Tidings of the season...

It's Christmas Eve for thsoe of us on this side of the date line, and I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, Cheery Kawaanza, and hope that next year brings you good things.

Looking back over this year, some big things happened. A surprise trip home to NZ, writing my first story, then having it and my second manuscript published, some front teeth missing (well that was the kiddo, not me), starting home renovations (never, never again - getting the professionals in from now on!), and many other good, and of course some not so good things that make the world go around.

Thank you if you are a reader or a publisher, or indeed family or friends for putting up with me over the last year, I promise I will be just as fun next year!

The stress!

You would think the stress of editing, deadlines, promotions and all the rest would give anyone a severe headache, right?

Wrong, I have found something worse - my child's classroom Christams Party (although we aren't allowed to call them parties and its holiday or winter not Christmas - I'm not religious, but damn, this is getting a touch PC isn't it?).

Why the hell did I volunteer for this shite? Oh, thats right, I am a sucker for punishment and I like to entertain (something that has been significantly curtailed since we came to the States). You might think a house full of 30 adults a daunting task. They ain't got nothin' on 17 6-yr olds!

If you don't hear from me after the 19th of Dec, you know they hated my party planning and stoned me to death with gingerbread cookies and buried me under the playground. Please send the police...

I have reached the pinnacle...

Of Motherhood, that is. Definitely not even close with writing.

Today my son declared "If you don't stop being mean, I am going to call the cops, and they will make you give me that coke."

Yup, I have made it. I have become the ultimate Mum. That kind of mother that makes her childs life a living hell by not giving them soda. The kind that he will torture his children over when they have been bad..."When I was a little boy, my mother wouldn't let me have the soda, so be thankful for what you have, little missy!"

Aren't six year-olds fun? First the "Farts are butt kisses" now he is calling the cops...I better go track down the phones and hide them, he might make good on his threat.