A Christmas Tale

This is SB & DJ. It is my favourite pic of them when they were small.

My "Xmas Tale" is not really a 'Joyous' one perhaps. It was the first Xmas I had after my Daughter J was born. She was only 6 weeks old for her first Christmas, & seemed like the best present I ever could have wished for.

After a somewhat traumatic birth experience, (Previously blogged about) she was a very good little baby, & once I lost my milk, (due to MIL problems,) she settled well onto a bottle, & was a model baby.

Which was just as well, because her older brother, SB, was a bit difficult about then, & being not quite 2, probably could not really understand why we had to have another child when we already had the perfect one!

And he had indeed been the perfect little toddler, which was partly why we decided not to have a long gap between our children.

And of course we assured him he was a lucky little boy to have such a lovely little sister. He seemed to be convinced.

In his admiration for her, he picked up her little fingers, & gave them a good hard biting, with his new little sharp teeth. So we quickly learned that it was not wise to leave him unattended with DJ.Of course, when the tantrums of 2 kicked in, it was far too late to change the plan!!

On that Xmas morning, I heard plaintive little mews coming from somewhere. On investigation, I discovered a small ginger kitten on our front lawn. It was actually a cold wet day, so I brought the poor little thing inside, & we decided we could keep him, & call him Santa. Our neighbours were all elderly, & I checked to see if little Santa belonged to any of them, but they all assured me he was not theirs.

Which was ok, except SB decided he would make a nice snack too, & he picked the little thing up & bit his back! So we kept little Santa under observation too!

Xmas Day was spent with the In Laws, a long tiring trying day. But it passed.

I have cousins who are considerably younger than I am, & their mother had asked me if I could have 2 of them to stay for 2 weeks of the school holidays.

This particular Aunt had been very good to me when I was a child, (before said cousins were born) & I had spent a lot of time staying with her & my Uncle- who was the blood rellie.

So of course I agreed to have the brother & sister to stay.

And on Boxing Day they flew down to our city, & we collected them at the Airport.

I imagined these 2 teenageers would be helpful with the household. WRONG. They were bone idle- normal teenagers I guess. I cooked for them, so they would have nice meals- their mother was a great cook. The just sneaked down to the local shops & bought junk food, & wouldnt eat any meals. They were totally disinterested in our children, and the kitten, so couldnt be relied upon to watch either for me.

I really knocked myself out for New Years Day meal, as it had traditionally been a special day in our family. They totally scorned the food, & walzed off to the shops for further supplies of chips etc. I couldnt believe it, & felt very hurt, & no doubt emotions were running high, having a relatively new baby & all.

About a week after the Cousins had returned home, & I was settling into what passed for normalcy in our little world, a woman & 2 small children came walking past, & caught sight of little Santa. The children were overjoyed, & claimed he was their little kitten who had gone missing on Xmas morning. So I gave him back to them & hope he had a good life. We had made sure SB didnt sample his little furry back any more, & he seemed a happy well adjusted little kitten.

SB & DJ are the best of friends now, & they always were pretty close, but of course, had their moments!

A tail of another type;

Just a quick note... yesterday I visited my GP. As we were talking, we both caught sight of something outside her window. It dashed up a tree branch & onto the roof.... it was a rat! We saw it's long tail vanish. A little disconcerting. The surgery is right beside a creek, so not surprising I suppose. They are well pest treated, I hasten to add! We had a good laugh about it anyway.

I do wish everyone of my lovely Blog friends a Happy Christmas, & Joyous Holiday season.

And 'Old neighbour' - you take very good care of yourself!!!