Larkwood Life: Christmas and Boxing Days...

I have to say that this week has gone so quickly that yesterday I realized that I had lost a day...lol I couldn't for the life of me think what day of the week it was, I knew it was Boxing Day, but wasn't too sure if it was Wednesday or Thursday...NiQi soon reminded me though and I still had to try and figure it out again. Anyway, now that I am finally clear on this I cannot believe that Christmas is over for another year...and it's a good thing that I can still remember the reason for the celebration any time I like and don't have to keep it to the 25th December only.

We really had a good time this year, we missed Matthew and Jess of course, but otherwise it was a relaxing time spent with Johan's sister Mariana, hubby Bryan and son Bryan Junior. I am sure that the excitement of NiQi coming home on Monday helped with the whole vibe too. The feeling I had was one of great excitement, more so than in the previous few years, where NiQi's health dampened our spirit and generally left us wondering if there would be a next year to celebrate together. Happily this year I don't feel that way at all and anticipate many such Christmas's together as a family.

There have been some years that I have not felt like being around other people at this time of year and those were the years we opted to be on our own. I remember Mark's last Christmas with us in 1994 and we then had a feeling it could very well be the final one...what we didn't know at the time was that it was also to be Johan's mums last Christmas with her family as she and Mark passed away just 7 weeks apart, she aged 59 and he aged 9. More than anything I remember that Christmas as the year that Mark woke sometime between we putting the presents out under the tree and waking in the morning...he had gone through to the lounge and fallen asleep again on the carpet under the Christmas tree. It was most unusual and you have to know that none of our children have ever woken before Johan and I on a Christmas morning, we have always had to wake them. When I walked through the house that morning from our bedroom and saw that tiny little curled up ball of a boy lying asleep, I was overcome with emotion, especially because he had become so frail from continuously being sick. His excitement and anticipation did not waiver in the light of his health...he was so to say, 'as keen as a bean' to see what might be wrapped up for him. Whether he actually looked at any of the presents lying there under the tree to see how many there were for him, I will never know as we didn't ask and he didn't say. The next few Christmas's after that were quiet, my decision I'm afraid to say and I wonder now whether I wasn't perhaps being selfish, wallowing in my own self pity and dragging my family to my 'pity party'. I can't change the past but I can make the present better. We grow with time and acknowledge our mistakes, endeavouring not to repeat history, but to take lessons from it and make things better.

So this Christmas was wonderful and Boxing Day too, which we spent with Kyle's family...getting to know them as NiQi has done over this last year...the photo's tell a story...