Our Christmas...

We tried to have an "Traditional" Christmas here in South Africa, and by all accounts I think we succeeded! Santa found us, and of course spoiled us! Here are a few of our new Christmas memories....
We started our Santa festivities by making and decorating cookies, and a visit to Santa!
Kiddos decorating cookies for Santa...

Claire, nervous to see Santa...

All three before Santa, thrilled with the camera :)!

Christmas Eve we left out our cookies and reindeer food!
Leaving out cookies for Santa...

Sprinkling Reindeer food...

Look what awaited us Christmas morning!
Taylor's stash...

Claire's Santa stash...

Hunter's stash...

After getting Santa's goodies we ripped through the gifts under the tree.

All presents were distributed into piles, here is one pile...

Claire playing with new castle

Hunter opening....

Claire riding new wheels(Thanks Mimi and Poppa)

Taylor opening new Puma golf shoes(Thanks Mimi and Poppa)

I picked one of these for my gifts from Mom and Dad, Thanks!

Pat surprised me with a painting of our very first house, made me cry!

All Christmas decor is down now,hoping for a good new year; and maybe we will be home this year!

Merry Christmas!

We have been very busy here...We have been to Cape Town, went to Cape Point(where two oceans meet), climbed Lions Head, seen the musical CATS, been to the wineries, stayed in the most beautiful old winery, been on a safari, and been to local game parks. Oh, and the things we have seen! Lions, Rhinos, Giraffe, Monkeys, Zebra, Elephants, Water buffalo, Penguins; all of which were in their natural environment. We are now home! Cooking, baking, wrapping, and all the other fun stuff we do to get ready for Santa Clause!

Baking, Praying & Wrapping...

The last few days in a nut shell!
Baking; I have been invited to a Cookie Exchange party tomorrow with 16 other eager (frustrated) bakers. I have had to bake 6 cookies for each person, resulting in a hell of a lot of cookies! Finally done! Unfortunately my cookie bars are a little too crisp-to late to start over (I am a baking disaster)!

Praying, Claire had some dental work done in the hospital today. She was put to sleep for the procedure, but sailed through with flying colors! Me..well, I was a nervous wreck; South African hospital, seeing your child fight to be put to sleep and then cry for 30 minutes as she came to! I said a lot of prayers before, during and after!
(Soundly sleeping after a tiring day!)

Wrapping; trying to get all of my Christmas shopping done and get everything all wrapped. Three teacher/tutor gifts done, seven to go!

Still loving Christmas!

"The Stockings Were Hung....

by the chimney with care,
In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

The preparations have begun! I love Christmas; the magic, the decorations, and getting to watch it all through my children's eyes!
The rest of the decorations will have to wait..big weekend! Birthday party, Thanksgiving Feast, and a Cricket match tomorrow!
Enjoy the weekend, I wish I were braving the crowds at Target; but I do love the simplicity of Christmas in South Africa!

I Am Thankful We Are Here!

As you all know, Claire has Speech Apraxia along with some other motor planning issues, and we have had her in a special needs school this past year. Well in August/September of this year, I started to feel that Claire may be ready to transition into a "regular" playschool with some type of an aid. I started asking for suggestions. The director of Claire's current school set up the "perfect scenario" for Claire...she recommended a playschool and set up Claire's transition for the next year(Jan). As we all know, nothing is as good as it sounds! End of October, early November comes and I start to grow anxious of our plans for Claire..with good reason. After some follow through on my part, Claire's director never set up anything! All of sudden I felt like a fish out of water...what do we do? Then I start to question everything again; is she ready, can she cope, will she be loved? Side note...Any mother with a special needs child knows how important it is just to have them accepted and loved.
I called one person, Claire's Speech Therapist, the one person that has been instrumental in Claire's life this year. It was all I could do to contain the panic, but I needed advice! She told me to go to Theodor PrePrimary, that there was a wonderful director there by the name of Buffy. I am sure you are thinking this is JUST preschool, yes it is but it will also be our first experience in a "real" classroom. It is actually huge for us, what happens here will maybe give us an idea about Claire's upcoming future in the ability to adapt to a normal school setting.
Well, Buffy is beyond awesome! She is very supportive and knowledgeable of special needs, and sees the benefit of inclusion! This is very uncommon here, people feel special needs kids need to be locked away in their own school!
As luck goes, they were full for the upcoming school year. I went through the processes and put our name on the waiting list, we were third for her class! So the search continued for a place for Claire...I was going to have to settle. I was going this week to put a deposit on the original school! Not that this school is bad, in fact if I was looking for a place for my boys the school would be awesome. It was a feeling I had..I knew they would "take" her, but would they welcome her, would they accept her struggles? I was afraid of the answers!
I did not need to worry with the answers, because....I got a call yesterday, Claire got in! She got into Theodor! Somehow her name moved up to first on the list...I think somewhere there is someone always keeping an eye on my baby! I went today for our interview, and it is the most awesome school for Claire! She will be in Ms. Hannah's class of 3s and 4s, she will be the oldest. Actually that's what we wanted, any extra advantage! She will also have her own facilitator, much like an aid, which will actually be her teacher who she has now! How perfect, her transition will be that much easier as she will be with the girl she has been with for the last year! My heart feels a little lighter today, God gave us another reason to be thankful!
God put us in this country, in this place for a reason! If only to give Claire more angels in her path, thanks for your advice Yvonne! You are everything to us, you have given my baby a voice! Buffy, thanks for your knowledge and passion for special needs, and thanks Hannah for carving a path and a place for us in your classroom next year! Thank you Natasha, for loving Claire this year and wanting to be with her next year!

Thank you God for putting us here, for Claire!

Good Night Africa!

This was our view last night around 7pm..There was a rainbow and everything had a red glow!