Post Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas. Church in the morning was the happiest celebration of Jesus’ birth that I have ever been to – it was great! Then my MIL’s for lunch with those of the family who were around, and all the cousins enjoyed playing together. It was a warm day, so their highlight was probably running around under the hose in the backyard in their underwear! Dinner was at my sister’s, where the kids again enjoyed getting wet, this time in the pool. Both meals were a lovely time with family.

This year we tried to minimise the number of gifts, and by our careful choices, our girls have probably had their best Christmas ever. They were so pleased with their gifts from us and family. Eldest just loved her rollerskates (knew she would, but I’m still pleased because they were very difficult to obtain!) and Youngest loved her two rainbow skirts.

My most special gift was finally receiving my copy of the Valentino catalogue. Mmmm… mmm… mmm… So, so beautiful.

On Christmas Eve I finished my Portuguese embroidery piece that I had been working on – the first one for the new book. I was so happy with it, and so pleased that I finished it by my self-imposed deadline (Christmas Eve).

Post Christmas for me means working on my three project samples for my classes at Beating Around the Bush 2012. They need to be completed and photographed by the end of January. I started yesterday and am already having fun!

Boxing Day yesterday was a quiet day. We got up very late, and had breakfast after about 9am. This is very late when you have young kids! At about 1pm, I started to think about lunch, and decided it was the day to try my hand at making tortillas. I had a recipe from a friend in Ethiopia which I hadn’t yet tried. The instructions were slightly confusing, and I think I ended up with my mixture being too wet. They didn’t turn out well, but the family were very encouraging and at least while they looked terrible, they tasted fine. We finally had lunch just before 3pm! I found a video on YouTube on how to make them and will make my mixture less wet next time and give it another go. I did also manage to burn a finger while cooking, which meant that I couldn’t do anymore embroidery for the day. I think it will be ok today to continue.

We went off to church last night because even though it was the day after Christmas Day, it was Sunday. They’d collapsed all the normal services into one for the day at 5pm. Despite that, there was still hardly anyone there! (And this is in a church of several hundred per service normally!) We all took leftovers along and enjoyed a meal together. Eldest took her rollerskates, and Youngest took her new handball, and each kept themselves happy with them before and after.

I have been feeling quite pensive over the last day or so. Yesterday was the anniversary of the day we flew off to Ethiopia. It seems terribly strange to think we went a year ago. I miss Ethiopia so much. I have even started dreaming about it (I often have very vivid dreams). And I find that I can just be living my everyday life when a memory of a time or place in Ethiopia will flit through my head. I hope we can go back there one day.

Today I think we’ll have to brave the shops as we have a friend coming for dinner tonight. Other than that, the relaxing will continue. 🙂