merry christmas!! nah...bah humbug!

THE CHRISTMAS TABLE
THE HUMBLE FAMILY CHRISTMAS DAY
LILY AND HER NANA MICHELE

LILYS NEW SMILE AT THE XMAS MARKET
MUMMY AND LILY OUTSIDE A WOOD CARVING STALL
THE SILLY HAT FAMILY EATING BRATWURST
IM NOT SURE ABOUT THIS STOCKING THING YET
MAKING IGGLE PIGGLE DANCE

AMAZED AT THE PLANES
CISCA AND LILY
ME EATING HERRING AND PULLING FACES
CISCA, GERDA, LILY AND I
LILY AND DADDY DOING THE LILY SMILE

Hello all

I see you all had lovely Christmas's. Everyone looked like they had such fun, so a belated merry Christmas to all of you. My apologies for it being so late. It was not my intention I assure you but fate took over and my Christmas and holiday was challenged by a bad flu virus.

As I sit here , having dragged the laptop to the couch I may add, I am still coughing like a lung may emerge any minute.

I have never been sick over Christmas and I hated it. I love bloomin Christmas!! this is not what I asked for father Christmas!!!!

Aside from being so ill I still had a Little girl to make Christmas special for. She is still a wee bit young to understand exactly whats going on but she got into the present and stocking thing pretty sharpish and even exclaimed "wow" and "ooooooo" when she saw her crayons in her stocking.

Let me begin my stories by telling you from the beginning. Our trip to Holland.

We had a lovely , if not cold, time. I spent a lot of the time in stitches of laughter at Kristian. He is by no means the most adventurous person and the cold was just too much for him. I am certain he believes without a doubt that the Netherlands is the coldest place on earth.

Our flight was great. Lily loves planes and the airport provided much excitement for her. she was pointing and making noises at all the planes and then when we boarded one she was truly amazed.

We stayed at a friend, Ciscas , house in Amsterdam. she lives just outside Amsterdam near Schipol airport in a lovely, modern flat. We have been friends since we were little and it was lovely to catch up with her . Lily absolutely loved her wanted to be carried around by her all the time. The first day we went off to Volendam, a traditional dutch fishing village. I ate herring which I love and we had some poffertjies ( tiny pancakes) on the seafront.

The Friday saw us making our way into Amsterdam for the day. We went in by train and barely escaped death many times as the bicycles came at us from every angle. We had a wander around and then later that afternoon met up with Cisca and her mum , Gerda , at the sweetest quirky coffee shop , which I am told is called my Granny's panties ( I think) the dutch huh weird people!!

We went into haarlem the next day which is a lovely town that has a market outside the cathedral in the square selling the most amazing flowers. I am a flower person and these flowers were just amazing. the dutch are so house proud they do these amazing flower arrangements ,and everbody has these huge front windows decorated in some way.

We did get lost trying to find the bus there and we both got very cold. We wrapped Lily in her cosy toes thing and she was snug but we were not happy. Especially Kristian .

I think this was the beginning of my problems though as in the next 4 hours my sore throat hit and then the dreaded fever.

That evening we went to Gerda's house and had lovely dutch croquette and wine. Gerda's house is wonderful and her tree was lovely. Santa had been and brought Lily a doll and a buggy for her. What a hit this was she has not stopped playing with it.

Next day saw us going to my aunt and uncle . If we thought we were cold before we did not know what was about to happen. Not only did the temperature drop to minus 3 most days but the house was not exactly warm.

They loved Lily though and she had a ball and was fascinated by their budgie. The day we arrived I was drugged up trying to get through the day but we went to a small town called Bronkhorst anyway. It was beautiful but I felt so awful all I could think of was my bed. then it got so cold that Kristian's shoelace snapped. I went into fits of hysteria. his face was a picture.

I then had a day in bed to prepare myself for the market in Germany. You know what its like. You are desperate to do something. you have spent all your savings on going somewhere so you have to force yourself to go and have fun.

