Christmas Day!!

Here I am attempting to cook Christmas dinner (never done that before!) on a bar-b-que ..... it all felt 'not quite right', not a turkey to be seen....

 

 

We had steak, king prawns, snags (!!), tomatoes, onion & mushrooms and salad all wrapped up in turkish flat bread.... yummy

 

We spent the late afternoon and evening at this beautiful lake about 15 minutes drive from where we live... it was lovely but didn't feel at all like Christmas.... no hats, scarves, gloves or frostbitten noses... outrageous!

Traditions...

I love 'em.... traditions that is. Here is Evie deeply involved in one of our Christmas Eve traditions.... that of having a chocolate fondue and eating as much as you can before admitting defeat! I think Evie concentrated on the marshmallows even though there was lots of yummy fruit to dunk as well.... why does that not surprise me!

 

And here is another one... putting out food and drink for Santa and the reindeers before going to bed.... love it!

 

Busy, busy, busy....

Well, it's that time of year isn't it?! Shopping, baking, wrapping, making..... and then I remember that I've forgotten something..... but for the life of me I can't remember what it is I've forgotten (I guess it wouldn't be forgotten if I could remember it.....) My brain is officially frazzled, I'm going to get a drink. Ta, ta for now!

The joys of homeschooling....

Here is Evie out on the back patio busily making some lavender perfume so she can sell it and make 'wads of cash' (her words, not mine!!) I now have a couple of stripped lavender bushes and a couple of jars of 'lavender water' (who uses that nowadays anyway?) but I've managed to get away without paying for the time being......

 

Sovereign Hill

We went for an evening of fun and festivities at the local working museum, Sovereign Hill. It is laid out as Ballarat would have been 150 years ago during the days of the gold rush and there are original style shops, houses, forge, bar/saloon and even the camp and diggings where you can pan for gold (yes we did try but didn't come away with any booty!)

The kids dipped candles for the Christmas dinner table and we bought some traditional sweets to munch on as we made the most of the warm evening weather whilst wandering round .... I have to say there are some nice things about having Christmas in the warm! We had to be thrown out at 8.30pm...... I just couldn't get Brian and the kids away from the pans and trying to find their fortune....

 

 

Our new addition....

At long last, and after much trauma (it's a LONG story) we have a new addition to our family...... Shadow the kitten, all 8 weeks of him, has joined our happy house and brought a lot of joy to the littlest one!