Jess and Sarah find a hidey tree

The girls had tea with their Rubidge grandparents at Groot Constantia yesterday. The place has some amazing old oak trees, including this one which is miraculously alive despite being entirely hollow:
Jess has lost her two bottom front teeth in the past couple of weeks, but it hasn't stopped her smiling yet :-)

Happy Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy 2008!

Well, my holiday brain is so mushy by now that it's taken me a full week to download the handful of pictures we actually managed to take at Christmas time! We had Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's house:

From left to right that's Mom (you knew that, right?), Gill, Julian, Dad, Laura (Quentin's girlfriend) and Quentin (Julian's brother), me and Lloyd. The girls at this point (it was late) were parked in front of the television watching Jessica's Christmas present of Charlie and Lola DVDs:


It is a popular present! The girls also got a gorgeous doll's house that Dad made for them, and a couple of sets of wooden furniture -- more very popular presents:


The next morning Jessica appointed herself to hand out the presents Father Christmas had left under the tree:


I like our tree this year. All the decorations are either inherited from the grandparents, bought with a story attached or made by ourselves, and Jess is now old enough to remember them from year to year, so decorating is like meeting old friends again. I'm looking forward to the next couple of years!

We had Christmas lunch at Lloyd's sister Alison's new house -- here she is with the girls and Priscilla:
Sorry, I don't have a picture of the rest of the family -- we forgot the camera!

In proper Southern Hemisphere style we spent much of the day in the pool:


We've spent large chunks of every day since in the pool as well, and we have either eaten out or had people over here every single day -- it has been wonderfully relaxing and if it wasn't for the fact that I had to check dates because we're going away tomorrow, I wouldn't even know what day it was.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we did -- thanks for all the updates -- and have a wonderful 2008! I'm looking forward to seeing more family pics and news on this blog, it is a great way to keep in touch!

Xmas Decorations 2007

Jessica and Sarah making decorations for the tree. Requirements - coloured paper, macaroni (preferrably uncooked although S tried with a piece from her macaroni and cheese supper!), ribbon. Tools - Scissors and threading needle.

Much fun had by all, including Granny and Grandpa.

Christmas in Africa

Amy is leaving today to spend Christmas with her other granny in Johannesburg, so we all had a farewell party in Tokai forest yesterday. Glenda made a Christmas tree:

While the boys braaied:

That's Lloyd on the left, Chris's friend Gopal, Chris with Amy and Chris's friend Dominic.

Sarah and Amy ran around a lot and Pam tried not very hard to chase them:

And finally, you know it's been a good picnic when your feet look like this:

My Family by Jessica

The end-of-year school reports come in envelopes decorated by the kids. This is Jessica's version of her family:

Sarah's carrying balloons because it's her birthday. And note the grey hair on mom!

A taste of what's possible

And an excuse to show off my children! Jessica was a mouse in the school nativity play last week:

And the next day Sarah turned three:

She's wearing the "twirly whirly dress". It started out with two layers of tulle but the top one has had to be removed because of extreme raggedness and the bottom one will follow soon. This dress is quite frequently taken out of the laundry basket because nothing else will do! Did somebody say second children tend to be strong-willed?