong and healthy and happy and as long as there is always something to look forward to.

And that is my wish this year for you, too.

Cookies to Crumble

Right, so that baking thing I was talking about in my last post - something about making a list of what I'm going to be making and about you guys maybe, possibly letting me know if you'd be interested in making a purchase or two.

Here's what's on the menu so far:

- Vanilla Custard Cookies, aka Smeltkoekies because they literally melt in your mouth!
- Crunchies. Big-ass, good ol' traditional Oat Crunchies.
- Almond Cookies. With icing on top.
- Plain or Choc-dipped Coffee Cookies.

I would have loved to try my hand at making fruit mince pies - found some awesome sounding recipes, but I'll have to give those a skip this time around because I simply can't afford to buy the ingredients right now.

Prices for the above are as follows:

- Vanilla Custard Cookies: R18 per dozen
- Crunchies: R18 per dozen
- Almond Cookes: R20 per dozen
- Plain Coffee Cookies: R18 per dozen
- Choc-dipped Coffee Cookies: R22 per dozen.

Dear World

This is me, tentatively sticking my nose out of my hole in the hope that maybe, if I'm really, really lucky, something will happen sometime soon that will make everything alright again.

And that makes me either idiotically optimistic or a sucker for punishment, but hey. I was kind of almost getting my groove back on the blogging thing for a while, wasn't I? And I could be wrong, but I also got the distinct impression that there were a good few new people visiting my little corner of the web for a moment or two.
So I figured I'd peep out and see whether they were really there and I wasn't just imagining things...

So since we were burgled a couple of weeks ago and I had my computer and modem stolen and thus my connection to the World Outside severed, I've spent a significant amount of time feeling crappy and then feeling crappier. And now I'm really sick and tired of feeling crappy and am ready for something to give already.

In between the feelings of crappiness, I have managed to pull my finger far enough out of my arse to put in an insurance claim, which resulted in a visit from an assessor last week.
I then proceeded to blow any remainig shred of self respect I still had out of my arse, literally, while the insurance assessor guy stood next to my in front of my wardrobe, asking me for an estimated value of all of my clothes and personal effects. I blushed profusely and made the appropriate excuses. He then stood there giving me the most classic disbelieving look I've ever witnessed, followed by an equally intense dirty look.
And I couldn't help thinking to myself he was being a bit of a dick about it all. Farting is, unfortunately, just one of those things when you're pregnant, you know? And I thought the least he could do was let the recently robbed, overly emotional, clearly distraught and mortified pregnant chick off lightly by either a) pretending not to have noticed or b) making light of the situation before quickly moving on.

Anyhoo...

I have since then forwarded the man all the quotes I was supposed to forward him and am now anxiously awaiting a verdict from the folks at Topexec/Santam, the result of which will either be profound relief or utter devastation.

Meanwhile, (insert TMI warning here!)unbeknownst to me, a little bug was lurking somewhere in the deep recesses of my urinary tract, growing strong in the warm and safe environment there and eventually morphing into something somewhat more sinister.

I didn't pay too much attention when I first started feeling the familiar tightenings in my bump just over a week ago, guessing that they were nothing more than some relatively strong Braxton Hicks contractions brought on by the stress of recent events, compounded by the day to day demands of 3 kids and a formerly promising financial situation bearing ever faster into the giant shithole that is the final destination of all who fail to halt the dwindling spiral of debt.

And then I had my monthly visit to my midwife, the highlight in what has otherwise been a less than happy time for me. Only to hear that my urine sample served up some rather worrying inclusions that might explain why I'd been feeling those Braxton Hicks a bit more intensely and here's some nice, vile-tasting homeopathic stuff that will hopefully clear up the infection.

Two days later I reported to the nearest doctor's rooms with worsening symptoms, to be told that said infection is now significantly developed and I need to get this fucker sorted with some mean-ass antibiotics and get me to bed, directly to bed, do not pass Go!, for a week until the meds have had time to kill off the bug. Or else risk having an extremely small and underdeveloped baby in the very near future.

Funny enough, though, I somehow don't feel that this baby has any intention of going anywhere anytime soon, and it appears that my (thankfully closed!) cervix is in agreement, no matter how hard my uterus squeezes to try to convince me otherwise.

And the plus side to all of this (yes, even in the middle of being super emo, I am capable of dreaming up a silver lining) is that I've had a lot of time to dream and scheme, which has resulted in a few potentially rewarding ideas:

Hubby and I took a Sunday drive a while back, to a plot out just past Pretoria East where we lived when we first moved in together. He'd left a light table behind there when we left, a remnant of a small but relatively successful screenprinting business he'd had in his youth.
It needs a good clean and a new rubber seal, but it's here. We then spoke to an old friend who has an extensive background in textile design and she agreed to let us have her old screens. And so on and so forth. Bottom line being that, with a couple of grand in our hands, we could get everything set up and I fancy I'd like to try my hand at designing and printing a range of pretty gift bags and wrapping papers.

And what's really nice about all this is that it fits in with all the other ideas I've been brewing over the last few months and, in some cases, even years. And all that stands in the way is a couple of K.

This is, of course, the tricky part. It's the end of the year, the festive season and I'm nearing 7 months pregnant. Not to mention the fact that I have 3 kids to care for and no way of paying for full time domestic help. All of which means that finding a regular job right now, on top of being nothing short of selling my soul and a sure-fire way of driving myself into a state of deeply damaging depression, is exceptionally unlikely.

That said, I've been thinking about pushing the baking stuff a bit more. Since there is no way I'm going to be able to buy any gifts for Christmas this year, we've decided that I'm going to bake various assortments of biscuits and such, and that's what people are getting from us this year. And I figure, since I'm going to be baking shitloads anyway, why not bake shitloads extra and make up packages for selling? In the next couple of days, I'll be drawing up a list of all the cookies and things I'll be making and I'll post it here on my blog so anyone who's interested can leave me a comment and we can get to discussing it.

Losing my job has been a severe financial blow, which has forced us to make a number of changes to our lifestyle and, despite having significantly cut down a great many expenses, we're still simply not making it. And the way I see it I could either let myself slowly go insane with worry until I'm completely apathetic, or I could take something from all of these many months of introspection and shit and figure out how to make it work for us.

So here goes. What do you think? Do you think anyone would buy my cookies? Would you give a gift of homemade goodies? Am I kidding myself? And while the jury is out on that one, anyone looking for a freelance copywriter?