Christmas chaos

Truly the week has been pretty shocking so far... Thomas has got some dreadful virus and been up at 39 or 40 degrees for most of the week. He has settled into a bad cough now and is at home with his Dad today. Gaye dropped a tin of paint in the driveway of a pub (after just buying it) and the guy came out and took photos of the number-plate and threatened to call the police, which left her in tears and sobbing (she is SOOO pregnant) before a big meeting.

The bank have valued the new house at a very low price after the renovations (I’d like to see them buy a three bedroom home at that price in that area!) which means we have to scale back the job so we don’t end up paying mortgage insurance (this is probably a good thing as it means a smaller mortgage while Gaye is off work so we are okay with it, but Gaye just wanted to have it all done and off her plate). We will be able to have the house re-valued post renovation and then get the extra money anyway... But will leave it now until Gaye is back at work.

I brought the dishwasher from the new place around to our current place to have it installed (and paid $145.00 for the plumbing) only to find it won’t fit in – seriously I sat down on the kitchen floor and would have cried had it not been so ridiculous.

Gaye's dad decided to come up this weekend to do a bit of painting on the new house. We were thrilled that he wanted to paint… we just wouldn’t have chosen this exact week. He has done A LOT of talking (and swearing much to Thomas’ initial shock followed by fits of uncontrolled giggling each time it happened) and not all that much painting. But I think he has really enjoyed being up here He hasn’t done the only bit we really wanted to be done – but is planning to come up in January to finish up the job.

In amongst it all we have managed to keep up our Advent activities going (thou we gave the Carols a miss on Saturday night due to the temps) and Thomas and I have cooked shortbread, home made our Christmas crackers and told plenty of Christmas jokes.