Storytime

Hard to believe, but another year is about to close it's door. Sometimes I must admit to being very unaware to what I have done, where the days, weeks, months have gone. Surely it was just yesterday we were celebrating an engagement at our place.... same daughter went on to do the Oxfam walk....100kms....amazing! And we were a part of the support crew---very inspirational (although won't be doing that any time soon). This year also saw rollerskating birthday parties...taking other half to Veu de Monde....watching Wuthering Heights at Rippon Lea as the bats whirled overhead....saw some live events .....this year included Le Mis and Rocky Horror....going to Grandparent Day at Kinder and Little Miss staying over for a night or two. It was the year we took Dad to the Brown Brother's Patricia lunch... the year we drove to South Australia for two days, to the Barossa Valley for a few wine barrels and some port.... The year my sister bought a h

Honestly, I don't know how it is Christmas once again. As my other half says, it seems like only last week we were searching the shed for the tree stand...and here we are, once again dusting the stand off for our tree. Christmas Eve, and the stockings are hung awaiting a visit from Santa. The tree is decked, with presents lying innocently beneath.  Although these days, only two of us (oops and of course Tigger the wonder cat) are home. And Tigger has her own stocking, patiently waiting for a gift or two. Hopefully she's been a good cat this year. It's definitely not the same without children at home. When they were younger there was always that mad sense of excitement, the battle of getting them to sleep at some decent time. The cookies and glass of milk, that very quickly turned into a glass of port, left out for Santa. The carrots for the reindeer. When the children were school age we created a new tradition. They were to plan and cook the Chrismas Eve

We had a busy weekend recently. Most of this involved grand-parenting duties---there was berry picking and Christmas tree purchasing-----tree decorating and flower picking.....flower arranging (in shot glasses)...and going to the park for some swings, some slides, some climbing and monkeying around....and of course...hand stands. That was just Saturday. On Sunday we took Young Miss to Other Half's Work Family Christmas event---at Luna Park. It was her first time there and she had seen videos of the rides (wonders of youtube) and knew which ones she wanted to go on and which she considered too scary. That is of course until she got there. She began sedately----a ride on the flying elephants....then a ride on the dragon roller coaster. Courage was gained and she went on the ghost train (bit scary with those skeletons)- bit of a breather for a visit to see Santa and receive a show bag of goodies- then onto the merry go round (while Grandpa went on a scary ride).

It's that time of year when everything begins to finish up before the hectic chaos of Christmas. For me last week was the final Tinies Time and Storytimes for the year. As usual it was a happy / sad moment. Happy because we do need that break....the children and their parents need a break from me ....and for me it's a chance to get all the other library work done that doesn't involve singing Galumph went the little Green Frog one day..... So much 'out-of-sight' work such as cleaning up and planning for next year...stock work and ordering....mending and repairs...re-discovering my desk under it's habitual piles of 'my kids would LOVE those books'. And coming up with new ideas for programs and school holidays- anything to help make the library more fun. It was also sad because I may not see some of these kids again. Very true for my Storytime group- they grow up, move on- so many are heading for school next year. Which is fantastic and natural, and

Was one of the phrases recently stated during the LRW Christmas breakup. It's always a fun meeting, even if we do have to do some serious business....it is a time to unwind...to have a laugh or two....share some great seasonal food....and of course look back on the year. This looking back is fantastic. Often so much has been achieved...so many exciting new publications....great opportunities taken. We head off in new directions, sometimes surprised by where we end up. This year the group has once again done well----between the eight of us many short stories and many more poems written, awards have been won, pieces sold, picture books making their debut into the world, other picture books have been translated and sold into many more countries world wide, Nanowrimo and it's cousins featuring writing a blog or a flash fiction piece each day were given the go ahead....pieces were written, then re-written, then edited, then re-edited, then workshopped, then re-written yet again