Birthdays, Christmas and random ramblings!

Today my baby girl , our eldest daughter is 10. 10...gosh how did that happen! I remember her being bron so clearly. She was almost 2 weeks late. She only just arrived hours before I was due to be admitted to be induced.I remeber taking her to a wedding when she was just 5 days old, dressed in the sweetest burgundy velvet little dress. And now she is 10! Her Birthday celebrations went well. She had 2 friends over,they went to the cinema, ate pizza and had a girly sleepover - which required a fair ammount of musical beds amongst everyone but it all worked out fine. In fact it was all quite civilised. They were asleep by 11, which was a vast improvement on last years 1am pillow fight. The birthday cake - a homemade chocolate fudge cake which they request every year- was declared the best cake in the world once again ! The presents proved to be a hit -much to my relief, so on the whole I think we can declare it a successful birthday.

So now all my attention can be focussed on Christmas! I have more or less now finished buying the children's presents.This is has been such a challenge this year. Ihave had to budget so carefully,and have shopped around endlessly for bargains and reductions. There are things that the older children would love but are simply beyond what we can afford right now. Sometimes this makes me feel sad and a little bit of a failure. Other times I feel it is important for them to learn that they cant always have everything they want.

I explain to the older ones about the choices we have made as a family for me to stay at home,and therefore to live on one salary for the time being. I hope it will at least inform them a little bit about some of the realities of life and give them experiences and knowledge to fall back on when they come to make decisions as adults themselves. I was never exposed to any such issues as a child, and as an adult I have learned a lot about life and its harsh realities the hard way,and with alot of mistakes,and decisions I would make differentlygiven the choice. It is hard,because I want to sheild my children fromall harm and unpleasentness,yet at the same time there are somethings that I feel can be shared with the older children in a sensitive way - suh as the reality of the fact that we just can't afford a wii or holidays right now!

But still, when all the financial hassle and trivia of the festive season is pushed aside I remember that I actually have so much to be thankful for. In Jul of this year my father-in-law passed away. He was only 64, and he died after a 10 month battle with a malignant brain tumour. He raised 7 children with my mother-in-law and worked hard all his life. He never even got a chance to enjoy his retirement. My mother-in-law is coming to stay for a few days this week with my sister-in-law and 2 nephews. The Overflowing Household may be in danger of bursting at the seems, but I want to do all I can to make this an enjoyable vivit for them all, at a time which must be so difficult for my lovely mother-in-law. He is greatly missed by so many poeple.

This photo always reminds me of him. It is the sunset over the sea near his home. He loved photography and was always offering me tips.This was my first attempt at capturing this scene and I took it just before Overflowing dad and I met up with him for a drink in his local.

RIP K.