A few things since Christmas

My goodness, it's been more than a month since I posted anything here. Anyway, here are a few things that have happened.

• Flu As in the previous post, my wee one caught a flue and became very ill since the 23rd of the last month. I did not take her to the doctor's but it was definitely a flu, not a cold. Never seen her so ill before. Strange thing was, neither my big girl nor I caught it from her, even though she slept beside me for 4-5 nights. My throat was a bit funny, and I coughed for 2 weeks or so. But that shouldn't be called a flu at all. Maybe my big girl and I were immune to the virus somehow.  
• Christmas We had Christmas/Boxing Day dinners despite the flu. Turkey on the Christmas Day, and ham on the next day. Then, I had my annual tradition of cooking with leftover meat for several days afterwards.
  One difference was that I brought my wee one's present upstairs on the Christmas morning, because she was too ill to get out of bed.
• New Year's Eve Our family tradition continued. We ate soba for tea/supper, and watched "The Life of Brian" on DVD, and watched Jools Holland's programme on BBC2until just after midnight. We could have stayed up later if we hadn't been too tired.
• New Year's Day We had to have a decent roast dinner because my wee one couldn't enjoy the Christmas feasts very much. So, I cooked a pot roast with all the trimming, which was a big hit.
• Back to Work Kids went back to school on the 4th, and I went back to work on the same day. I was very lucky to have a few days off during the festive period. With the last minute preparation and the flu, I wouldn't have survived without holiday, indeed.
  My work has been OK. It hasn't killed me, and I haven't killed them, either.
• Wagamama in Belfast We hopped on a train and went to Belfast for lunch one Sunday. (Why Sunday? Train fare is the cheapest.) All of us like Wagamama, so we had to try the new one in Belfast, which was as good as ones in London and Dublin.
  We were supposed to do only window-shopping after the lunch, but went home with 2-3 shopping bags. I got a felt-covered notebook for writing/drawing and a couple of packets of modelling clay.
• Birthday Party My wee one held her party on Saturday. 4 girls came, which were just the right number of people for my living room. No hassle for organizing, because I was just a supervisor and a helper. My wee one did almost everything because it was her party. All I told her was "No food fighting!" and "Clear up your mess!" Everyone was happy. My next-door neighbour said to me the day after, "You didn't need to go through all the hassle. Why didn't you take kids to McDonald's for a party?" I nearly died to hear such words. My child's 12th birthday, you know. And my child goes to McDonald with her friends when they go out to the town without an adult. Isn't it only nursery school kids who have parties at McD??
• My Baby Nephew And, yesterday my brother's wife gave birth to a healthy baby, which means I am an aunt now. (I have been an aunt to my kids' cousins, but they are not blood related.) It's interesting to know that I might be sharing quite many genes with this little fella. (There is a chance that my brother and I share more than 50%, so the chance is, the maximum percentage of his child and I sharing the same genes is 50%, you see.) No wonder I felt as if he was almost like my own baby.