Christmas plans

What a sad life poor Josie leads. Here she is looking offended because we forgot her birthday a few weeks back. Even though she is now 6, she still acts like a 6 month old puppy a lot of the time. She is my darling companion though, who lies at my feet while I work around the house, who supervises me hanging out the washing and generously allows me to pat her and stroke her silky soft ears, because she read somewhere that people who pat dogs have lower stress levels. So selfless!

I have just got my Christmas roster and I am working afternoon shifts on the 23rd, 24th and 25th December. Thanks a lot! I kind of expected to be working Christmas Day, but it's annoying to have Christmas Eve PM shift as well. We usually go out and look at all the Christmas lights on the houses then and when we come home the kids put out a snack for Santa and then we read the Nativity story before they go to bed. This year I will be home too late to do that and I feel a bit sad. At least I'll be home on Christmas morning to do presents, but I'll miss out on Christmas Lunch. Ho hum. The joys of shift work.

The kids only have 3 and a half weeks left of school. I'm so, so disorganised! I have done nothing to plan Ruby's birthday, I have bought no Christmas presents for anyone, I have done nothing. Well I have put 2 things for Ruby on Lay-By. She's getting a Lego Friends kit for her birthday and one for Christmas and conveniently they were both on sale. At least the kids are now at an age where they just get one "big" present for Christmas and we're done. I usually get some little bits and pieces too, like new textas, some lollies, a couple of books etc. Declan wants a Wii game and Simon wants a new phone. We do Secret Santa with my family so I just have to get something for my little nephews and something for whoever I am allocated to. Now I'm tired from thinking about it.

Next year Declan will be in Year 6.... this is something that terrifies me. The thought of him going to High School in 12 months time is worrying. Even Brett is worried about it, which makes me more worried because usually it's me that takes notice of stuff like that. We have had meetings with the school to put plans in place for help with transition to high school. Declan still has major difficulties with a lot of stuff.  I know there will be support for him at High School, but it's the social side of things I worry about. The older he gets, the more pronounced his eccentricities become. I just don't want him to become one of those weird, loner kids that wander the playground alone, or hide in the library. Declan wants to audition for the Music programme at the school, in Clarinet. The auditions are next year in April, so we have got him some extra tutoring to prepare. I hope that if he does get in to that, at least he will belong to a group from the beginning, which will give him a sense of structure.

Oh, I am exhausted from thinking about children. I wonder if every generation of parents felt like this, or is this a modern phenomenon?