The day passed like I was watching it from above, probably due to the drugs, and we got some lovely Christmas bits like a table cloth and a wooden cut out candle thingy. We had bratwurst and gluwein ( lots for me to mix with the drugs)

All in all I must be honest and say that it was not the best after I got sick and all I wanted was to get home to my bed. we did make it home and I had my bed for a day until I remembered it was Christmas and I had not done any food shopping sigh.....

Usually i love going food shopping. not this time.

here was our menu

spicy parsnip soup with brushetta

balintore of chicken, duck and turkey stuffed with a pork , apricot and sage stuffing and covered with pancetta

roasted maple syrup parsnips

roast potatoes roasted in goose fat

baby carrots and broccoli

red cabbage with apple

little sausages wrapped in bacon

cranberry sauce

xmas pud with egg nog cream and custard

It was my first Christmas dinner and Kristian and his mum tell me it was delicious. It took every ounce of will power to get up and be merry on Christmas day and then to prepare the dinner. Awful I know but the truth.

Lily getting up and opening her stocking on our bed was the highlight for me. she was just so excited because we were and then all her little toys started coming out and she did not know what to play with first.

The gift opening went well as well and she loved all her gifts. Her iggle piggle went down a treat and she gave him kisses the whole day and pushed him around in her pram.

She is the light of my life that little thing. we love her so much and she really is so entertaining. she chats away now to herself and us and her vocabulary is growing by the day. she say car now as well and daddy and mum.

I always find when we have been away and she has seen new things she has a growth spurt .

My new year wish is that I have a good Christmas next year. I am planning to have a flu jab and inject vitamin c into my veins.

I will leave you with a few holiday photos and Christmas day ones.

I hope this year has brought all of you the happiness you deserve and that the new year is full of happiness and love and lots of blog posts.....................

I have a sparkly tree

Yes its up.

My tree and all my English decorations are up. my poor South African ones are all stored in a wendy house in my parents back garden. I do feel sorry for them.

We had a festive weekend beginning on Friday when we put the tree up. we started before Lily's bedtime and she loved it. It was a wee bit chaotic and at one stage when Lily was rushing through the lounge wildly banging two glass baubles together. They broke , I screamed , she screamed and then i rescued her from the shards of glass.

We have this little soft toy Rudolph that sings Rudolph the red nose reindeer ( what else) and dances . she loves this thing and has learnt very quickly that by squeezing its hand it starts all over. she holds his hands and dances along with him. Its very cute.

The weekend was the most foul weather we have had in a long time and forced us to stay indoors. We could have gone shopping but we figured the rest of Britain would be there as things are so busy recently I have queued to blow my nose.

It was a nice weekend though and we played with Lily and had lunch and watched some tv and marveled at our tree.

Tomorrow brings a new exciting trip. We are off to Holland for a week. I have always wanted to go to the German Christmas markets. Then our friends and my dads sister offered for us to come to Holland so I though it would be the perfect opportunity. We are near Amsterdam for 3 days and then in Dieren at my aunt and uncles fir 3 days, one of those we are going by coach to Germany to a market. Bring on the gluwein and stollen , I am there!

Its bound to be very exciting for Lily as her new favorite thing is aeroplanes. When she hears one she runs to the window to look for it and shouts excitedly. she can spot them when they are but pin pricks in the sky.

Her other new favorite is dogs and cats. she can do woof woof and pss pss ( the universal sound for calling a cat)

I hope you all have a good week and weekend. we have anniversaries and graduations amongst the bloggers this week. I will be back next week with tales of German Christmas's.

hers some pictures

Look how curly Lily's hair is from behind

our fireplace and mantle

The tree all wrapped in tinsel

the tree with light a bit blurry with no flash
putting some decorations on the tree chilling with daddy and dolly

yummy

from the time I gave birth to her I have been responsible for feeding her, from breastmilk to formula, to pureed everything.

I have spooned it into her mouth with care.

But now she is keen to spoon it herself and here are the results of Lily's first self feed.

Not too messy I am sure you will agree and she was so pleased with herself too!

