December 2008 Archives

Merry Christmas everyone. We had a lovely Christmas day with the family, lots of good food and kids knee-deep in presents and paper.

Christmas Eve I spent the night setting every table in the house with my numerous collection of Xmas table cloths and runners.

It's amazing how quickly over the years you can accumulate all those Xmas nick-knacks.

Mum came early in the morning loaded with presents and a Xmas trifle. We baked pork and vegies while we shared a bottle of Lemon, Lime and Bitters, cut up chickens and prepared the table.

Carly went out on Christmas Eve with her friends and I waited up till 1.30 for her to come home. I managed to do a lot of decorating in that time.

Alex was the only one who got up early. I heard him around 6.30 looking to see what Santa had left for him in the stockings. Most was predictable, socks, deodorant, etc, but he got a couple of surprises with some PS3 games and a wooden puzzle.

By the time Lauren and Daniel arrived with Zeke and Riley nearly all the presents had been opened and we were surrounded with toys.

It's been another busy week in the Hambilton household. Last Sunday Carly and I did what I thought was the last of the Christmas shopping, and we came home minus one of the shopping bags. I practically ripped the car apart looking for it, and couldn't believe I would be so stupid to walk off without picking it up, but it seems that's exactly what I did. Thursday night Alex and I went across to Wagga again and I retraced my steps, asking about the bag in all the shops I'd been to. Carly and I had a coffee at Gloria Jeans and the bag was there. My thanks to their honest staff. I was grateful that I didn't have to re-buy everything in it too.

Wednesday night we had a family get-together with about 22 of us turning up. It was a great night and everyone enjoyed their meals. Friday night was the Council Christmas Party and we got the bus out to Illabo Hotel. It was a good night too, but cold. The band was from Griffith and they were pretty good. It's a nice pub and I was surprised at the crowd that was there. I managed to wake up feeling okay, and spent an hour cleaning up the back yard. That got rid of the slight headache and I felt good afterwards. I've been washing and cleaning all morning. After such a busy week things got out of hand pretty quickly around here.

Alex with Jake

Lauren and Emily

Our family gathering

Riley

It's been raining for the last two days and very cold, not at all like December weather. That's not surprising though, the weather has been all over the place all year, I don't know what that's about. The nights are good for sleeping so I'm not complaining, and this way we'll have lovely green lawns again in time for Christmas, which is so near now that it's scary.

I'm nearly there with the presents. Perhaps I have one or two more to buy, and maybe a few bits and pieces. I gave Dad an early Christmas present today. A new pair of flannelette pyjamas and a jacket. The weather is so cold that he's feeling it more than the rest of us. We've been going outside most days so he can have a couple of quick cigarettes, and he was disappointed that we couldn't go today. He has little else to look forward to. I was there twice today, and he's looking a bit better, but still not getting around much.

I'm doing Christmas lunch for the family this year and I think I'll invite Mum and Reg. It's not often that they get to spend time with the great-grand children. Reg is giving me a ham, so hot and cold for lunch sounds good. There's nothing like thick slices of ham off the bone at Christmas. My mouth is watering already, so the more people to eat it the better too, because I know that after a few days of eating the ham, you get pretty sick of it. In previous years the family has always come over later in the day, and no-body is up to eating much after a big Christmas lunch and there's been such a terrible waste of food.

We're having a family get-together next Wednesday night at La Porchetta Italian Restaurant in Wagga (where Carly works). We chose Wednesday night because both Amy and Carly work Thursday night, and Carly works Friday and Saturday nights. What with work Christmas parties as well, we thought a mid-week get-together would work better. We've got a big family and so there'll be lots coming. I'm looking forward to it. We're all so busy that we don't see each other as often as we should. Friday night I'm going to our work Christmas Party. They've organised a bus to take us to the Illabo pub and bring us home again.

Last night we had a practice run, with a farewell for one of the guys at work. It was a great night and I had lots of laughs that I was badly in need of. I drank light beers and could have driven home, but I was a good girl and got a lift with a non-drinking friend. I'd organised for Alex to stay at a friend's house, but as with the best-laid plans, they don't always work out. He rang me around 9.30pm to see where I was. The mother of the boy had gone off, so Alex came home. Another mate ended up staying (and again tonight), so he wasn't home alone while I was out.

The humble computer mouse that we all take for granted (and have plenty of problems with) has turned 40. It's hard to imagine it's been around that long. The original mouse had two wheels set at right angles to each other and the computer plotted the distance each wheel moved. Then in 1972 Xerox came up with a ball mouse, which remained popular for decades. Logitech sold it's first mouse for $199. In 1984 it designed it's first cordless mouse, but it never took off. For further reading, PCWorld has an extensive timeline with some interesting facts.

I remember back a few years cleaning the ball and the cogs on the old roller-ball mouse and have had fewer problems since the introduction of the optical mouse.

And speaking of the computer mouse, I've spent the last few days being extremely frustrated with mine. When I click on an email it opens rather than just being selected, and when I delete an email, it will delete the next one too. I've tried slowing down the click rate, but that hasn't helped. If I try to minimise a window, the window will open in full screen, if I click again, it will minimise. It's driving me crazy.

I wrapped a stack of Christmas presents this afternoon and can now move in my bedroom again. I've been tripping over boxes for a month and it's nice to have a clear path along the bed. The worst thing about wrapping presents is all the little bits of sticky tape that you need to cut for each present.

Carly put the tree up earlier in the week and now it looks great surrounded by gifts. Alex will be excited, and when he comes home (he's off at the skate park, as usual) he'll look for the ones with his name on them.

Friday I brought Dad over here to the Junee hospital where he has a lovely room with a shower and toilet. He's not getting around very well, so the shorter distance is bonus. I took him outside today so he could have a smoke. He's been very good considering he's had none for a couple of weeks. I think tomorrow the physiotherapist is going to start some serious work with him to get him mobile again. I've gold him he has to start walking again or he'll end up the youngest person in an old people's home with drooling 90-year-olds. If that won't spur him along, I don't know what will. He certainly won't be going anywhere in a hurry if he can't walk.

The hospital here in Junee only opened in April, so everything is lovely and new. The nurses are lovely too, so I hope he likes it there. It's going to save me an hour of travelling each night after work and we might be able to eat normal meals again. I'll spend my lunch break with Dad each day and perhaps pop in there after work. I just hope it works out. He can stay there for up to 12 weeks, and if he's not walking by then I'm not sure what the next step will be. For now it's one day at a time.