And Christmas begins...

One of the very nicest things about Christmas is catching up with family. Dh's grandparents welcomed us to a pre-Christmas lunch yesterday. While the meal was absolutely enormous and delicious, what was most heartening was seeing again that it is possible to live a good and healthy independent life even in your nineties!

Nana J loves to spoil her grandchildren, and the gift bags she prepares each year probably contain as many little treats as they see in a year - although I must confess to removing as much sugar from their bags as I can once they're out of sight!

I've included a shot of three generations all working together in Grandad D's study to get his computer back up so he can keep track of his online share portfolio. He's certainly living proof of "using it and not losing it"!

After the truly enormous meal, the children were able to lie on the spare bed and watch one of the DVDs that were in their Christmas bags. I was so proud of the way they negotiated with each other to find something they were all happy to watch. 

The joys of homeschooling

Since bringing the Ginger Ninja home for educating, I've been getting much better at finding fun educational opportunities for all of us.

On Thursday, we went to the CSIRO discovery lab and the children had a ball identifying acids and bases using red cabbage juice, making wind turbines and isolating pea DNA.

Of course, it took a long time to drag them away from the machine that let you convert kinetic energy (by turning a handle) into electrical energy into solar energy into stored energy then back to kinetic energy to operate a handle that scoops out a candy coated chocolate ball!

Ginger Rose just liked being able to wear a funny big white coat - I predict a big future as a doctor on TV ;). The boys, of course, enjoyed perverting the acid/base experiment by mixing vinegar and bicarb to see how high they could make it pop a plastic lid. 

My matched pair!

Ginger Rose loves the Ginger Ninja so much! And of course it's mutual!

Two nights ago, Ginger Rose hopped out of her cot (she's quite skilled at that!) and silently crept into bed beside me. Then she just as silently left the bed and padded off down the corridor into the pitch black.

After a few minutes, I followed - just to see where she'd ended up. And found her all the way up in the Ginger Ninja's top bunk. In his sleep he'd flung an arm around her and made sure she was tucked on the safe side :).

Ginger Ninja roused briefly to tell me she was in his bed, but neither protested when I asked Ginger Rose to come down. She went back to her cot quite happily having experienced how the other half sleep :). 

A quiet weekend

Poor Possum has totally overdone the sport - he's given himself an impact fracture in his heel, probably from his fast bowling on a hard pitch last weekend, exacerbated by a sideways kick in the pool on Thursday night.

He'll be in pain for another 12 hours of so (according to dh, who has a 99% success rate with these predictions) then on crutches for another couple of weeks.

Am I a baaaaad mother for feeling a twinge of guilty pleasure at the thought of two less sporting events for the next two weekends?

How sarcastic am I?

You Have Your Sarcastic Moments

While you're not sarcastic at all times, you definitely have a cynical edge. In your opinion, not all people are annoying. Some are dead! And although you do have your genuine moments, you can't help getting your zingers in. Some people might be a little hurt by your sarcasm, but it's more likely they think you're hilarious.

How Sarcastic Are You?