I love Christmas it is my favourite time of year, how about you what is your favourite time of the year?

I have found as I get older I love Christmas more and I love to decorate the house for Christmas now days we have these decorations that you just stick on the wall which I use a lot of and along with ornaments that have my grandkids names on them and photos of my grandkids as well.

Last night Tim came out into the lounge room with his phone and took a photo of the dining room table with all the presents on it to send to his cousin Christine, he wanted to show her that we are “givers”. He sounded proud when he said to me that he told her we are givers and love to spoil people at Christmas and that we send out Christmas cards to connect with those we care about not in order to get something back because giving is more important than getting.

So even though he will complain about how much I buy and such he is also proud to be married to someone who loves to give and share with others. I made a comment to him recently that after 30 years together he should know what I am like and his reply was he does and it is one of the reasons he loves me.

Well Christmas is now only a week away, and have to say I am pretty much set for the big 9day; the above photo is of my dining table which is loaded with presents for the family. Tim likes to say that there is a lot of money on that table and yeah he is right but I prefer to think that there is a lot of joy to be had on the table. As I may have mentioned I only have a small tree this is it, it is sitting on tope of the deep freezer.

Yesterday when we went to see nan she was out of bed and down in the lounge room area, and she was good she spoke a little in fact she made me cry when she said “I don’t like hospitals, I don’t want to be here, I want to be with Ron” it came out of nowhere and it just upset me.

So is everyone else ready for Christmas, I have found the last couple of weeks there have been days when I just don’t seem to have the time to blog but I guess that is normal we all have busy times when blogging has to take a back seat to other things in life.

Ok I know not everyone likes having their photo taken, but hey the person taking the photo is doing so for a reason, it may be an event or it may be because they love you and want a photo of you. So how hard is it to suck it up and deal, smile and look happy the above photo was taken by me last Thursday at Dawson’s end of year school presentation day this is the best shot of him I could get. When taking a photo of Dawson it helps if he doesn’t know you are taking it but even then it may not be the best shot of him.

It must be a male thing, well at least in my family as many of the male members of it don’t like to have their photo taken and Dawson is one of them, it is really hard to get a nice photo of him. The photo below was taken by me off one of his achievement awards he received of Thursday, it is a much nicer photo, so you can see he can smile and look happy it just doesn’t happen very often.

T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house nothing was stirring, not a noise could be heard, except for papa who was snoring

The children were in bed giggling and laughing to excited to sleep because Santa Claus would soon be there………however, sleep won out and sleep they did………….

When all of a suddenly a noise was heard from outside the house…………the noise of reindeer, on lawn eating, the reindeer food left out for them.

Leo & Blain jumped out of bed and looked out the window, their eyes so big and round because they could see reindeer and where there was reindeer there would be Santa.

So out to the lounge room they sneaks hoping to see Santa, and there he was placing toys in their Santa sack both started to giggle and Santa turns and looks at them sternly………………and shoos them away.

He says not a word but continues to place toys in the sack, looking back to make sure they had gone, however they were still there just very quiet and hiding………………..

When the toys had all been left he drinks his beer, eats his cake, smiles snaps his fingers and the door opens and out he goes…………..

The boys run back to the window to watch him leave, he jumps in his sleigh and says…………….Now Dasher & Dancer, Prancer & Vixen , on Comet, on Cupid, Donder & Blitzen dash away, dash away all.

Into the sky they rose and as they drove out of sight Santa was heard to say Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Cheating is a choice, not a mistake, and not an excuse.

If you decide to cheat, and you succeed in cheating someone out of something, don’t think that this person is a fool. Realize that this person trusted you much more than you ever deserved, and they learned a lesson about who you really are.

The above is something I saw somewhere, don’t remember where but thought it was so true I would save it and use it as a blog post so that is what I am doing today.

So here is the question for today, have you ever cheated?

I had to give this a lot of thought because to be honest I don’t remember ever cheating, but I am sure at some point in my 51yrs of life I have in fact cheated, I never cheated at school there was no point as I was often the smartest kid in the class and I have never cheated on Tim that is just not who I am. But I am sure I must have cheated at something at some point in time.

Although I have never seen the point in cheating maybe if I was one of the dumbest kids in class I might have felt different and as for cheating on Tim well I love him so much and have never met anyone who has even tempted me to do so.

I really don’t understand why some people cheat on a spouse or girl/boyfriend, if you are in love with someone why would you want someone else.

As for cheating on exams well you really are the one who is going to end up behind the 8 ball because as some point you are going to have to know the answers you copied so doesn’t it make more sense to learn the stuff and not cheat.

I have wondered at times how a cheater teaches their children that cheating is wrong, for them it is “do as I say not as I do”……………………..

I am sure my own mum could relate to this, she is 73yrs old but she is still driving kids to school and day care and minding babies and toddlers 5 or 6 days a week, and cleaning up after them. Would she have it any other way, NO, she loves doing it yes there are days when she is so exhausted and wonders why she is still doing these things at 73yrs of age.

Now I may not be a mother in-law yet although Kathy-Lee is in a serious relationship and is hoping it is a till death relationship but still I do not think Michael think of me as a mother in-law but that is neither here nor there in my opinion I think of him like a son in-law and I treat him like one too.

Tim is very close to his mum in-law in fact God help you if you say anything against him or does anything to harm him because my mum will attack you fiercely as if he was her own child. The same can be said about how Tim feels about mum, in many ways he has been closer to her than he was to his own mother.

