My Christmas

Oh heavens I don't think I have the stamina to write about this yet. In dot point, here is how it went:

• Chrissy Eve was fab; had an absolute ball with Beck and Seth, Greg and Kath. We chatted and played wii and just had a great time. We just love these guys; they all mean the world to us and Hanny just ADORES them all. She is incredibly blessed to have such amazing people in her life, as are we.

• Christmas Morning was not fabulous; I was in bed with a bucket from 6:00am to 8:00am, feeling sick as a dog (no it wasn't a hangover) I had had a little apple cidar (like quart of a glass) and it disagreed with me incredibly. So sick of my sensitive stomach! Anyways, thankfully started to feel better in time to wrap Hannah's presents (this Chrissy I have been so behind the ball!!) We had a nice little time unwrapping except nath was a little grumpy after a bad night sleep (3am bedtime!) and I was still feeling a little queasy and we missed going to our old church for Chrissy day service, which we had planned. Hannah loved it though, but I was struck with how we train our children to be completely consumeristic as we thrust present after present on Hannah while she was trying to enjoy the previous one!
  
• Christmas Day my parents came around, but as I was below par, I didn't quite have the stamina to throw myself into the cooking, so we made do with only one roast and a quickly dressed table. The afternoon was sleepy and I went back to bed for what turned into a 5 hour nap. Hmmm...not what I had in mind...But it was nice to spend the day with mum and dad and enjoy some yummy food and time together. Hannah loved her cubby house and me and mum had fun setting it up for her and playing in it too LOL

• Boxing Day I was getting ready for my family do at my sisters when I got incredibly weak and dizzy after my shower. Ended up on the bed, with Nath wondering whether to call the Doc. Took a few hours to gain equilibrium and in turn, had to skip our family celebration :o(

• Boxing Day evening, got a call that my dad had been taken to hospital with a double heart rate. Rushed down to hospital and spent a cpl hours there. Nath and Hannah later joined me, to find out dad had had a small heart attack. Spent 2 days in ICU. We visited him on the ward yesterday and he is doing ok, but it gave us all a really nasty scare.

So to be honest, it was everything I didn't want, throw in a bad fight with nath and a panic attack and it was quite a horrendous Christmas. LOL However, lots of good came out of it; We realised again how many wonderful people we have in our life as we recieved phone calls, texts, prayers and cards to dad and offers to babysit Hanny so we could visit dad. We are truly, truly blessed and I have come to realise a few things from all this.

1. Hinging a whole bunch of expectations on one or two days, is kinda unnatural and it is no surprise that things often don't turn out how we plan.

2. I don't want Hannah to grow up not appreciating things because she is overly bombarded with presents and objects. I think less presents next year.

3. The important things in life are friends and family, and we did experience that this Christmas, it was just in a different way than I expected.

4. God gets you through things. It is an awful shock when things go completely wrong, but God is amazing in His tenderness and wisdom and manages to weave His truths into your every circumstance, no matter what it is, if we will listen and trust Him.

So, yeah, that was our Chrissy. LOL I am looking forward to the New Year; I think it is going to be a good year for us. Feeling more focused, older and wiser than before LOL and feeling led by God into some new opportunities and adventures.

On a lighter note, I love this picture of mum; I have never claimed to be a great cook and my baked parsnips turned out to be the butt of all jokes on Christmas day, with mum turning one into a witches nose and dad stating that he should have saved his parsnip to cut the ribbon on his present. hehehe