I'm not dead

But Himself managed to kill my macbook.  He decided the screen was too dirty and drowned it.

This happened the week before Christmas and I was dependent on using an old clunking PC.  NOT HAPPY!

Santa obviously heard my cries and gnashing of teeth and replaced the soggy macbook with a sparkly new one.  One of which, by the way, Himself is not allowed within 10 feet.  Until I can get my kids to wave the magic techno wand and access my files I am struggling to remember address of all my old favourite sites.  Please leave a comment if I read you and have appeared to have gone AWOL!  I am slowly getting back by reading the sites I remember the addresses of and sifting through their blog lists or comments but what a time consuming task.  Mind you, I've stumbled across some new interesting blogs ... like I needed more.

Christmas was great.  Very tiring but great.  Three days of celebrations with a mix of friends and family.  Next year I will see if I can do it smarter so I can get to enjoy a bit more of it.  But we had a ball.

The low bit was not having Two and GGF around as they had to go to Sydney for GGF's family.  I wouldn't have minded but the poor kids had a miserable time and no space to themselves.  They slept in the lounge room so couldn't go to bed until the last person had retired (and I am taken aback at the lack of thought of some of them choosing to sit up and watch a movie into the small hours even when they had a telly in their room) and then having to get up when the first person was up and about.  We picked them up from the airport this afternoon and they are so relieved to be back.

Tomorrow we will do Christmas part 4 for them.

And we have NYE here.

Thank god it really is only once a year!

I'll be back ...

Officially unemployed!

As of Wednesday I am a lady of leisure.  I keep an eye on the job market but am not in any hurry and will probably seriously look to return to work around March.

Next Tuesday I'm catching up with my mates from the old job.  I am looking forward to that as they are a couple of really good people.

A lot of the pressies have been wrapped.  This is such a good thing as it sometimes takes me longer to wrap the damn things than it does to buy them!  Two more shopping trips should see the end of the buying.  Then I need to sew and bake.

Himself is in Sydney tonight and Three is about to head out so will cook myself some lamb cutlets and brocollini and settle down with a mag and some music or a DECENT television show!!

Still need batteries for the camera but photos are coming ... promise!!

I KNEW I was injured!

On Friday I went to the club for dinner with Neil and Sooz.  Another couple were there and Himself was elsewhere (work Christmas lunch and an old school chum catch up).

We hadn't been there long when I started to experience the aura that preempts a migraine.  I haven't had a migraine for nearly 5 years and at first I hoped that I had been dazzled by the light glancing off something metallic.  But no.  I didn't want to go home and sit there by myself wondering whether it would be a doozy and didn't want to put a dampner on the evening.  In the end I told N & S what was happening and rang Three to bring me some drugs!  He was on his way out and called into the club, bless him.  3 neurofen, 1 maxalon and several glasses of sav blanc* later and the visual disturbances and word finding difficulties had subsided and the tingling weakness in my hands was less.  On Saturday I woke up with the residual headache which didn't go away as it normally does.  I wasn't sure whether the migraine had been caused by stress or hormones or had a mechanical cause.

*This is MY cocktail for treating MY migraines and is not to be considered the norm or in anyway recommended!!!

Yesterday I did some Christmas shopping and my lower back and shoulders were very sore.  Fortunately I had a physio appointment yesterday evening and told her my woes.  Apparently when I fell over in Chadstone a week or so ago I suffered a form of whiplash and that was the cause of all my problems.  I was thrilled to know that there was a cause but, oy, the pain after she poked and prodded!  Thank heavens for neurofen!  Today the stiffness is better and the headache has almost gone.  JOY!

So.  On we hurtle towards 25th December.

On Sunday I decorated the tree.  I will post a photo when I have replaced the batteries in my camera and tidied the house a bit! I am very happy with the way it's turned out.  I went with a silver and red theme this year.  The stair banisters are decorated with red and gold balls and bows!  My napery will be red and green so the place should look very christmassy.

Two rang yesterday evening asking us to pop over.  They had bought their first decent sized tree and decorated it and wanted to show off.  It's gorgeous (bigger than ours - is that some rite of passage when the kids' trees are bigger than the parents'?) and they are so house proud.  It's just a shame that they will not be there for Christmas but will be in Sydney.

I have knocked over most of the shopping.  I still have to get some bits for Three who is proving very difficult his year.  I need to fine tune my lists and go to the butcher (TODAY!).  And I have a heap of sewing to do.  My plan is to get the pressie shopping done today and/or tomorrow and then focus on the hand made stuff.  If I have time I want to make some biccies to have on hand for the unexpected people that you like to have a little something for.

So on that note I shall get started on my lists.

Christmas is just around the corner.

Some people have already put their tree up and decorated it.  Mine is in a box in the garage.  At least I have a tree in a box in the garage.  I bought it last week when I went shopping with Three (and fell over!).  I managed to kill our artificial tree last year.  I might get around to assembling and decorating the thing over the next few days.  Not sure what else to do for decorations this year.  We'll probably put the lights up on the balcony again.

I have been buying presents here and there without proper lists of who needs what.  I really need to sit down and get those lists done so I can knock the shopping over sooner rather than later.  I bought Himself a blood pressure monitor today!  How romantic!  He will be thrilled with it.  Well, what else would you buy a 60 year old overweight male?

I also need to sit down and get my food lists and menus sorted.  I'll concentrate on easy finger food with some bbq stuff thrown in as well.  It gets expensive so I should start stocking up on that stuff as well.

This was last Christmas Eve.  Yes the photo's a bit blurry but you get the idea.  I hope the new tree will look OK.  It's much smaller than the old one.  Last year we went for a green and gold theme (from memory). We have done blue and silver, gold and silver, red and gold, and all the colours over the years (once we stopped using all the kids hand made stuff that they used to bring home from school and kinder).  I thought they'd miss their offerings but they like the themes.  This year the tree will be mainly silver with accents of red.  At least it will if I can get my act together!  I also need to buy some silvery table cloths and runners as my current ones are gold.

Himself dropped my stat dec, pass and keys back to work today.  I can now consider myself unemployed.  One more pay which will have my holiday pay included which will help with Christmas and then I should work out what 'budget' means.

Dinner's ready to go into the oven (mustard and dill chicken parcels with steamed brocollini and spuds).  I am enjoying a rather noice savvy blanc.  Himself has gone to the gym and Three should be home soon.

Life is pretty damn good (and will be better once I get Christmas under control).