Christmas been and gone!

Well what a lead up and now it's over, goodness that happened fast.   So the last few days have gone by in a whiz.   So I'll back track and this is how Christmas was spent in the G House.  Remembering we had gone down last week to do the big family thing, so this was us hiding out here at home, just as we like it.

Christmas Eve we went to church, and all is well, the roof didn't fall in.  It is a lovely Christmas Mass here in town, we walk up to the church, it's packed with friends, people from the community, their relatives who are in town visiting.  We've done this every year.  Then once at home Mike does his "Santa" calls.

He's been doing this each year, at one stage he had a list of five children to ring.  It started when he first rang his niece and nephew, unbeknowns to their mum that first year.  Since then he gathers the info beforehand from the mums (what grade they were in, what their best friend's name is, any achievements they've had during the year ... cause Santa knows all remember).  I tell you some kids are quick, they actually remember what he said to them last year.  "Hey Santa, remember last year you told me..." and "do you want to sing the magic key song with me Santa" (think quick Mike, you made up a Magic Key song!!)  So he had two Santa calls to make on Christmas Eve.  It's fun to watch, I often listen in on the other phone, and he has to get into character with the hat and he has bells that he jingles too.

And as I've done the last couple of Christmasses, I was up early and out the door at 6.30am for my Christmas run around town.  I tell you a lovely warm day was ahead of us and it's hard work running in a santa hat.  Hot head!  But run in it I did the whole way.  Photobombed here by the Christmas Cow!

It's a bit of a running (haha) joke in our 12WBT Runners Connect group that I usually try to get a cow in my weekend running photos that we post in our group each weekend.  This year the lovely Karen organised a Secret Santa and when I came home from my run it was the first gift I opened.  Oh how I laughed and laughed.  A mug with "COW WHISPERER" on it !  Such a mystery, the sender on the box was Santa, I still have no idea who sent it.  But if you are reading this blog, I adore it !

So set up the tripod during our cruisey morning and take the annual Christmas photo.  Thank goodness for the self-timer.

We had an unexpected guest for lunch and our Christmas lunch a deux became a trio.  Mike's dad had a change of plans and he travelled down to enjoy lunch with us.  Even though it's just us, I still make sure the table is decorated nicely.  This table cloth was a bargain I got last year ($25 down to $6) and it's a very sparkly aqua colour, just lovely.

And here's our Christmas dessert this year.  We aren't into the Christmas pud, so every year I just grab a magazine and pick something.  This year I went online and just searched "Christmas dessert" and came up with this.  It was an Almond and Date cake (I've linked up the recipe).  I didn't realise it at the time that it was gluten free (I think it's gluten free, the only flour is a tiny bit of rice flour, does that have gluten in it??).  I didn't put the lemon glaze on it, we had it with custard and low fat vanilla icecream (see you can have your cake and eat it too, right!).   Mike gave it two thumbs up.

The hot diggedy dogs get a Christmas lunch too, ham, turkey and some selected veggies, bearing in mind what dogs should or should not be eating.  Come to think of it, they probably shouldn't be eating Christmas lunch either.  They loved it.

Miss Bo Bo does not look amused here as I gave her her Christmas pressie.  Oh the shame!  I think Lucky was laughing at her.

So that was Christmas.  Late afternoon our lovely neighbours from across the road came over with some delicious cheesecake for yet another dessert.

Then roll on Boxing Day and we did it all again.  Open house here.  We didn't want to add any stress to the kids as we realise there's partners families in the mix too.  I remember the days where all you do is travel from house to house and end up pleasing everyone except for yourself.  So we said Open House, come if like when you like.  Ended up having Wes and girlfriend for lunch and then Tab, Aaron and the little mister for dinner.  Yay lots of cuddles!

And who got the most presents over Christmas?  One guess who!!!!  Although he was more interested in the paper and all the toys went straight into the mouth!!

So easy to take a photo of the little man, he already knows to pose for the camera and give his best smile.

 

And finally I just wanted to end this mammoth post to remember my dad.  He passed away Christmas Day 2007, hard to believe it's been seven years.  My true Christmas angel. X 

And now onward to the end of the year rushing towards us and to new adventures in 2015.  See you on the flip side!

