Hullo 2008!

Now that we're into January, life is close to settling back to normal. Every December Im left wondering why on earth I work retail. Christmas trading is brutal, and certainly wasnt made any easier this year by the fact that no one seems to have any money. There is always pressure for us to get our sales goals, and this year it felt like we were all getting there $99 at a time. I look back to last Christmas when I was working both at the airport and the jewelry store and can only assume I must have been temporarily insane at the time.

We all had a lovely Christmas Day. J had to work so the kids and I opted for a lazy day here at home, followed by dinner at a friends house. We did the whole family Christmas thing with J's family the following Sunday. Christmas Day itself got off to a super early start with Benjamin waking us up at 4.10am to announce that Santa had been "and had left presents under the tree and in my SOCKSIE!" (stocking). To see how excited he was really made Christmas super special this year. His enthusiasm rubbed off on all the girls (who were already super excited too) and as a result of that I have five kids all wound supertight like springs. By late afternoon Molly was crashed out on the couch, the older two girls had retreated to their rooms for a late afternoon nap and Ben and Maddie were still going strong playing with all their new treasures. My digital camera picked Christmas day to die, so we took a tonne of DVD with the video camera instead. I know that there is a way to get still shots off the movie, so next time I have a day off I'll be pouring over the instruction book trying to work out just how to do that. In the camera bag was the disc containing the video from when we'd arrived back at Portland airport with Ben and it was awesome watching that again. I couldnt get over how tiny he looked in that movie, not to mention how incredibly fast the last 9 months have gone. It feels like he's always been here and I cant even really remember life before him ... although I do suspect it was quieter! haha.

There are 3 more girls from SOS due to arrive in this area over the next few weeks (hopefully! ... their families are just awaiting a go ahead to book travel). We've been doing a lot of talking about this and Ben is super-excited to go to the airport to welcome them home. Still most days there will be mention of Surekha-Auntie, or Babbu. I've told him that one day when he's bigger we'll go back to India for a holiday so he can see his country, and hopefully we'll be able to visit with Vijay and Surekha while we're there. I just wish there was a way to track down Babbu ... He was a brother to Ben at the orphanage and his family arrived the week after we were there to take him home to Italy. It sure would have been awesome if he could have found a family here in the USA too.

Well, time for me to get ready for work ..again. I feel like I'm living there right now (and I just keep telling myself to think of the money, think of the money). Next week my schedule will get back to normal and I'll be back to working around 3 days a week. I already requested Sunday off as we plan to go have a nice "family day" to mark the end of the Christmas Holidays. I'm thinking we'll head to "Namaste" for lunch, and then go find a movie to watch.