We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic, adventure filled, wonderously amazing, love and joy filled New Year!!!!!

We are heading off to our beach camping getaway tomorrow, so will be signing out for almost 2 weeks. Don't worry, I will be filling my diary with little stories to fill you in on when we return.

Have a lovely day and may the spirit of today fill your soul. Much love to all.

Dreaming of a White Christmas

'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

Born and raised in Brisvegas and here I am wishing our Christmas here could be white!!! We are enjoying some particularly hot days. The forecast however is for a wet and muggy Christmas day. We had planned to be sitting in my brothers blow up pool under his Great Aussie Deck...will have to wait and see.

We had a lovely weekend. We celebrated Christmas with my dad and his wife on Saturday. Lots of gifts, swimming in the pool and way too much food, as always. Sunday I braved the shops again and then had a lovely summer solstice celebration with friends to finish off the weekend. Kev found some friends to 'jam' with and the kids ran around like crazy. I enjoyed the beautiful company of my friends.

I hope the next few days for you all aren't too crazy. I am having a well deserved massage this morning and then, off to do the grocery shopping!! I hope we can all remember why we are celebrating Christmas and not get too caught up in the negative side. I am looking forward to spending some time with a family I dearly love and find this a great opportunity to appreciate all that I already have, and put some hope into a brighter future for us all.

Happy days before Christmas!

Brisvegas

The kids and I caught the train into the city last night and met Kevin on the way. We had a quick look at the Myer Christmas windows, a little shopping and then over to Southbank. It really is a beautiful oasis in the middle of a bustling city. We had a lovely dinner, a walk through the markets and the kids couldn't resist a swim in the lagoon.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Enjoying the sunshine

We had a lovely playdate with Harry and Sam's cousins this morning. Lots of playing, loud noise and bomb dives into the kiddie pool. What a lovely way to spend a summer morning.

We had a classic Aussie BBQ for dinner tonight on mum's little camping BBQ - lamb chops! Yup, I still haven't had enough lamb!!!! The boys thought it would be a good idea to roller blade around the deck. Happy Days.

PS Sam is going through a stage where dinner time is a nightmare!!! Just thought I would share :)

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Yesterday my friends had a cookie exchange. We met at the local Botanic Gardens. The kids brought a box (or bag in our case) and decorated them whilst sitting on a rug under a shady tree. Then they went around the circle and delivered their home made cookies. It was a lovely gesture and a great way to avoid the mass consumerism that can be Christmas.

The cookies I made were pretty delicous so I thought I would share the recipe. They are egg free!

Lemon Blueberry Biscuits

1 cup Blueberries (fresh, frozen or canned)
¾ cup Butter
1 cup Sugar
1½ tsp Grated lemon rind
4 Tblsp Yoghurt (or sour cream)
2 cups Sifted plain flour
2 tsp Baking powder
¼ tsp Salt
½ cup Milk

Preheat the oven to 190 ºC/375ºF
Wash blueberries and dry on a papertowel thoroughly. Cream butter, sugar and lemon rind. Add yoghurt and beat well. Sift together flour mix alternately with milk to creamed mix, beating until smooth. Lightly fold in berries.
Drop teaspoon full onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

In the afternoon I took the boys for a walk to meet their Daddy on his way home. Kev found a second hand bike for Harry for $20 - gotta love that....and so did Harry. Sam decided to give the scooter a go and managed to make it pretty far before jumping back in the pram. Such a lovely way to spend the early evening. Then we had lamb burgers for dinner. Mmmmm.....lamb.....how I have missed you!

Harry and His Little Book of Stories

Harry has a beautiful Auntie Lan in Canada who gave him a little exercise book to fill with pictures and stories of his adventures Down Under. So Harry decided to write his first story yesterday. He dictated the story to me and then he drew a wonderful picture to go with it. I love these moments of creating with him. His imagination is amazing and I love the quiet time we spend together (Sam was having his nap, hence the 'quiet' time!)

The first few weeks in Brisvegas!

Welcome home!!! Welcome back to the humidity!!! The first few days we saw my lovely family and the kids had a blast together. They played beautifully and it looked like they had never been apart. Family dinners are certainly going to be loud and crazy...2 five year olds, a 4 year old, 3 two year olds and a baby...phew!

The view from mum's deck.

We spent one day at Dad's in his pool....lovely and the kids took to the water like little fish.

I even managed to run into a friend I hadn't seen in over 10 years. I look forward to cathcing up with her and our many other Aussie friends. My girlfriend Janine and her son Jordon come up from Melbourne to stay with us for the week. The day after they arrived we went to the Sandgate Pool for some more water fun.

Janine and I got a bit of shopping done early in the week and then the kids got sick unfortunately. Harry and Jordan were going to have a joint 5th birthday party on the weekend but we had to cancel. Harry had a good birthday regardless as having Jordan here for non-stop playing was a gift enough! Harry did get a scooter from his Pa and Nana for his birthday and he is loving cruising up and down the waterfront. It is amazing how fast he is picking it up and I love to see him exercising with such pleasure.

Sam is starting to feel better today and actually slept through the night last night so fingers crossed all will be well in our world again. We have been going for walks, weather and wellness permitting, along the waterfront here. It is absolutely beautiful and our minds started to think , wow, it is REALLY nice here. ..... then we had to drive somewhere and the beauty came crashing down!!!!! We are definately country folk now and the city life just isn't for us. For another example, the first Saturday night we had here at mums the young 15 year old next door had a get together that went badly. A lot of people turned up that were not invited and to cut a long story short, mum and I spent a lot of the evening there kicking kids out of the neighbours house!!! It is terrible to think that a teenage girl can't have a party anymore unless there are security staff. The other city thing, is the shopping centres. In one breath it is so nice to have so many stores to choose from BUT the crowds and the energy is so draning. Just parking the car is exhausting!!!

Kevin took Harry to Australia Zoo one day which he absolutely loved. It really warms my heart that he loves animals so much. Sam and I stayed home and had a lovely visit with Cath and Kees. I even managed to get to my old babygroup playdate which was lovely. A morning spent by the seaside playing and swimming. I look forward to many more.

Kevin started work last week. He is near the city again which is nice. There is always lots to see and do on his lunch break. He has about a 30 minute walk to the train station along the waterfront, then a 30 minute train ride and a short walk to work from there. Sounds like a lot of commuting but it isn't that bad, he said he is enjoying it.

I plan from now on to try to write each day and keep you updated now that things are settling down. I want all the Canadians to know that we are thinking of you all often. Please write and let us know what is going on at home as it is always lovely to hear from you.