.Firstly the best of 2009- I was working full time all year and was living in a land of floods which put a serious dent in both the time and money areas of my life- HOWEVER….. I was able to travel to Brisvegas twice (this was in February before the ‘weather events’!!!!???? started) to visit my daughter who (choke…sniff…) left home for Uni this year. I went once with the spouse and once with my other daughter and we had a total whale of a time, taking silly pictures of ourselves in the Museum, and trawling all the book stores, record stores and opshops in Brisbane.A treasure of a time. Next- my younger daughter graduated from Year 12 and had her formal- silly, crazy, over the top (although luckily for me she’s quite sensible and low key but still looked gorgeous) another milestone moment. Then came the hades of living with a person who is attempting tocomplete the HSC (for the second time, eldest did it 2 years ago) and realising that it’s now ALL OVER. (Until the grandkids do whatever it is they’ll do…)

Phew. And finally, the other two best moments were getting the news that my “Letterbook Series” has been sold to a publisher who is publishing it in Norway and Sweden (How cool is that.. can’t wait to see what it looks like in Swedish!)And FINALLY finishing my novel for the 13-17 year old age group that has been slowly evolving over the last 2 years and sending it off to my lovely patient agent.Yipee!

Now as to ’tis the season stuff, for me it’s all about the  family ritual.I’ve realised this may be the last year we’ll all be together the way we were as a family(next year there will be boyfriends, geographical issues and so forth to contend with) and I’ve really made sure I enjoy all the little things like putting up the tree and decos (My youngest took over my role as Christmas tree nazi about two years ago and now I’m the one who hides the decos the kids made in pre-school around at the back of the tree…)which involves watching ‘Scrooged” whilst arguing about what goes on and what stays off, eating a sumptuous platter of stuff that’s no good for you but should be cos it tastes so good like olives, salami, smoked oysters and cheese and biccies and sipping a nice glass of something cold of the vino persuasion for Me and Fajer and soft drink for them. It’s a great afternoon!

Then there’s the discussion about THE FOOD- planning THE MENU and working out how best to have it as prepped as possible so that as much of the day as poss can be spent at the beach.Honestly, the presents don’t really come into it as much for me as all this other stuff except when we sit around and have a big “wrap up” (get it?) evening where we wrap and talk and laugh and I make pudding- oh and I forgot the last big ritual- the Victoria’s Secret parade. It used to be the Christmas Pageant when the girls were little but times have changed and this is a rite we wouldn’t miss- sitting around and critiquing the models, their outfits and the wings.

I know I’m getting at least one book for Christmas, the new Marian Keyes novel- and I have a library list as long as your arms and legs  put together of YA I want to catch up on. Just finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and quite liked it.Got my daugher a book Called “The Gates of Hell are About To Open- Mind The Gap” which I think I’ll have to borrow as soon as she’s read it(Or maybe as soon as she’s opened it…) It looks very funny.

So enjoy each other and all those little things and never mind the plastic. See you next year!