A merry little Christmas

I haven't been well, and if you asked Jef he would say he wore the brunt of all my frustrations over the last few days. But anyway, on Christmas eve we spent the day at home trying to enjoy some peace and quiet. Kien got into the stash of water balloons, and a lot of merriment was had with throwing them out windows and smashing them all over the place. Between Kien and Jef they blew up a heck of a lot of them too!

At nightfall we ventured up the street to see the Franklin Rd lights. After all, t'was the night before Christmas...

I was feeling so poorly by the time we got home but I had all of "Santa's" presents to wrap. I sent Jef off to put Kien to bed and got to it (after a couple more Aspirins). I've come to a conclusion that I could never be a professional parcel wrapper upperer! But finally I had everything set and done.

Christmas morning there was one very lucky, and very surprised little boy.

We try to keep reminding him of how very lucky he is. Especially after a second round of gifts at my folks place, and then a third round of gifts at Rod, Grandma Gun, and Karen's. Wow, I'm overwhelmed by how generous everyone is. I am so grateful, and feel very fortunate indeed. Merry Christmas.

It rained and we laughed

All week I was hoping for sunshine, or at least no rain for the previous Saturday (not last weekend). Birthday party preparations for the last 3 weeks with the other mother who was also helping me organise our boys' shared occasion together. We were expecting the sun to be out and all the kids to be running around out the back. But no, the weather forecast all week told us it was going to rain, and no matter how much hoping and wishing and praying we did it was no use. No matter, the party had to go ahead, so we texted all the parents on Thursday night to tell them to bring swimming gear.

The people from Bouncy Fun arrived at lunchtime on Saturday to put up the bouncy castle, and we hoped it would fit out the front. He said it wouldn't fit, and I was like, "please make it fit!". And guess what?

Our friends Anna and Joe came over early from Waiheke to help out with preparations. I talked them with balloons and house decorations while I decorated the cupcakes. The roses were supposed to be bright red, but I just couldn't get it red enough so I settled on bright pink instead. The night before I had spent the better part of my Friday evening making little eatable bees. 2 hours later I had completed 20 of them. It was my first time so I didn't have a system, but if I ever decide to make bees again I'll be so much faster.

When the kids started arriving I was wondering how we were going to survive 3 hours of kids being cooped up in our little house. But it was fairly obvious from the get go that they are at the age where they can pretty much entertain themselves. Some of them immediately got into their togs and bounced in the castle and got completely soaked. Jef opened up the spa pool and everyone was more than happy to get wet...except the 2 birthday boys. But that's okay, everyone had their own little group to play with and they were all happy, which made me happy. Jef was the bouncer at the gate to make sure we didn't have any escapees and everyone was safe.

We had a face painter organised to come over. Most of the kids got theirs painted.

Kien's teacher, Amandine, popped in to say hello. The kids were so excited to see her.

After the kids refuelled with party food we hung the piñata up for them to bash down. It was so funny when they were all chanting "SMASH IT, SMASH IT".

The triceratops piñata was so cute. Pity it had to be destroyed.

The kids all overdosed on lollies and piled into Kien's room to chill out, and that's how the parents found them when they came to pick their child up 3 hours after drop off. Before long the only 2 kids left were the two (pre)birthday boys.

I feel completely satisfied that we were able to pull it off and everyone enjoyed themselves (well I hope they did!). Naotaka's mum said she was very happy. It was his first birthday party ever where he's been able to have his friends celebrate with him. Like Kien, Naotaka's actual birthday is during the school holidays. I've promised Kien for almost 2 years now I'd organise a birthday party for him. Tick, I've delivered.

Player of the day

Cricket - it's more his style. He seems really engaged (most of the time), he actually doesn't grizzle about having to go. After a season of football over winter I was really hoping summer cricket was going to be easier. So last Saturday when Kien came back with the player of the day bat, I had to ask Jef if that was "for real". With football when Kien came home with the player of the day trophy it was definitely not for real. In fact Jef said it was probably the worst effort Kien had put in, but that it was his turn to get it, so therefore he got it. I would of preferred they just didn't give it to him! But anyway, this time around he truly deserved it. Do you think I could get him to be normal for a photo though?

Trick or treat

The downpour when I was leaving work pretty much reflected how I was feeling about taking Kien trick or treating last Halloween night. I was trying to leave work at a reasonable hour, but when I got downstairs it was raining a ridiculous size of drops, and I did not have an umbrella or a coat. Time to call for help, and Jef said he would come and pick me up, but had to get Kien first. They didn't arrive until 40 minutes later because the traffic was atrocious. So I was beat, and didn't want to do anything at all. Luckily for Kien, Jef was enthusiastic to take him out and wander the streets. So off they went after dinner.

I went for a run

I decided to run the Auckland half marathon 3 days prior to the actual event. I hadn't realised the marathon was happening so soon until I was going for my lunchtime run on Wednesday and saw all the road closure signs. I started looking on TradeMe for a cheap entry ticket for the event, and on Thursday afternoon I had lost all the auctions. I bumped into an old colleague whom I did a huge project with when I used to travel back and forth to India pre-Kien (he just happened to have a meeting in the city that day). He would often decide at the last minute to do marathons and would buy his tickets off TradeMe for next to nothing. I told him I was doing exactly that this year and was on the hunt for an entry. That night he messaged me on Facebook as he knew someone who was giving away a ticket. By Friday morning I had scored myself a free entry, and by lunchtime I had walked to the Viaduct Event Centre with my running buddy (who wasn't doing the event) and collected my race pack.

From that point on I was nervous. I didn't know how how I was going to be/feel on the run. But I just decided to treat the event as training. Queenstown was what I had registered and trained for over winter, so this run was just a lead up.

On Sunday morning my alarm went off at 5am, I got my race bib on, did some blister management/prevention and grabbed my gels and bananas for later. Then it was time to get my groove on and walk to the ferry. The queue was massive, but moved pretty quickly, and before long I was heading off across the harbour to Devonport.

The run wasn't too bad actually. I made sure I was pacing well over the first 13.5km to the bridge and held myself back so I didn't bolt and burn out, and before I knew it we were on the motorway heading toward Smales Farm and beyond.

Its a special thing to run over the bridge, and I savoured every moment of it. I would have stopped for a selfie, but it just seemed like too much of an effort :-). There was also one last climb up Curran St before a straight 5km to the finish line, and I wanted to get down to Westhaven and run a familiar route. So after I consumed my last gel at the 16.5km mark I picked up my pace homeward bound. As I was running down Westhaven Drive I got a text from Jef saying they were close to Swashbucklers waiting for me.

Kien and Jef were waving and I was waving and it was awesome. It felt so good to see them.

Then it was down the straight and around the tank farm where I spotted the 2hr pacer on the other side. I knew he was a couple of minutes in front and I wanted to catch him, but I was tired and didn't want to blow myself out. As I was heading down Halsey St I checked my Strava and I had already hit 2 hours, so at that point I just wanted to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. Rounding the corner and running down the straight it felt pretty amazing. I could see the clock ticking, and I knew Jef and Kien were at the finish line waiting for me.

My personal best half marathon - 2 hours and 2 point something minutes. I hoped for sub 2 hours, but I knew realistically I was going to be between 2 and 2:05. So all things considered I was within my estimation, and I'm happy with that.