Pre-Christmas

My beautiful daughter, Coco invited me to come to her place last night to see her BFF, Mels and her 4 kids. Auntie Coco was making dinner and doing the gift exchange at her place.   Mels married very young and chose to have her children in succession.  The oldest is 9; the youngest 3.  She has done a remarkable job with these little angels and they are very well behaved, sweet children.  It was somewhat chaotic but on the other hand, I got lots of hugs and cuddles.  The oldest went through a stage of being rather stand offish a couple of years ago and I was concerned, but it seems that he has now grown more confident and was sitting with my arm around his shoulder (he was holding it there) for quite a while before something of interest caught his eye.  The 5 year old has always been a little cheeky and has quite a sense of humour; I have told Mels that he will be the ladies man, the smoothy.  One day last summer, having spent the afternoon in the pool with Muffin (Tee's gorgeous gf) the week before, wanted to know where Muffin was.
Him: Is Muffin coming in the pool with us?
Coco: She isn't here; she is at her house.
Him, pausing for just a moment: Is she coming over today? 
Ever after that, Tee knew he had competition.

The 2 girls, 7 and 3, are lovely and chatty and crave attention, wanting to sing and dance for you.  The older one sang 3 or 4 Christmas songs for us while her sister danced around the room.  Too cute. 
Mels and Coco have been friends for over 15 years since their early teens. They are more sisters than friends and they have been through life's ups and downs together.  I could not ask for a better friend for Coco and I consider Mels one of my own as well.  Her babies have visited my house regularly since birth so I cannot help but be attached to them.  They were oh so concerned about PJ, their surrogate granddad cuz he couldn't make it last night but sent them a bag of socks in assorted sizes and colours.  I have never seen kids so excited about socks!  Hilarious.

At one point in the evening, the oldest wanted to know if Tee (my 25 yr old son) had any Pokeman cards.  Our conversation:
Me: "I don't know; you will have to ask him the next time you come over.  If he does, I am sure you can have them."
Him: "No, I wanted to give him some of mine."
My heart melted.
Then just as they were gathering up their things to get ready to go, the oldest girl came to me and said, "Gramasita (a name given to me many years ago; originally it was Mamasita from one of Coco's ex bfs, then evolved to Gramasita when the babies started coming), don't you have a big gift for me?"
I looked at Mels who frowned.  I said, "No, should I?".
"Yes", she said, "A giant hug!"  Again, giving me just more reason to adore these kids. 

So much to do right now.  Going to a Christmas lunch on Sunday and I want to make something to take.  I have a little hostess gift of 8 of those lovely porcelain Chinese style spoons but I also want to contribute to the buffet as well.  I also have a load of prezzies waiting to be wrapped, but not today.  Getting my hair done and maybe my nails too.  I also need a peddie but too busy for now. 

Thanks again, for sticking with me here.  So far, so good. 

Love from Lulu xx