Eeewwww Gelli Baff...Yummm Truffles

Jack got some Gelli Baff from Santa for Christmas so of course we had to use it straight away. I filled the bath to the required depth, poured in the stuff, swirled it around to gelli, Jack stepped in and was too grossed out to sit down. He walked around in it for a bit discussing it's grossness before asking for it to be gone. Now I don't know if I did it wrong but that second sachet didn't make the gelli dissapear. So I emptied it out and Jack had a bubble bath instead!!

You know, apart from the obvious sharing of love with family and friends, one of the best things about Christmas is enjoying the left-overs. Here's my morning tea, a latte and too many truffles.

Yummy yummy!!

Chistmas 2009

We went and watched the Carols by Candlelight with our friends the Bruckner's and the William's. I must say that I wasn't very impressed with the carols this year. There were too many 'old' songs and not much excitement for the kiddies. There was the fireworks which were very pretty. Jack had a bit of a fireworks aversion and we had gotten ear plugs for when we went to the fire in the sky but there wasn't any warning that the fireworks were about to start when we went to the carols so Jack just put his own hands over his ears. We also had a get-together for our playground families at Tricia's Mum's place. I so love our group of playmates and I'm so happy we all met. They are great friends. Jack, and all the other kids, had a ball in the pool. Jack's confidence in the water was really great at the end of the day. It really helps seeing his other friends just splashing about.

Owen has started replacing the retaining wall out the back of the house in preparation for the major works we HOPE to have in the new year (damm council!!). He had done the base layer of about five metres of the wall and I was out inspecting his work and came up with a brilliant new plan. Now personally I think O was lucky that he had only done 5 metres before I changed where it should go. LOL. Poor O. He does agree though that the new plan is better.

Here's his builders lacky helping him out.

And now, on to Christmas.

My Mum came over to help me out with all the preparations for the big day (thanks Ma). Before she left in the afternoon I got her to help Jack with making some magic reindeer food (oats, glitter and magic kisses, mix together).

Weeds and Wildflowers had these gorgeous Reindeer Food envelopes as a free download as part of their 12 Days of Christmas. We filled the other design up and Mum dropped it over to Jack's 2nd cousin, Ally. She was thrilled apparently and the reindeers even left some poop at her Grandma's place where she was staying. Here's Jack sprinkling out the food.

I made some snowflake shaped sugar cookies and gave Jack a big one to decorate and leave out for Santa.

Not a creature was stiring... Jack was so funny Christmas morning. I had gone in to check on him and pull his covers up. He stirred and said something and then closed his eyes again so I stayed and watched him for a while to see if he'd wake up remembering that it was Christmas. He didn't. He climbed out of bed and started heading out of his room so I said, "what's that behind you", he turned around and spotted his overflowing santa sack full of pressie and says "Oh, I forgot about that!". As he unwrapped everything he was putting them in 2 piles, one was the 'cool' pile, the other was obviously not quite cool enough.(and yes, he does have the same shirt on from the day before, Mummy was very busy)

Bella on Christmas morning. She got some bacon strap treats from Santa and Kitti got some salmon bites.

Santa got O a "Control a Woman" remote control. LIKE THIS ONE. He hasn't tried it out yet but I doubt he's holding his breath as to whether it truly works. I got a percussion back massager along with some other goodies. Thanks Santa.

We had a slow start to Christmas, everyone was running late, which was not a bad thing as I still had plenty to do before they arrived.

I tried out a new recipe for a Prawn Mousse. I have had some moulds for a couple of years and never used them so I was very excited to be able to use my lobster mould. However...a few of my guests thought that it was rather phallic!! I think they just have dirty minds (Mark, Jess, Jenny...I'm talking about you guys) I just don't see the connection.

Here's my Mum with my nephew Joe and my neice Rasharna.

Jenny, Justin, Joe, Mum, Grandad, Grandma and Michael Kevin, Mark, Jess, Marie, Rob, Owen, Bella & Michael

My Mum, my Grandad and my Grandma.

O and Jack

Rob and Ally

Marie and Jack

Rasharna, Grandad, Grandma, Jack and Joe

Joe, my brother Kevin and RasharnaThe deserts!!

It was a really nice day. I love catching up with family, the whole noise and atmosphere is fantastic.

Well, I'm off to have some leftover truffles and a cuppa.

Cheers

Rest In Peace Poppy

I was on my way to pick O up from work one afternoon about 8 or so years ago and on the way there I saw a puppy sitting on the side of the road, watching the afternoon traffic pass her by. I mentioned it to Owen and of course she was still there on the way back home so we turned around to check if she had an ID tag or anything on her but to no avail. Well we couldn't just leave her there could we so we took her home and listed her in the lost and found on the radio and in the paper but with no luck.

She was a beautiful natured puppy. She used to sit on your foot or lean up against your leg, she just couldn't get close enough. She had the cutest pigeon-toed front legs. We called her Puppy while we tried to find her a new home.

We did find her a home...ours. After a couple of months my Mum asked if we were going to change her name since she was still with us so we started calling her Poppy.

She was a big galoof of a dog. Always underfoot, always wanting to sit on your lap. I'm sure she didn't realise how big she was. She was very very affectionate and was well loved in our neighbourhood. I could hear the neighbours talk to her as they walked past our house and she would talk right back.

She was a sooky thing. Always looking for a pat and a chat and quick to befriend anyone who came to visit. You could not not pat her, she just demanded it. She would nudge you with her wet nose until a pat was forth-coming.

A couple of years ago she was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer and we were told that it would eventually be fatal. She had had a couple of rounds of surgery to remove some spots over the last couple of years.

Last week she developed a bit of a limp so I took her to the vet's to get it checked out. They gave her some take home pain relief and when it didn't get better in a week an appointment was made for her to have some x-ray's on Wednesday while she was under anaesthetic for removal of some more spots.

Unfortunately this afternoon when I got home from work, her beautiful tail wagging smiling self wasn't at the gate. I knew straight away something was wrong. I got Jack inside and ran out to the yard. I found her lying in the shade in the back corner of the garden.

RIP Angel Poppy. We love you and you will be dearly missed.

All Christmas'd up...

Well our house is definately all Christmassy at the moment.
Again here is my Department 56 village display... Our Christmas tree...

Our dining room...I really love the 'boughs of holly'. It's from Big W and was only about $10 for 14 metres. I was going to take the branch down after Halloween but decided to leave it for another Christmas.A close up of the hanging decorations, isnt' the icicle gorgeous. Jack has been watching a few Christmas DVD's of late and after watching Maisy Christmas wanted to make some gingerbread men. They turned out really well and are very tasty. I didn't have any ground ginger so just used bottled ginger but it still turned out great. And yes, he is half naked, lol, it's pretty hot here at the mo.

Decorating the little guys with some coloured white chocolate.

This is Jack singing at the top of his lungs..."Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, Oh what fun it is to ride in the one who's broken sleigh"And this...

hopefully in a week will be rock candy on sticks...we'll see!!

My little snow village display...

I have spoken before about my love of Department 56 North Pole village pieces so here is my little Department 56 village display. There are a couple of pieces of Lemax in there too. It's sooooo cute. Here's a couple of close ups...

And lastly Jack having a run under the sprinkler. Didn't you just love to do that when you were a kid.