I wish...

I wish my bum was smaller and my legs longer
I wish mince pies were zero calories
I wish I was going home for Christmas
I wish I was living in cape town
I wish Kristian could get a job in Cape Town
I wish Lily has a life filled with love, happiness and health.
I wish that Steven and Veronica's little crumb has a safe journey onto earth
I wish that little Amy's first year is the best ever
I wish that Honey is happy and joyful in doggie heaven
I secretly wish that there is a heaven
I wish my nana could spend a day with me to tell me more of her stories now that i am older and more appreciative
I wish my dad could give up work
I wish my mum would stop getting bronchitis
I wish that my family could see Lily at the stage she is at now.. the sweetest
I wish they would stop putting those plastic ringpulls on juice cartons that cut into your hand
I wish people would start paying more attention to the environment..me included
I secretly wish i could have another baby
I wish we had a 2 bedroom flat
I wish i could dance a latin american dance
I wish i was neater and more organized
I wish all the babies and kiddies I know have a magical christmas

but most of all I wish that every one of you that reads this blog has a joyful and happy Christmas period and that the new year will be filled with promise and new adventures .

I wish.....

Brrrrrrrr

As I type this the wind is howling outside and it is very cold. that cold where you don't dare open your mouth in case your teeth freeze. I am hopeful that it will get colder and colder until magically on Christmas day it snows !!!

We have just got back from a lovely night spent at our friends, Jason and Sandi. They have a lovely little house in Watford. we left on Saturday afternoon and drove up there in a lot of rain. Once again Kristian pulled a goerge and went onto the hard shoulder as he thought it was the off ramp. I found this tremendously funny but he DID NOT. so I had to fight to control my laughter for a good 5 minutes.

We had a lovely evening with wine and lovely real champagne. They had done tomato soup, chicken , potatoes and veg and for pud a lovely hot chocolate pudding and treacle pudding yum!!

Lily was a star and kept Jason fit this morning walking up and down the stairs. She really loved them , being a bit of a novelty as we don't have stairs. We then went of to a village called Chipperfield to an old fashioned pub, overlooking farmlands and a green. a fireplace was crackling and I had some pork sausages, mash and red onion gravy.

So that was the weekend. On the Lily front she is growing like a weed and its all about chatting at the moment. This week alone she has said 3 different words. Ball is still her favorite but she is saying dad very well and there (der) and quack quack. she is imitating every word we say ( gulp) and is babbling away non stop. Her little sense of humour is so developed and she really is very funny. She has learnt how to hide now and hides everywhere. I truly believes she understands everything I say. She can point out mist of her body bits like her nose , feet , toes etc. All in all I am having such fun with her,its so rewarding being with her and watching her learning new things.

With all this Independence comes strong will though and on Friday I had my first toddler battle and did not fair too well. She keeps touching the coal in the fireplace getting her hands and my furniture and clothes filthy. also its dangerous obviously. Will she listen to me? not a chance!!!

I was stern, removed her and distracted her. then I tried putting her in the room for about 30 seconds and then going in and telling her mummy says no. nothing worked she kept going back and touching it while looking at me. My temper is very short and eventually i put her in the room and let her cry before she could come out. how terrible did I feel. I hated it but I made her look at me when I told her that she must not touch and she stopped doing it. yay I won

Oh here's her later that evening when she removed a piece of the coal and brought it to me and then smeared it all over her face. excuse the runny nose she is a bit sick , but it adds to the chimney sweep look. perhaps I did not win after all!!

Also a sad farewell to our friends Gavin , Catherine and baby Max. Tuesday sees them winging their way back to South Africa to start a brilliant new job. We will miss them . they are our singing partners :(

good luck guys ,enjoy it, and see you soon

I am of course insanely jealous and am popping in tomorrow to hide in their suitcase

Baby Max with his iggle piggle we gave him

I will leave you with a few photos from recent weeks.

Ps. be vey excited as my tree is going up in the week and I am going to bore you with many photos of that

xxxxx

Lily being serious