whats the deal with xmas?

i've seen xmas all over the place this year and to be honest its just wrong! not only does it look and sound awful but its taking the Christ out of Christmas and, after all, is that not what CHRISTmas is all about? yeah its great to get pressies and eat so much that you feel your going to implode before exploding but when you narrow it all down there wouldnt be any presents or food or anything like that if it wasnt for the birth of Christ. the reason we even give presents is because the wise men brought gifts to Jesus.

i always love the coca cola adverts, for me thats what gets me really excited about Christmas because as soon as i see it or hear it it just feels like Christmas has begun but even this year they have used xmas instead of Christmas - coca cola, im disappointed in you for the first time in 23 years.

i always think back to my childhood when i think about Christmas, i have some of the best memories from my childhood and i hope to bring that to my children too. every Christmas eve we would put out a carrot for rudolph and something for santa to eat along with a glass of milk and when i would come down Christmas morning and it was all gone i would be so excited. my brothers and i always used to debate about who would have their presents under the tree and i have to say i think that 9 times out of 10 it would either be benjamin or myself because frazer is just so laid back that he would get to the stage where he really wasnt bothered! i always loved it when we had Christmas dinner at our house too but i think that was because my mum and dad are suck good cooks that i always knew they would make the best Christmas dinner i ever had and i was right - ive still to taste a Christmas dinner that even closely compares to my dads cooking (sorry mum, but i say dad because, lets face it, he did do most of the cooking :p). i loved the church service that paisley ward had every Christmas morning too, i have some really fun memories from them!! but when i look back at it now i realise that there would be no Christmas without Christ and i am extremely thankful for that. looking back at my childhood i realise how blessed i was and still am. i have an amazing family and i cant wait to spend this Christmas with them. its our first Christmas together in 2 years and i think thats the best gift i could ever receive.

a wife. a mother...

okay, i'm EXHAUSTED. but i just cant sleep. being a wife and more so being a mother is one of the most difficult things i have ever had to do but its also, hands down, the most enjoyable thing i've ever had to do.  it feels like my work is never done and when it finally is done there's something else that pops up out of no where that needs my attention.  so its 00.20hrs and i'm in the middle of doing housework. its official - my home is a war zone at the moment and that's not an exaggeration and i've finally gotten to the stage that i just want to hoover so everything is sitting on my sofas!! meh. i thought it would be a bright idea to clean out our home before Christmas comes but now i'm beginning to realise that i just don't have the time or the energy. i have the motivation and i really want to get it done but the tiredness is getting the better of me slightly and it seems that when my baby girl is in bed all i want to do is relax and not even think about housework.

to make life slightly more hectic Raymond is off work sick so its totally thrown me off of my usual schedule but i do have a slightly amusing story to go with this one....

he was throwing up all Sunday night and he came to the conclusion that it was the dinner i cooked... (thanks for that honey). after him saying that it made me slightly paranoid as we had all 4 missionaries over for dinner on Sunday and the thought of giving the missionaries food poisoning really freaked me out so at about 10.30 Sunday night i decided to call them to make sure they were okay however none of the numbers in Raymonds mobile have names next to them but then i came across a number that looked like it could belong to a missionary and it did, it just wasn't the missionary i was looking for - it was President Griffith's mobile number (eek). i had let it ring out for what felt like forever until it went onto a voice mail saying that i had called him so i instantly hung up freaking out incase i had woken him and Sister Griffith's. at around 11.30 he called back and Raymond answered and had to explain what had happened! he was, however, very pleasant and found it slightly amusing that i had called him instead of our missionaries and i'm glad he did, i was grateful for that (:

on a more positive note i didn't give the missionaries food poisoning!! well, not yet anyway.........

how do you work this thing?!

so i do consider myself to be a little bit of a whiz when it comes to technology but for some reason i cannot seem to figure out what i'm doing here... who would have thought having a blog could be so complicated.

on another note so far its not been such a good day - baby girl screamed from 6.55 till i don't know what time so i went throught my check list before exhausting all the options and feeling totally defeated.

hungry? nope

thirsty perhaps? wrong again!

nappy? erm, slightly wet but nothing that would result in her sounding as though she had been thrown across the room.

changed it.... nothing.

trapped wind? sorry mummy, wrong again.

dummy / binky / dodo - whatever were calling it? no, no, no!!

what else could it possibly be. i really was way out of my depth here and just couldn't figure her out and i was almost in tears. suddenly i thought i'd just sing to her and see if that helped anything - hallelujah!

turns out all she really wanted was a little sing song so after two verses of away in a manger she was sound asleep... bliss.