Sigh, too many weeks have passed. I have a friend in the US with whom I have a sporadic email relationship which must drive her insane, as we'll be happily trundling along in an email conversation, when suddenly I'll get wildly busy and totally forget about the conversation as it scrolls further and further down my inbox. Weeks later I'll suddenly remember and wonder whether it's too late to casually continue the thread. So, having saved this blog (or perhaps not) from yet another conversational black hole, let me casually continue as if nothing has happened.

Christmas came and went, as did our camping trip to the Cathedral Peak area (part of the 'Berg'), and a 10-day trip to Cape Town, and now we are settling back into school and work.

Christmas Day, once it arrived, was enjoyable as ever (though the lead-up, I'm sorry to say, was a hellacious whirlwind of end of term events, shopping, and wrapping up (both presents and things at work). I must be sure next year to stop work before Christmas Eve to allow myself a bit more time to relax, take some deep breaths, and get into more of a Christmas spirit.)

Anyway, I'm so grateful both Peter and I have such cool families. You sometimes hear horror stories of families having to spending the requisite amount of time together over the holidays amid lots of tension between family members who don't get along. I have great parents and in-laws. After church we had presents with the kids at home, and then went up to spend the rest of the day with both sets of parents and two of Peter's sisters at my parents house. Four of the last five Christmases we have had at our house, and even with lots of people contributing parts of the meal, it was a mad-house. Whereas my mum managed this huge meal with thousands of different dishes, and hardly batted an eyelid. And had all the dishes either ready at the same time, or kept hot but mysteriously still fresh and moist. That is the thing I find hardest about hosting big meals - having everything ready at the same time and also on time! Perhaps by the time I am a grown-up I will have learned to manage it. Oh, and all the dishes had yummy sauces or garnishes or extra bits, such as X with Y Sauce garnished with Sprinkly Bits of Z. Whereas I, on the other hand, serve, for example, broccoli. Alone, in a dish.

Peter of course, is not terribly encouraging when I make noises about making our vegetable side dishes more interesting. Peter is of the opinion that vegetables are what you eat to keep you healthy and set a good example to your kids. He'll devour the rest of his meal, until at the side of his plate are left 3 sad and lonely (and usually cold by then), little baby marrows, or patty pans, or pieces of pumpkin. Which he'll then look mournfully at, and dutifully swallow down. In his opinion, why waste energy, sauces, or sprinkly bits, on vegetables. And why contaminate the rest of your meal by eating them simultaneously with the rest of your food. This is despite, or perhaps because of, my very tactful attempts to educate him on the importance of composition in a meal.

I'll write more about our three week break another time, including our two trips away. Fortunately I did not in fact get chicken pox. Lauren and Daniel both came down with it two weeks to the day after Robyn. So I must have actually had it as a child, but my Mum just doesn't remember. As I said, she's not terribly concerned with little things like childhood diseases. She "thinks" I had measles though. Ah, the care, the concern.