Oh Sh*t its 2014 already

Lord, one minute I was panicking about what to buy people, how I was going to pay for it and will they think I'm a cheapskate because I only got them chocolates and the next we are here, New Year!

What a whirlwind, not in the sense that our time has been taken up with relentless parties and endless entertaining because quite frankly its been a quiet one.  Its more the roller coaster of emotions that have been running through the house on a daily basis.  Don't get me wrong they have mostly been positive ones, with hyperactive giggling children, semi drunk over loving teenagers and the continuing honeymoon period of my current relationship but there has been a few dents in the whole rose tinted merriment of the holiday season.

For instance the slight panic I felt on Christmas eve with the prospect of 60 odd presents still to wrapped at 7pm and my designated helper gently snoring on the sofa.  This panic state was quickly averted by me also putting my head down and then us waking up together at 10pm and commencing the wrapping until 1am Christmas morning..See no problem really until of course we were woken up at 5am by 2 very excited little people.

Then there was the Boxing Day or otherwise known as, Mum's 70th birthday, moment of surrealism where we presented Mum with her birthday present...(a meat grinder) which she proceeded to completely unwrap take out the box and study intently. Leaving, what I would consider, some rather gruesome looking apparatus to hand and a strange glint in her eye as she handled the sausage maker expectantly.  I spent the rest of the day with the music of Sweeney Todd randomly popping in to my head at inopportune moments.

Then there was the rather unpleasant news on the 28th where we discovered that the house has damp via an email with alot of red writing and capitalisation in it. This was while we were trying to enjoy a local kids Christmas disco, which had already been slightly spoiled by the fact that Santa had run out of Christmas presents for all the children and had had to make a quick exit back to the sodding North Pole and back again (well that's what it felt like time wise) to magically provide presents to appease all the parents who'd paid the £5 for this enchanting event (tube of milky buttons, not impressed, to be honest though the kids couldn't have cared less of it was just the tube).

By the 30th we'd got to the running out of food stage and it was really a short straw moment as none of us had any desire whatsoever to leave the house, but New Years Day was fast approaching and someone had to go.  Mum was the hero of the hour, because after much wrangling and sighing and haven't we got ANYTHING left at all, she quietly slipped out the front door to return an hour later fully laden with basic essentials and a few goodies as well. A true family hero was greeted on her return, with various grunts from the children and a mumble from me of "did you buy me any chocolate?" (she had).

The infamous last night of the year (New Years Eve) was spent almost in the most perfect way possible, phone calls from the eldest every 90 minutes to tell me that she was still "FINE MOTHER"  The boys were bathed early with vast amounts of their new smellies and nice and settled and the evening was spent in various positions snuggled on the sofa wishing all the friends and family a Happy New Year via facebook, twitter and text, while laughing at some of the horrifically embarrassing images being posted all over the net, even before the clock has reached midnight.

I can honestly say I am as ready for 2014 as I have ever been ready for any new year but I did have a quick wonder what 2054 will be like and whether I will see it, being as that will be my 80th year as apposed to this one being my 40th :-) HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone :-)

Whose feeling whose feet right now !!

As the end of the holidays approach and I have to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught on a new school year, I thought I'd take some time to reflect on the changes that have taken place in this "mad" house over the summer. The boys have started fighting, something that hadn't happened before. Whether it had been the fact the Humf had been too young or the fact that Ninja wasn't really effected by what he was doing I don't know. But they are at it far to often for my liking. It leaves me feeling rather powerless as while my instincts go to protect the littlest one, my head knows darn well sometimes he really deserves it. When daddy is home the issues seem to melt away to a large extent. It really is an alpha male situation, crazy that we fundamentally still rely on basic natures and its never more apparent than in two brothers fighting for dominance. I am assuming with the impending school return, Ninja will be expending so much energy dealing with the outside world that his focus will be transferred from his baby brother. In the meantime Humf is constantly setting to challenge his older brother in every which way he can. Don't get me wrong their love for each other is just as apparent they miss each other terribly and wouldn't want to be parted in anyway. Ninja is incredibly caring and attentive to his baby brother, he's also extremely proud of him, introducing him to everyone he meets and involving him in games. Humf worships the ground his brother walks on, there isn't a time place or action that he doesn't want to follow his big brother in to doing. He looks on at him for guidance and inspiration (not always a positive thing I tell you). In this way I feel so lucky and it gives me faith that they will be good friends when they get older. So yes they may be feeling their feet alittle to much but they are to doing it with the safest people they can, their family.