CELEBRATING WITH THE NEXT GENERATION!!

Last year I scanned photos of my children all decorating the christmas tree, and remembered the excitement of decorating the tree, the excitement of going to bed the night before Christmas day, and the excitement that belongs only to children when celebrating the birth of Christ.
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Above we see Kerry's children, JP, Tessni and baby Shanni decorating the tree in their home in Middleburg, and under that Shanni with some shiney balls for the tree.


We travel half across Africa to Cape Town where we find Natalia, Lisa's daughter, (above) who is decorating the tree with her cousins. They have always celebrated Christmas together and the cousins have decorated the tree.

Above is Dad Trevor, Shirley,and Jessie with cousin Natalia, and below are Vicky {right} and Jessie {left}

This is a bitter sweet christmas for this little group of cousins and sisters as it will be the last time that they decorate the tree and celebrate the day together. Trevor and Shirley are leaving Africa for England in January.

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I will be in Middleburg with my daughter Kerry, Johan her husband and children Tessnie, JP, and Shanni featured at the top of this page, for Christmas. I will also meet my son Brian's son, Nathan for the first time. He is already 6 months old!

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Thank you girls for posting these pics on your blogs for me to steal for my blog!

WHAT BIG EARS THEY HAVE!!!!

"PHONES RINGING!" Ever noticed that the moment the telephone rings, no matter where the children are, they will appear from no where, whether they have been playing indoors or out, near or far, they stop dead in their tracks and make a bee line for the phone! Have you also noticed that when you speak they study you in silence without interrupting, almost as though they do not want to miss a word!

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"Stop counting teeth while I am on the phone" I hiss to them, as my mom in her turn hissed to me all those years ago, and I remember clearly doing the exact same thing to her! It is a universal phenomena and proves if nothing else, that gossip is irresistable and most humans are drawn to listen to that which is forbidden!

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Above is Natalia when she lived with her mom and dad in London. She is living with her mom in Cape Town now and she is 7 years old. Seen here is a telephone she received for her first birthday and she is speaking to "me"!

There are those who can conquer the world, they are invincible, or think they are, they have no fear, they are DRAWN to danger. They are the ones who give mothers grey hairs and ulcers, they are terrifying to live with at times. Here is Brian at 6, he climbed a tree which had branches the size of twigs, and when he reached the top, he lost his balance and slid down the tree, snapping all the twigs on his journey to planet earth! Hence the plaster of paris on his left arm!

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"For my birthday I want SUPERMAN clothes!" aaaaahhhhh no........here we go again. With a very bad feeling we buy him the superman clothes, they were designed by a man who had no children of that I am sure as I found my son on the roof with complete faith in his cape to enable him to fly off and not drop like a rock.

Children are playing, out of my way, perfect time to get out the vacuum cleaner and give the lounge a good clean. Well, you can see how well that turned out. As soon as the vacuum cleaner was turned on, my three daughters all bound into the lounge and, of course, the only place to tackle one another was on the carpet. Oh well, at least the thought was there, I DID get the vacuum cleaner out with good intentions, I'll just get the cord out of the way so this bundle of humanity can carry on. yes..... there ARE 3 children in there!


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''DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT BRIAN!"

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Despite all the exasperating moments that were mine during the years I raised my children, they were far outweighed by joy and happiness, of loving and being loved.
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I now watch my daughters and son raise their children and see them experience the same exasperation and joy that I did, and so it will go on and on.......