Santa is almost here

Almost 11pm Christmas Eve, time for all good people to get to bed to make Santa's job easier.  Don't worry, Molly will be sleeping outside as she usually has been of late, on Santa watch.  Hope she doesn't bark at Rudolph.

Enjoy tomorrow everyone, make the day whatever it is you are wanting to.

Carols by Candlelight

One of the things I love is to go to Carols by Candlelight and let me tell you this little town has had some disastrous ones weather wise.  More than a few years events have been moved to the local hall and one was so disastrous with torrential rain it was cancelled completely.

Last nights was a pearler though.  A gorgeous night, got cool once the sun disappeared but nothing a jacket wouldn't fix.

We arrived and made sure we partook in the local fare.  A sausage in bread from the Rotary BBQ, followed by a pancake from The Men's Shed.  Yum.  Then Mike decided to follow on with a hot dog from the School stall!  Then another!  

Obviously I don't feed him, ha.

Then quite fitting after all that food he broke the chair!!!  First the arm came off then the whole bottom collapsed.

Hmmmm how is it he broke HIS chair and yet I'm the one who ends up sitting on the ground and he took my chair!!!

The main event and Santa arrived on s horse and cart.  Well I will say that Mike did wait until the line of children subsided before he went to sit on santas knee!!!!  Excited much??

Okay so I sat on his knee too!!  Then Santa told me I jingled his bells!!!  Oh dear!  Does that mean I'm on the good list??

Maybe we both are as Mike ended up putting a bottle of whiskey in santa's sack to which he was most appreciative of!! Ha.  Great night where it's all about the community, singing loud and proud, enjoying catching up with friends and get into the spirit.

Days of December 07 to 10

Doing a bit of a catch up here, and after the horrid events in Sydney over the past 24 or so hours, I think a bit of animal love and hijinks is needed.

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Birthday Boy Boot Camp !!

So someone had a birthday yesterday and bonus that it was the weekend, so instead of going out for dinner, we decided to do lunch at a place we have wanted to go for an age, the Timboon Railway Shed Distillery.   I have heard great reviews and love that they use all local produce.   But we thought to make the day a bit of fun, we would walk the rail trail to the heritage listed Curdies Bridge.

Now admittedly I should have done my homework.  The link on the Distillery website on talking about the rail trail said "The first section which is an easy flat 3km walk begins at the Timboon Railway Shed Distillery and ends at the National Trust listed Curdie's River Trestle Bridge".  Perfect.  Our lunch booking was for 12.30, so we got there a little later than we had hoped to start out but surely at 11am we would be fine.

So we set off.  The weather was warm but there were lots of shady sections and it was really beautiful.

Took some photos along the way, but soon enough we had hit 3km and the bridge was nowhere in sight.  I told him no problems, we'll just keep walking a bit and I'll ring the restaurant and change the booking to 1pm.  Mike was getting a bit antsy at that stage working out how long we'd been walking and doubling it to get back.  Okay we had some breathing space.  And on we went.

Saw some people at the 4km mark (see, I had my Runkeeper on so we knew how far we'd come, clever girl !!) and they said we still had 1km to go!!!  HUH?  Well we'd come this far, so we started hoofing it.  Soon enough we were rewarded and made it to the bridge.  We took some photos, we were pretty hot by this stage but pleased we made it.

Well on looking at the watch we realised we were going to have to hoof it back at double pace to make it back by 1pm, we didn't think it was good form to change the booking yet again!  So off we went.  And as when I run, I started doing the count down - probably more so to make Mike feel better.  I was feeling fine (there comes a certain comfort in being fit).  Mike on the other hand, although he wouldn't admit it, started struggling.  He was getting redder and redder in the face.  At one stage he could smell hay being cut and had to cover his nose so he didn't get an asthma attack.  By this stage I was feeling really bad that we pushed on like we did.  Especially when we got to Curdies Bridge and realised we could have driven there!!!!!  Shhhhh, we won't go there okay.

