The end of year madness is so last year now. Along with all the end of year catchups that I said yes to we also moved house, then hosted Christmas. I got my two estranged sisters together and that was almost worth moving house for.
I had a week off between Christmas and the new year but that week flew by. There were social functions – a Boxing Day get together at a friend’s and then New Year’s Eve at another friends. That was a late night for me, or early morning – 5am to be exact. But what fun. Lots of dancing and laughing and I managed to miss the 12 midnight happy new years shenanigans which I was quite pleased about. I’m not into the forced jolliness that is midnight at the end of a year. I’d already greeted everyone with a hug and a kiss. Just before midnight JJ decided that he was tired and wanted to go to bed. I was a bit shocked. That is an early night for him these school holidays. So while people were yelling out happy new year, a party guest was playing his bagpipes, I was organising my son to go to sleep.
During the week off I had a locksmith around to sort out the gazillions of locks and keys into one easier system. So much better!
I also had a new oven installed. The things you find out when you move, and of course it’s one of the things that the building inspection didn’t cover. Luckily we don’t have a full-on cooked meal at Christmas otherwise I would have been stuffed. I had planned to cook a chicken though and had to wait around for an hour at the supermarket for one to be ready.
JJ had a friend around one afternoon (see photo above of them at the beach). It was a hot day so I took them to the beach and had my first swim of the summer and last swim for the year. Pretty good it was too. I do love ocean swimming. And the water was glassy and gorgeous.
The day after new year’s day I waved JJ off as he went to the Scout Jamboree near Sydney. It’s been quite wet and muddy there for their first few days but luckily it’s clearing up. I haven’t heard from him so can only assume he’s loving it. I certainly hope so.
And two days after that I went back to work. It’s kind of surreal being back because it still feels like it should be the holidays. It’s times like this I wish I was a teacher and had more holidays. The office is pretty quiet and because JJ is away the house is super quiet. I’ll have a week or so off at the end of January before school goes back and have some unpacking still to do. But we are settling in nicely to the new house and am loving being there. It was a good thing to do in so many ways.
