Happy 4th birthday my sweet princess!

Today is my sweet little girl's 4th birthday. I can not believe that the time has flown by with such a speed.

My little girl, you are mummy's precious princess and I love you with all my heart. As I see you grow and develop I can not help but be so proud of you. You with the eyes that can speak straight to my heart, with the lips that gives the best kisses and arms and legs that completely wraps me up in the best hugs ever. May God bless you always with the riches and best life has to offer and may you always be happy and loved.

Way back WHEN sday

Yesterday a year ago we had The Boys' Christening. For us it is a huge occasion and we commemorate it every year by lighting a special candle which they receive in church the day of their christening and as soon as they are old enough to understand we use the day to explain to them about the promise we made to bring them up in the love of Christ's church.

Pop over to Cheryl's to see who else is playing along.

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May God bless you and keep you safe in 2009 and may the best of 2008 lack far behind the worse of 2009.

And just to make you all so very jealous - (I am pre-posting this for tomorrow morning),here we are this morning on the beach - it was a perfect textbook beach day, one which you do not often find in this part of the coast - sunny, not too hot and almost no wind. We had a great morning on the beach.

Tonight we will be celebrating the new year with a party at the home of one of H's old friends here in Port Elizabeth - the first time since 2003/2004 that we are able to attend a new year's celebration - thanks to grandparents that will babysit for us.


Our little sunshelter to the right of the picture.

Our little family enjoying the beach.

May you have a blessed and merry Christmas!

From me and my family to you and yours:
May your Christfeast be blessed beyond words. May peace love and joy fill your heart. And may you experience Jesus' love today and always.

Blessings from Africa.

I am leaving you with the words of a truly South African Christmas Carol, wrote during the uncertain times of violence and transition in our country. I wish I could play you the tune, but the words will have to suffice: (Original Afrikaans words in normal text, translation in Italics)

Somerkersfees Summer Christmas
1. Welkom, o stille nag van vrede,/ Welcome o Silents night of peace,
onder die suiderkruis,/ under the southern cross,
Wyl stemme uit die ou verlede oor sterrevelde ruis. /While voices from the past whisper over starfilled fields
Kersfees kom, Kersfees kom –/ Christmas is near, Christmas is near
Gee aan God die eer./ Glory to the lord
Skenk ons ‘n helder/ Give us a bright
Somer-kersfees/ Summer Christmas
In hierdie land, o Heer. / In this country, o Lord.

2. Hoor jy hoe sag die klokke beier in eeue-oue taal./Do you hear the bells ringing in an ages old language
Kyk, selfs die nagtelike swye vertel die ou verhaal./ Even the silence of the night tells the old old storey
Kersfees kom, Kersfees kom –/ Christmas is near, Christmas is near
Gee aan God die eer./ Glory to the lord
Skenk ons ‘n helder/ Give us a bright
Somer-kersfees/ Summer Christmas
In hierdie land, o Heer. / In this country, o Lord.

3. Voel jy ook nou Sy warm liefde as ons die dag gedenk, /Do you feel His warm love as we remember this day
Toe Hy sy Seun aan ons gegee het – ons grootste Kersgeskenk. / When He gave us His son - our biggest Christmas present
Christus kom, Christus kom – / Chirst is comming, Christ is comming
Skenk ons ‘n helder/ Give us a bright
Somer-kersfees/ Summer Christmas
In hierdie land, o Heer. / In this country, o Lord.

Geseënde Kersfees/ Blessings for Christmas

I'm back!

What a week and a half! A million things have happened and yes, I am on line again. Got this sorted out yesterday and it was a network/browser problem, nothing to do with blogger! Now I am working on Mozilla and everything seems fine.

First thing first, my apologies that my very first competition went unannounced until now. I have numbered according to the time when comments were left, and number six was chosen by The Little Miss! And number 6 is Debi! As you all are, a very deserving winner - and I am sure she has seen more crying moments on Santa's lap than most of us - seeing she has 8 kids! And Debi, do not bother posting it on back to me, our postal system is crap. Yes, we are after all living in Africa. I will get in touch with you soon!

I have so much to catch up on, but yes, as millions of other mothers today, I am busy cooking up a storm. And busy packing as we are leaving for a short trip on Boxing day to my In-laws in Port Elizabeth. We are spending Christmas day with H's aunt, uncle and cousins and my mom. Wondering what we do for Christmas in South Africa?

Tonight on Christmas eve, we will have a braai (barbeque) in true South African style and do presents to each other. We will sing Christmas carols or listen to a CD. We will read the story of the birth of Jesus in the Children's bible.