I have often wondered how he is going to support me when the time comes that I lose mum, as I will be a wreck and so will he be………………………………….lol

Tim has called my parents mum & dad since before we were married and he has said many times that my parents have treated him better than his own parents did, Tim wasn’t used to a close knit family like how my family is, he has also said many times that he hopes he is as good a parent as my dad is. A long time ago he said he wanted his daughters to think of him the way me and my siblings think of our dad, it is my dad he strives to be alike.

My mum has always treated her son in-laws and her daughter in-law like family and would never say a bad thing about them, even if she didn’t like them much, she would keep her thoughts to herself saying if they make my child happy than I am happy.

I can’t say I had the same relationship with my mother in-law, for a number of reasons; the big one being that I only saw her once or twice a year and the second one was she gave me the creeps. It is hard to explain why she did there was just something about her that gave me the creeps maybe it had to do with how she smelt or how disgusting her house was I don’t know I just didn’t look forward to visiting her. This rubbed off on my children they also didn’t like visiting her, in fact when we went for a visit before getting to her place we would have to stop at Macca’s to use the toilet and then when we left we would go straight to Macca’s for another toilet visit………………….lol

So do you have in-laws? Do you get along with them? How do they treat you?

If you read these words how would you feel?

I’m pathetic, I have no job, no hope of getting a job and I need a job, I am barely scrapping by on what the government pays me now and that is going to be reduced next year by around $350 and I am terrified. I can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking. I need a job and I am never going to get one. I don’t have resume, I don’t know how to write one and I don’t know how to do an interview. I don’t know how to do anything but stupid things that have no real world application. I’m pathetic………………….

I can’t stop thinking about this so I can’t sleep, I am so terrified I want to cry but I can’t cry because I am to tired too, every time I close my eyes I don’t know where I will be or what is going to happen to me in only a few months times.

To top it off I am a horrible mother to my son and I have no discipline and I can’t stick to my guns, even if I had them. I don’t know what I am doing, with anything. My life, his life, a job my house, my dogs, I am failing everywhere and I am Terrified and so tired but to terrified to sleep………….

This is a transcript of a couple of text messages I received this morning and I can tell you they left me so sad and feeling helpless, as a mother I want to be able to fix things and make my daughters feel safe and secure and well happy and protected and this makes me feel like I have failed. There is little to nothing I can do to make things better.

Well the time has arrived for me to decorate my house for the Christmas season, I do love this time of year, and love to have the house decorated. I don’t go overboard with the decorations, well I don’t think I do but Tim might think differently but he doesn’t say anything about the decorations he should know what I am like after 30 yrs together. In past years I would have Christmas decorations hanging on things around the rooms now I use the decorations that stick to the walls and windows a lot I prefer them now so much easier. I even decorate my car with those stickers that go on the windows.

Now you would think growing up in a house that has lots of Christmas decorations up, you would decorate your own home when you move out but I have three daughters and none of them have been big on decorating but they are getting better. I have told my girls you don’t have to do it for yourself do it for your child, as Christmas is all about children in my opinion but not just children there are adults like me who love Christmas as well.

When I have finished my decorations I will take photos and post them on my blogs like I did last year, and yeah I know I didn’t have this blog last year…………………

So here is the question for this post are you a Christmas decorator, or do you prefer to not have many or any decorations up at all, maybe you are not a Christian and don’t do Christmas I get that, I know we are all not Christians and there are religions that don’t do Christmas that is fine we are all different and all so alike at the same time.

For those who don’t know I recently had a birthday and turned 51, I went around telling people that I am now just over half a century old, I had a great birthday got some great presents, such as jewellery and clothes and flowers and a new tattoo……………see……………. it matches Jessica’s little hand on her right hand but mine is bigger and I added Leo to it……………..I love it……………

However this post isn’t really about my birthday it is more about birthdays in general, so here is my question how do you feel about birthdays?

Do you have a problem with telling people how old you are?

My nan wouldn’t tell anyone how old she was, she would say that you are only as old as you think you are and your age is just a number. I get that in my head I still feel 20-22 but I have no problem telling people I am 51.

I think I look my age, I don’t think I look younger than my age or older than my age I look like a 51yr old woman, I have no wrinkles but I do have grey hair which I dye so I do not feel older than I am. I am wearing a new dress in the above photo which was given to me by my niece Kelli for my birthday.

I know some people who look older than their age (my sister Sue), it is no fault of her own it is just the way it is it is a family joke that Sue looks older than she is, the same can be said for my sister Jeannie she thinks she looks older than she is too……………Sue is only 44 and Jeannie is 45.

Do you look forward to your birthday each year or have you reached an age where you are no longer interested in your birthday?

Do you think it is just another day and nothing to get excited about?

I love my birthday and get real excited about each every year, yes there may come a time when I don’t but then again maybe not, my dad is 71 and he still gets excited about his birthday. I feel our birthdays are special days and should be embraced and enjoyed.

When I saw this on Facebook I though oh so true, I know without my kids my life would feel empty. Everyone knows my family are so important to me and that my life revolves around my family.

I could leave this post at that but that would be boring and I don’t do boring, well I try not to do boring, I hope I don’t do boring…………………ok Jo-Anne get to the point…………….lol

If a person doesn’t have children is their lives any less full, any less exciting, or any less stressful.

I think not, their lives are just different from mine they have different stressing in life and different things that make their lives full and exciting.

I don’t understand why people have to be so bloody judgemental of those who do not have children, why do some people feel that the reason they don’t have children is because they can’t have children, maybe they have decided not to have children and if that is the case then so be it as long as they are happy with their decision no one else has the right to tell them they are missing out.

Maybe they don’t feel they are missing out, maybe they are happy with being just a couple of a single person without any attachments.

Children are not for everyone one, not every single woman on the planet wants to be a mother nor does every single man wants to be a father.