Saturday, January 05, 2008

Home

The long drive north along the New England Highway - did I say how good it is to be home?
With their Aunty M at a Christmas Eve bbq
Visiting their great aunt (my godmother)
Beautiful
Grandpa and 2 of his 4 grandsons
One of the any things Santa brought
Check out the joy on this little face when she 'met' her hero
I bribed the three cousins - a treat if they stood and smiled for me - it worked - aren't they gorgeous?
For the blogosphere - see we are preparing Hannah for a visit to the US one day:

Squeaky clean
Well I am home. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and new year. I have a stack of holiday photoes. The twins had a ball up north visiting my parents and playing with their cousin Daniel. The portable dvd player worked a treat on the long drive up and a steady diet of ricesnacks and junk food kept the brats fed.

While we were there we took the brats to Wiggle World (part of Dreamworld) and needless to say they loved it. On the way home Kit was discussing next Christas when we visit Nin Nin and Grandpa and Wiggle world again. He loved seeing his grandparents but WW was a VERY close second!

We got home exhausted about 8.30 pm on the Friday before NYE. My mother who has a number of health difficultites but who had been very well over Christmas was critically ill - it didn't happen until we were about 4 hours from home and at least 10 hours from her so we kept driving and I flew out on the first flight the next morning. In the end I stayed up there for a week. Mum is now home and slowly recovering but it was very scary for a while and remains so as her health seems to get worse every time she is sick and in hospital. Still I appreciated a week at home to help Dad a bit (he does a lot of caring for Mum as she has limited mobility) and visiting with Mum at the hospital. I missed the twins like crazy of course but knowing how fragile Mum's health is it was really nice to spend that bit of time with her.

NYE was therefore a quiet affair. Still when I said goodbye to my parents yesterday and came home - it was with high hopes for 2008. I hope that it is a good one - for everyone! I think it is one for me to slow down a bit and focus on home and family - something I am looking forward to.

4 comments:

homealonemom said...

Happy New Year Shelley! Sounds like you holidays were great. Hope your mum is feeling better!! My oldest is home kindof-she spends all day on the computer talking with her friends in Thailand. Then she makes hot, stinky food just for her. I tried a tiny pepper and thought I was gonna die it was soooo hot! It has been cold and snowy so my rug rats (brats) have enjoyed that. Still deciding on high schools for the twins-keep changing our minds which makes my son have a fit. Maybe all this stress will make me lose weight, except I eat when I'm anxious!!??
I have fo figure out how to take pics and put them on my blog soon.

Michelle said...

Love the pictures! Looks like a fun Christmas. Kayla has that same T-ball set :) Is Hannah pedaling her trike? Kayla has no interest in riding a bike right now, I wish she would though!

Sorry to hear about your mom, sounds like it was pretty scary. Good thing you were able to get out the next morning and spend that time with her - glad to hear she's back at home too.

Melissa @ Banana Migraine said...

I'm so sorry about your mom! I'm glad that she is starting to feel better though.

It looks like a fun celebration - the cousins all look like they are such good friends.

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

Katie said...

Happy New Year!
Great Pic's :)
I had to laugh when i saw the photo of the highway - we went down to the south coast the other day and i forgot to take any pics so i spent the drive home happy-snapping out the window!
Im sorry your mum's been sick, im glad you got to spend that extra time with her and i hope she is feeling much better now.
xxoo
Katie