At about 5 past 1pm we got back to the Distillery, ever so glad because I was starving and I was a little worried Mike was going to self-combust at that stage.  His eyes had swollen up, his face was like a tomato, he had sweat pouring down his face, poor love.  We walked into the cool of the restaurant and the lovely lady there, who we came to know as Maggie took one look at him and asked him if he was alright.  I said we had just walked 10km and she said "goodness man, you need water".  Mike squeaked out "Alcohol" and I think she felt so bad for him she gave him a whiskey on the house.

You can see here as he was in recovery mode with a cider how red his face was.  I urged him to go to the bathroom to splash water on his face.  He did and came back even redder!!!  Oh dear, there was no paper towel in the men's and so after splashing water he put his head under one of those hot hand blowers to dry his face!!!  You can't help but laugh.

All was not lost, we soon satisfied our hunger with a beautiful assortment of tasting plates.  Pulled pork on soft tacos was absolutely delicious.  Pork belly on a coleslaw.  Spring rolls with peanut and lime sauce.  And a pear, walnut and parmesan side salad.   Absolutely delicious.  And we left with a scoop of the famous Timboon icecream (they popped an extra scoop on Mike's raspberry and white chocolate icecream, just because it was his birthday).  Totally wonderful place to eat and the service was amazing.  Five stars from us.

After falling in a heap when we got home and having a major nanna nap for both of us, we went to a BBQ Christmas party at friends last night, such a beautiful balmy evening.  It was just lovely.


No Sunday sleep in for me, I was up early and out the door at 6.30 this morning whilst sleeping beauty still slept, so I could run my 10km virtual fun run for the Indigenous Marathon Project fund raiser.  The sunrise was beautiful.  I needed to get it in before it got too hot.   My run was slow, but I did it.

Birthday pav for the man tonight, which he graciously shared with our neighbours across the road, mind you he only took them a little sliver each!  What can I say, the man loves his pav!   And day off for me tomorrow, love a three day weekend.   Countdown to Christmas is really gaining pace, might do some baking tomorrow.

I met the big guy!!

Hey hey, last night I met the big guy, who incidentally if you check the photos closely had a lot of trouble with his moustache!!

We were part of a lovely Christmas BBQ dinner with Mike and his friends from his club down at the lake, it was a gorgeous evening, but once the sun went down it got really chilly, hence the jacket!  There were a number of children there and the fact that a couple of our friends are from the CFA, Santa ditched the reindeers for the night and came on the back of the firetruck!

It was nice as there were eight children there, so there wasn't a huge rabble of kids and they all got to spend as much time with santa as they wanted, just lovely.  

Incidentally I found out that I was in the top 5% of good girls on his list, so there's a scoop for you!

Santa was just a tad scared at the exuberance with which Mike greeted him!  Hmmm, was Mike making up for past misdemeanors, I wonder!  Making sure Santa realised he was good after all, hmmmm. 

This has really put me in the Christmas spirit, for sure.  Seeing the delight on the children's faces, not to mention the delight that Santa had too.  Love these photos of this very special man!   Fun fun!

So today we had a Christmas lunch with some of our staff from around the area, including some old staff we don't see any more.  It was really lovely, but I came home exhausted and needed a nap.

I fear I am now behind on my Days of December pages, but no sweat, the photos are here, the ideas are clicking along, I'll get there.  

Days of December : 06 (one day late)

((interrupting our general broadcast, had this blog post written but not published ... Carry on))

Well I knew I wouldn't get yesterday's done yesterday because we had a huge day.  Headed off at 6am and didn't get back in the door here till 8pm.  We had a fine time at the Daylesford Highland Festival.  We despaired on the way as it rained all the way to Ballarat, but once past Ballarat the skies cleared, cold still (what happened to summer???).

The street march was good to see, there were so many people around.  I didn't take my big girl camera this year so these are just phone shots.  Once the street march was complete the streets cleared!  It was a mass exodus till the shops opened at 10am.  Everyone had headed down to Victoria Park to the festival.

Mike went on ahead and I stayed back to check out the shops, lucky I took two bags.  My biggest score was at a "garage sale" of a shop that was closing up.   They had beautifully matted old prints and the one I got was of old time gold detectors lining up to get their licences.  Now normally I wouldn't get something like this but couldn't resist it was down from $65 to $4  !!!  Yes you read right, you can't even get the matting for $4 from a framers.


