Lexi

'May you have a blessed time with your family.
And in the New Year may we all find more of what
unites us than what divides us. '

We can certainly agree that we live in a wonderfully blessed country where most have the opportunity to have a great Christmas. Hope you remain healthy and also have a wonderful time with your family.

Merry Christmas peeps!

I will be up early thinking bad thoughts about the slack buggers who aren’t up early with me.

A stack of pancakes will be made before waking the household this year so the kids have full stomachs prior to chemical restraining then unleashed on a candy cane laden tree that is drowning in an ocean of pressies.

All gifts were purchased based solely on the criteria of being as environmentally unfriendly as possible.

I have put photos on each present due to the abundance of school age children who have arrived with the reading capabilities of small iguanas.

I expect giggling, lots of shouting, several meltdowns, much hunting for batteries, the odd timeout, all the adults to be completely useless for at least 2 hours after a roast lunch, and some awesome photo opportunities that look like everything was perfect cause really that’s the way we want to remember it.

Dear runner,

Thank You. We've just received the best
Christmas present ever - another grandson!
All of us are overjoyed - mother and baby
are both healthy and doing beautifully.
Couldn't ask for anything more.
Take care.

Dear Piper,

It's great to hear from you my dear, and welcome back!
Don't work too hard on Christmas Day - although that's
probably not going to happen - knowing you.
Have fun!

We've already started with the great battery juggle....due to son suddenly getting the urge to rebuild Lego train from three Christmases ago - (It's currently snaking around the internal feature wall into the hall and back into the lounge) Cat's are fascinated, telly remote now has no batteries which are residing in the train control pad.

: )

Dear Poirot,

I'd love to buy a train set for my grandchildren -
but they're still too young. I did visit the
shop called "Honeybee Toys" in Malvern (here in
Melbourne). They've got some wonderful wooden
toys (handcrafted from Germany and Europe). My
grandson is really into fairy tale characters -
especially Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and
animals like reindeer, squirrels, turtles, hedgehogs,
et cetera. He calls the dwarfs "Jo-Ho's," after the song
"Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, its home from work we go..." Having small
children makes you see things through their eyes!

Lexi,

Wow...you're about to have the opportunity to revisit all of those magical places.

I remember when my son was born (19 years after my daughter) that it occurred to me that once again I would be able to go to those places again. He's 11 now, so he's over the age for fairy tales and infant-type credulousness, but still likes to invent his own fictional places.

My daughter grew up with a love of myth....she's much more knowledgeable than I am on such things. Although my son recently built a "world" on his ipad app - and I built a linking one...and we're both working on coming up with "myths" associated with our worlds.

There's always an opportunity for invention and creativity.