my best christmas ever!

It truly was. We had a wonderful time. I really lived in the moment which meant I took very few pictures, but what I did take I'll share with you now.

After my doll making marathon I started making a big long 'to-do' list. I could feel the pressure rising, I wanted everything to be perfect and started to over-imagine and over-plan. Andy gently brought me back to earth asking why I was making more work for myself when I had worked so hard making sure I finished all of my dolls in plenty of time so I could relax and enjoy the holiday. So true! What was I thinking? So I took a big black marker to my list and crossed pretty much all of it off. Immediately I could feel myself relaxing.
I also started the Christmas holiday with a really great yoga session and then I gave myself the gift of an Ayurveda consultation. My wonderful yoga instructor is also an Ayurveda consultant and I had a nearly 2 hour consult with her. It was wonderful and I have felt so grounded ever since.

My only real wish for Christmas was to have an open fire and sit before it reading with the kids. And I got to do it :-) They really enjoyed the experience too. It was very special and I felt that as I got my wish I could relax even more.

The only crafting we did on Christmas eve was making a Guinea Pig garland. We cut out lots of Christmas tree shapes from cabbage leaves and threaded them onto strong twine along with carrot discs to hang up in their run.

It worked surprisingly well and Rebe was so thrilled to have a gift for her 'Guineas', they of course loved it too.

This is the only picture I have of Christmas day. It was simply lovely...simple and lovely. We opened gifts and read stories and called relatives and watched movies.

The boys helped with the washing up, we had a lovely roast chicken dinner, made swanky with wee willie winkies (cocktail sausages).
The day ended with even more magic. Rebe was brushing her teeth and she called to me 'Mummy my tooth came out'. After nearly 3 months the wobbler came out. I wonder if the tooth fairy and Santa passed each other? The tooth fairy, who has been prepared for weeks, brought Rebe a little silver charm bracelet with a little charm on it (my camera is refusing to load any pictures right now so I will share this at a later date). I have to say the tooth fairy had her work cut out for her! Rebe woke twice when I went in to her room and she had her little tooth bag very tightly gripped in her fist. But the fairy managed the exchange in the end and Rebe was delighted when she woke up!

A few days after Christmas Andy's younger brother arrived with his family for a few day's visit. It was so great!

Lots of eating, playing, drinking, singing, playing snap, drawing, walking, getting wet, having coffee and ice cream, talking, hugging, playing daft games. It was such a celebration of our family, and we all had a wonderful time. It was also very relaxing as all the work and especially the 'Joa control' was shared which meant I had lots of time to join in and sit back and chill out.

Since they have left we have been out walking, playing with our new toys, reading our new books. We still have a full week left of holidays which is great. We are planning some visiting and swimming is also on the cards.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2012 brings much joy, happiness and health to us all.

For myself my three wishes for the year are:

• to get in touch with my female cycle, to understand it and myself better

• to carry on on my path to health, I have a deep desire to get running again and I am also very interested in barefoot running, so I may look into that.

• I also feel like I am definitely on the right path for myself. Things are happening to and for me that feel so right and so I want to continue on this life path and allow the flow of that to take me to where I need to go.

What are your wishes for this year?