The holidays have began!

With Christmas now past....and I hope you all had a fantastic day, the holidays here have well and truly begun and although we are still busy it's somewhat easier now that we don't need to worry about kids and school until the 2nd of Feb 2009. Now talking about Christmas we had a wonderful day, we had 2 back up plans in place for Lance if the strategies we put together fell apart but he managed well enough and that meant Tim and I could relax somewhat and just keep an eye on Lance and check in with him throughout the day.

We spent the day over at Tim's parents, 17 of us all up and all of them being from Tim's side but it was so nice to catch up with his older sister and her hubby, Tim's niece and her hubby and their 3 children and Tim's nephew and his wife of course with grandma and grandpa and our family crew. The day was perfect, the food was gorgeous and it was just nice to sit back and relax with family and loved ones.

So what did Santa bring you ask......lol! Ok first up the boys got an XBOX 360 Elite Bundle, Lance got one of the guitar hero thingies as well, Maddi got Star Wars Clone Wars DVD, they both received extra games for the XBOX, new doona covers and the typical stocking stuffer thingimajigs such as jocks, lollies, smelly packs...you know the deodorant, shower gel things all bundled together and money. The girls got a Wii.....lol I still think it's funny, Wii Fit, Wii Music and the Wii Sports and another game was bundled with the Wii console itself as well and new sheet sets. The santa stocking stuffer thingimajig stuff with knickers and manicure sets, lollies and money.

The family recieved a PS2 with new games and Tim got a bunch of DVD's to do with motorbikes and new jocks and I was so lucky this year because I got a DSLR....woohoo yep a brand spanking new Canon EOS 1000D Twins Lens DSLR. We were all so so so fortunate and thankyou SANTA!!!

Guess what? Received a phone call today and my grandmother is now officially moving into a nursing home on Wednesday, yep New Years Eve. So today I made that all official and tomorrow I need to go to the hospice she has been in for almost 2 months and let her know the good news even if she will forget 10 secs later and start packing and sorting her things not only there but at mums too. The wonderful thing about it is once she is moved and settled which may take awhile then she can call her new room home and be looked after well. More paperwork to do of course but we are finally seeing a few positives in this horrendous time we have had this year and I tell you I will be glad to see the back of 2008 although I said the same thing in 2007 but truly I figure it cannot possibly get any worse then what we went through this year.

Lance is doing well and we just hope and pray it stays that way for a little. Would you like to hear (well read) some more great news? Of course you would....Lance is getting a support worker and he starts work with Lance on the 5th of January. He will come in slowly and build up a repore with Lance and then support him with activities through the week such as gym (he has been funded a brand new gold gym membership for 3 months), shopping, and things like that. It has been a huge positive and Lance and Tim and I have met the support worker who is a young fellow of 20 years of age. Armed already with a wealth of experience he has accepted working with Lance and it was made official just before Christmas.

Onto some more good news Stephanie is now part of the Young Carers Support Network (part of the Carer's Support Services in your local area here in Australia) and 2 Saturdays ago she had her first official outing with a number of kids who are all in similar support/carer situations. An afternoon at the local swimming pool, water slides, pizza's, cans of drink, some new friends and all paid for as well. So if you have a young carer in your home (although we have 3 you can only choose one) then please check out Young Carers which is a part of the Carers Support Services in your area.

Ok well that's about all the news there is for now and no I haven't done any recent LO's, sad I know but I just haven't the time. Once my grandma is settled in her new nursing home, Lance has all the services and help put in place which is slowly starting but getting there finally and the family gets some much needed respite then and maybe then I will have a little more time to get back to my passion with scrapping..... we can only hope and pray for another miracle can't we??!!!!!!!!.

Till next bloggin' I wish all of you wherever you are in this world of ours a truly wonderful and exciting New Year and all the very best for 2009. Hugs Chris xoxo