And this is how the rest of the evening panned out when we got home.  Must admit that this is Lucky's regular evening possy on the couch.  He likes to wedge in between Mike and the arm of the couch and invariably pops his paw up on Mike's leg, it's a crack up.

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Days of December : 05

Still keeping up to date, this is a first !  Usually I fall behind (touch wood) and don't finish the album till about April.    Just using the KISS principle this year.

I swear Lucky knows the difference to normal days and then Friday, knowing I'll be home all weekend.  It's crazy, but true.   Thought I better get myself in this album too !

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Days of December : 04

Four for 4 !!  I'm still up to date.  And yes well the storm with the thunder and lightening happened yesterday but in the grand scheme of things who's going to worry about being a day out!  

Only just sneaked this one in, had a late hair appointment after work and not long got home.  Thank goodness I've got the format of this album nutted out, it's just the placement of the photos and a few elements I need to work out.  But even that takes me long enough.  Will I keep up the pace!!  ;-)

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Days of December 02 and 03

I'm still on track, I actually did do 02 yesterday, just forgot to post it here on the blog.  So without further ado here they are for your viewing pleasure!!

And you can read here, life is never dull in the G House!!

The cat thought it was high time she be allowed a voice!

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Days of December : 01

1 for 1.  I'm up to date! hahahaha  It's well known that I start a project with gusto and then get way behind, and finish a Days of December in say April!  

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I'm really going to enjoy putting this album together I think, so many moments throughout the month I want to capture.  Just a different slant on my December album.

First Christmas get together for the Silly Season!!

You may be mistaken in thinking I have dropped off the planet.  Not so.  Life (as it sometimes happens) has gotten in the way.  But on a lazy Sunday evening I thought I best post.  Actually I hate Sunday evenings, hate them with a passion.  Because that means it's nearly time for the work week to start.  I feel this way oh around 4pm of a Sunday, each and every week (apart from if I have a Monday off!!!)

So as my northern hemisphere friends can see, we are having some glorious weather right now.  Summer officially starts tomorrow, and I reckon it will be a hot hot summer.  But for right now I'm enjoying this lead up to the really hot weather.

Saturday was the first Christmas get together of the silly season for me.  I met up with some of the lovely friends I have in the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  Leah had organised us to meet up nice and early down at the foreshore for an early morning run and then back to the Pavilion at 8.30am for breakfast, Christmas colours/theme a necessity.

So bright and early I met those that were able to make it, I tinselled up my running hat (note that it's in the correct way this time!!) and while a couple of the girls who met earlier were running the Surf T Surf course and beyond, the remainder of us ran along the foreshore.  It was so enjoyable running with the other ladies, I do have trouble talking and running but it was just an easy morning, good friends and a festive feel in the air.  Debbie had even brought her dog KT who was dressed to impress.

Now I am going to go on record and say I think tinsel is a definite must for all runners.  I got such lovely 'good mornings' and big smiles on my run.  Either they were smiling at the tinsel or they were grinning awkwardly at the crazy lady in front of them.  Eh!  Either/or !!  I was having fun.

I call the group my health & fitness sisters.  They come and go in the crew, but there's that core group that remains constant.  Saturday morning was awkward for some of the ladies, but these are the ones that made it.  And a loose decision was made that next year we need to organise a monthly run - maybe the last Sunday of the month or something that stands out.  As long as two turn up so no one plays Larry Lonely for breakfast, then any more are a bonus, right.

Is this a happy smile or is this a happy smile?  KT I think wins the best dressed of the morning.  She ran with her santa scarf on for 6 kilometres.  Way to go KT.

I looked at my calendar earlier and we have got a lot of functions and get togethers to go to over December.  That usually never happens.  Next week is a bit of a lull and then it hots up.  And I'm pretty pleased that apart from one more present I want to get Mike, and the couple I'm waiting on mail order to come in - I have all my gift buying done and wrapped!  I aimed to get that done before December hit so I could just cruise instead of the crazed lead up to Christmas I had last year.  

I'll be doing Days of December again this year, I'm doing it this year with a difference.  Both in the theme and the size of the album.  Here's the front cover to whet your appetite...

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