a biggie

I'm considering moving the pictures I have mounted in the children's bedroom...two of them are above Joshka's bed, and after last night's earthquake, I realise it's probably not such a good idea. Not having grown up in a country prone to earthquakes, I gave no sinister thought to the positioning of prints and paintings, but now I'm having second thoughts. Last night I was reading somthing, lying on my bed while Ben was at the computer, when I felt the bed wobble and shake...like being at sea in a fairly large boat. It was a gentle rock with quite a big sway. I called out to Ben, who confirmed (calmly) that yes, he could feel it too. It wasn't too scary because it was a big, but gentle kind of quake, but what was striking was that it went on and on. Now, I am aware of how long a few seconds can be when one is in danger, or distress, or pain, or whatever, but this really did go on and on. I would guess a few minutes. The doors were swaying even after we thought it had finished. And there were no after shocks - this time. At first it was reported to be a 6.8 quake, but today that has been adjusted to 6.6. Still, a biggie. Luckily it had nothing to do with the two plates colliding (that's the BIG ONE everyone's waiting for) and it was deep and offshore. No tsunami threat either. It wasn't that close to us either. In Gisborne some of the older buildings didn't fare too well but overall it stood up well to the earthquake. So my hat off to the architects and builders around this end of the world.

Furthermore, if rain were snow, we'd not only be having a very white Christmas, we wouldn't be able to open the door to go outside. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DOWNPOUR! We couldn't hear the TV over the roar of the rain pounding the roof. My vegetable garden looks happy though. I am wondering when we'll get our first tomatoes.

In a kind twist of fate, Ben is not rostered on to work over Christmas or New Year at all. That's so good because the children are at such a cool age and Christmas is so much fun for them. It would be sad for him to miss it. Also, the family are keen to all come together and be close and supportive for this, our first Christmas since Kyla died in May. She is missed and loved. It will be sad, but important, to laugh and cry and talk and share her this Christmas. I am looking forward to being with everyone.

Christmas is actually quite fun now that I've had children! (And now that I am settled in one place and have a bit of a routine going.) We were going to find a tree to cut down, but in the end I opted (sensibly I think) for a fake, made in Vietnam, tree which will no doubt have a limited lifespan, but which won't make my eyes water and my nose run and my face itch. Once the tree was up, Ben urged me to put the presents under it, but I was confused: I thought Father Christmas/Santa was supposed to deliver all the presents. No, says Ben, the presents are under the tree (e.g. Mommy and Daddy's present to Mia, Daddy's present to Josh etc) and on Christmas Eve, the stockings get hung up and Santa puts little toys and trinketty things in there. That's the Santa magic. As someone who never had a stocking or quite understood the need for one, it makes some sense, but it is all quite bewildering, this parent business. What do you buy into? And what if you have completely different ideas about religeon and special occasions like this? In my memory of Christmas, the whole stack of presents appeared during the night. I remember leaving out a glass of milk for Father Christmas, and a biscuit or something, but my Dad saying he was sure Father Christmas would prefer a whiskey...and do you know!? He was right!! The whiskey was gone in the morning, but the milk was still there. I think there were a few crumbs too.

Once the children are older and disillusioned with Santa (everyone here talks SANTA - not Father Christmas, very hard for me!) I imagine that leaving the presents under the tree beforehand is ok. We shall just see how it goes! We're off to the in-laws for the next few days over Christmas and I'll do as the Romans do...

Perhaps next year I'll be a little better organised and send out some Christmas cards. In another cool twist of fate, Ben's work partner informed him they'll not be working Christmas next year either!