20 December 2008

Change of plans


My dad had a stroke last Monday. Probably as a complication to his heart surgery. He is on the mend and luckily suffered only a minor stroke. We decided to cancel our trip abroad though. I couldn’t face being a 12 hour flight away if things got worse. It’s hard watching your parents get older. Knowing that someday the time will come when they are not here anymore with there constant love and support.

Oh I so want him to be a part of me and my daughters life for years and years to come!

"Love likes little words. It prefers grandpa to grandfather and gets real comfy with pa"


Take care
Jeanette

15 December 2008

Off the radar

I have been off the radar for a while. Sorry about that. But first I was in Stockholm visiting friends ( had a lovely time),then my father had to undergo heart surgery and I wanted to spend time with him and then there is work, work and still more work at the office ant then there is…… CHRISTMAS! How come it takes you by surprise every year? There you go thinking its October and the suddenly wham December sneaks up on you from behind. I am a Christmas freak and every year I chase the perfect Christmas. I start in October drooling over glossy Christmas interior design magazines and writing lists over what to do and what to get. I feel all prepared and ready to go and then something strange happens ….days or whole weeks even sort of disappear from my diary….like erased…. I think it’s a giant conspiracy or something…And this year I can’t seem to get to Christmas. Something is always in the way. And I start to worry…

Yesterday I managed to buy a tree. No easy thing for me. I am very picky! ( If you want to know exactly how picky you can read here). I want a perfect Disney kind of tree, triangular shaped, freshly cut and it has to smell good too. My Christmas tree problems are probably due to the fact that I grew up with Christmas trees that looked like they had grown next to a nuclear power plant. My dad always cheaped out and bought the trees no one else wanted for a bargain. My sister and I used to tease my him for the sorry excuse for a spruce and how it was dropping needles long before Christmas and balding fast at the top. Arriving home with the tree yesterday I had a taste of my own medicine.
– Can you help me bring in the tree in from the car Emma? I said
– Sure
– Oh boy you bought an outsider! Emma exclaims on top of her voice.
– No I said. We are having it inside. In the living room.
Emma started rolling her eyes.
- I said an outsider Mum not outside she said doing another eye roll.
- What do you mean?
Now she was rolling her eyes so much I feared she was going to shake something loose in there.
- It’s ugly Mum! You bought a tree no one else wants. An outsider!
So the hard way I understood that she wasn`t referring to the actual placing of the tree but the look of it. And being the very mature and composed mum that I am I just stuck my tongue out at her and said
- I think it’s a beautiful tree so duh! .

And after some serious pimping with ornaments in silver and white and little white bow ribbons even my daughter had to give in. It is a beautiful tree.



Speaking of trees. In 12 days time I am going off the radar again. Leaving for this ....




......by they way of Bangkok. I am spending the rest of the holiday with my sister and brother in law under another tree namely a palm tree.


Well my friends I have to run along. Things to do and places to go……
Hope to keep you posted on the rest of my Christmas preparations real soon.

Take care
Jeanette