Chocolate and family

You will just have to imagine the goofy smiley faces at the airport yesterday, because I forgot my camera. Not surprising considering it was damn early.

It was most awesome to see Miss J and entourage. There was hugging, and squealing and much rapid conversation in some very quirky English. Miss J told me, with some frustration, that she was finding it hard to remember her English words because she speaks 'too much German every day'. I'm just amazed that in less than a year, she has become fully bilingual.  

The plan for the day involved settling everybody in, letting them relax, going foraging for supplies at the supermarket then getting together for a family dinner, which was roast chicken, veges, homemade mayo and, of course, vino.

Somebody fell asleep pretty much mid-bite. That's jetlag for you.

Of course the flip-side of that kicked in at 1.30 a.m. when she became fully awake and didn't go back to sleep until 7.30.  :-/  There was a stage, about 5 a.m. when I could have quite happily stuck her back on a plane to Liechtenstein. I think that was when she poked her head in the bedroom door and said "Aunty Sara? I'm hungry!' Needless to say, I'm terribly sleep deprived today. Also, during those solitary midnight hours, Miss J found some amusing ways to occupy her jetlagged little mind - like covering Monty in Barbie plasters to help his healing process... and decorating The Programmers laptop with 'My Little Pony' stickers. I also believe there was some astounding amount of easter egg consumption - and for once, it wasn't my fault.

The chocolate demolition that occurred at afternoon tea today, however?  That was me.  That's my easter plan.  One chocolate splurge - the rest of the meals just the usual fare. Indulgence without guilt.   The sugar crash isn't sitting too nicely on top of 3 hours sleep though...

I'm interested to hear how other people deal with food-centric events.  How do you handle easter? In the past, I tried abstinence but just felt left-out. I've also tried the 'it's only one day so I'm going to wallow in chocolate all day long and then fall asleep with a messy face and surrounded by shiny wrappers' strategy, but didn't like the next day regret. So the controlled indulgence is my compromise. It was quite decent, I'd say about 750-1000 calories - Creme egg plus half a chocolate bunny and a few other miscellaneous treats, but this is better than the 3000+ cals that it could have been if I'd been depriving myself and then cracked under the pressure.

And just to be sure that the day was balanced with the correct amount of vege-ness:

Today we harvested.

It weighed in (with The Programmer holding it while standing on scales) at THIRTY KILOGRAMS. That's my sister (Sistasana) standing next to it. She just had a baby. Nobody said life is fair.

Everyone wanted to pose with The Pumpkin.

I'll cut into it tomorrow and see what the inside is like before making a decision about what to do with it. If the smaller ones of the same species are anything to go by, it will be more suitable for soup than pie.  

So far, there have been no scary aftershocks since the fam arrived. Apparently there was a little rumble this morning but Sistasana and I were too busy gossiping with the neighbours to notice. It's been a very quiet week and definitely feels like the earth is calming down and settling to a greater degree than we have experienced for a while - probably since September last year. However, I still gave the visitors a 'safety features of this house' talk and rehearsed everyone in what to do if there is a biggie. I'm sure they think I've really lost it this time.