The Lammers: December 2008

I dont know about all of you out there, but Christmas always seems a rush,everyone is in a mad panic to get things done, shops are chaos as the families descend on the shops to buy presents, food etc. Every year this doesnt seem to go away. Sometimes I think many forget the 'Reason for the Season'. Although I observe Christmas as a religious holiday myself even those that dont, it is still seen as family time, time to sit down and have Christmas EveDinner and/or Christmas Lunch. Yet I think most of us by the time Christmas has arrived are absolutely shattered. Not to mention what the purpose of Christmas is ... exactly that celebrate with our families, enjoy the 'down time' as such and if you are a practicing Christian to celebrate the birth of Jesus, to be thankful for all you have, not really writing lists and lists of stuff you want or stuff for others, because at the end of the day it is just 'stuff' - practising family traditions, spending time with family should be the purpose, giving rather than receiving - every year I balk at the amount of money we have spent on christmas presents for literally everyone and yes it is nice to give a gift, but I honestly feel that Christmas is really for the children and that sometimes Adults go a bit overboard, perhaps not many will agree with me but that is my point of view, nevertheless with so many without, with the world credit crunch going on we have decided that this year Christmas will be about the kids only! No presents for us, no presents for adults - I would rather put some of the money towards those that have nothing this year - I already have one or two that I would like to help with a bit of a hamper of food or something.

On a lighter note - for me work is crazy at the moment - utter craziness! In the midst of year end our company is opening up another Indonesion furniture store in the Retreat area at the new South Palms Decor centre as well as having opened up a temporary shop in Cavendish for the season until a more suitable space opens up there. So there is lots to do as you can imagine with that. However all I want to do is go on leave! And if one more person says to me oh you are on leave, but you were off for 4 months (i.e. for those not in the know .... I had a baby and it is a full time job!) they may get clobbered on the head with my heavy duty punch!! Holiday my a#$%! Moving along:

Being busy is my excuse for not updating my blog more often, lots has been going on and I did type a post about 3 days ago and my 3G connection failed and I lost the post, so heres hoping this one makes it. So what have the Lammers been up to for the past almost month?We had an incredibly hot weekend last weekend so spent both Saturday and Sunday by the pool letting Josh have his first swims in the big pool and a bit of a splash around in a blow up thing a ma jiggy, it looks like an aeroplane and is for the pool but we just put some cool water in it and he loves splashing around in it. The Killian twins Bianca and Nicola joined us for the day and we ending up having a little braai which was lovely. Then this week our nanny Merriam went on 3 weeks leave.... *gasp* what are we going to do!!??? Seriously we have become so dependent on her to have our house in order and washing and ironing done that I fear we have become a bit spoilt. When she left I said please just travel safe there and back as we really couldnt do without her!!! So Josh will be looked after by his grandpa Ford who I know will love spending the time with him. I cannot wait to be on leave with Clive and to spend time together as a family, something which is seriously lacking when both parents are working so hard, Clive has been getting home anytime between 8-10pm which means that Joshua is already sleeping so it is quite heartsore for me as I dont want him missing out on these years because of 'work' - I know it is important, I know it is the time of year, I know that he has to have a job - but you know what I dont care.... I think being a family is more important!Today off we went to Carnal I mean Canal Walk to see Santa and have a picture with him - luckily there were no queues and to my relief Josh didnt cry - he was more interested in trying to take off the santa hat I put on his head. But we did get a lovely printed pic of his first christmas with santa. Which brings me to another point - I have to put my tree up this weekend - and it is already 7:20pm at night and tomorrow we have a braai...sigh the hours and minutes trickle through my hands! Tomorrow we are off to a braai at Ron and Steve with a couple of old friends from school Jason and Sandi, Gavin,Cath and Max, and Nicola and Dylan and Kieran and am really looking forward to it, but it seems that we may be in for a slight chance of rain. Please Mr Weatherman can you put it off until we have finished eating and are on our way home????

Much appreciated....Hope to catch up again before Christmas - here are some pics from last weekend.

Josh Outside