Tomorrow we will go to church early in the morning and then spend the day with the family at the poolside. Everybody is bringing a part of the meal and I am busy preparing the gammon and mustard sauce and the trifle for dessert. On the menu is gammon, chicken pie and leg of lamb and salads, with trifle and ice cream for desert. You will notice, no turkey. Turkey is only cooked by people of British origin in South Africa, and I have never had turkey on Christmas. We are expecting a hot and humid day, around 32 degrees C (90 f).

I am leaving you with a scene from our Christmas tree. May your evening be blessed and happy.

Please help!

Gosh guys, I have a problem! I missed doing the draw for my giveaway as I am having problems posting. The whole day, every time I try to creata a post, Blogger laods up with "Error on page" - then I can not add a picture, link , change text, anything! What on earth could be the problem?Have any of you encountered this before?

Friday Foto Finish Fiesta

We had some family photos taken two Sundays ago and I am really so happy with the results. Typically I choose the more natural photos, but we have over a 100 to choose from - so, just my few absolute favorites - I am off course keeping one for Christmas and some for special posts.

Oh I love the spontaneity in this one.

The one all the Grandparents will get.

Oh he is just such a happy little man! Little man L's best laugh.

And Little Man C's shy smile.

Our little Princess.

And just compare this one with the one in my sidebar - almost to the day a year later - just the other way round in dad's arms.

I love this one - check out that special twin bond. Off course, we also have a perfect one in the same pose (below)



I adore this one!

And their expressions here says so much about their personalities. Putting them in the suitcase was one way of keeping them in the same place for any given length of time.

My little brave heart.

And my little strong man.


And we have so many stunning ones of her, I really can not choose. But I love the natural look of this one.

So pop over to Carrie at Candid Carrie to see who else is playing along.

swinging into the 40's!

Oh we had a great day at the Canopy tour to celebrate my birthday. I have enjoyed the first canopy tour we did so much, that I just couldn't wait to do this. It is an extremely safe setup and you are always secured on two separate cable systems. Please keep reading and checking out the photos - this is going to be along post!

Having lunch before our tour started - some of us were a little afraid (ok Hesti was terrified - she suffers from vertigo.)

Receiving our final briefing before the start - we had such a charming guide.

The slide towards the first platform - there are 10 slides and 11 platforms - the longest being 140 meters (153 yards). They vary in speed from comfortable to very very fast.

Yes, you just couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Gosh, I had so much fun!

Friend Ilse was so relaxed and calm.

Herman started smiling, turned around once and then was worried, but at the end enjoyed it.

The view down the valley.

Some of the stunning plant life.

The launch platform to the fastest slide - the Ferrari.

The longest slide - 140 meters.

Waiting in line to go.

The hubby enjoyed it so much.

Had a tough landing!

Friend Hesti started very worried or as she stated it, just pure terrified!

And ended up trying to convince Herman to do it again the next weekend.

And for friend Stefaan this was all "Much ado about nothing" - he is a competition level paraglider!

And on our way to our last filmed slide.

I am now considering making it a priority to do all 4 in South Africa - 2 down, 2 to go!

My first ever giveaway and 5 Things Thursday:

In keeping with yesterdays photo, I have the chance to host my first ever giveaway.I am so excited, and as I have the great readership of about 10, you stand an excellent chance to win. I won a book on Cheryl's blog, Twinfatuation, but unfortunately the good people of Harper Collins can not ship it half way around the world to South Africa. So they have generously agreed that I can award it in a competition on this blog. The winner has to reside in the USA.

This pocket-sized tome released a few weeks ago: Scared of Santa: Scenes of Terror in Toyland is the purse-ready print version of what was originally an overwhelmingly popular feature run by the Chicago Tribune. From archival family photos to 21st century seatings, the images of the irritated run the full spectrum.This really sounds like something that can bring joy to any home during this season.

So you want to win this? Publish a "5 Things that I really love about Christmas" , leave me a comment and I will add you to a list for all to see. The Little Miss will then do a number draw on Monday 8:00 am New York time (for interest sake that is 3 pm South African time), - so be sure
to do this in time.

So, for today, 5 Things I love about Christmas:

1. Spending time with family and all the loving.

2. Singing Silent Night and always feeling teary in church. I always have to brush away some tears during the service.

3. Having Christmas lights on our the tree and outside in the trees as well.

4. Christmas time is my favorite fruit time in South Africa - watermelon, sweet melons (cantaloupe), mango, litchis, peaches etc. It is truly a feast.

5. Gammon with sweet mustard sauce - gosh, I love it.

So, please play along and make this little competition a success.

8 Years and still going strong..

Today, my love, is our eight wedding anniversary. You rock my world, you keep me grounded, you are my pillar of strength and my true best friend. And you can always make me smile. I will always love you - today and forever.

Date: December 2000.
Location: The Comores islands
The two lovebirds on honeymoon.