I despair

... that I will never get my December Daily finished.  Thank goodness I am journalling every day, the photos are being taken, it's just the getting them on the pages that is my bugbear.  Time poor.

I mentioned that the kids came for Boxing Day dinner.  The photos are still on the camera!  That's how far behind I'm getting.  I'm trying to get the house back to order at the moment, and the dreaded taking down of the Christmas decorations tomorrow.  Always one of the saddest days of the year.

Now, before I go any further I want to say "Shame Mr. Safeway, Shame".  I saw hot cross buns there the other day.  They were still selling the Christmas goodies half price, and yet, in the bakery section, hot cross buns.  Not cool Safeway, definitely not cool.

So here's a couple more pages showing the way we spent our December.  I will finish these, I have said it out loud to the universe, so it must be done.

and

Credits Designer Digitals.

I'm feeling a bit sick tonight.  I found the bag of green and red M&M's in the cupboard and have been munching on them, with the lopsided idea that they're small, they won't matter.  Perhaps not.  But the quantity I've eaten them in tonight, ouch!  There will be an early morning jog calling me tomorrow.

Christmas at the G House

What a couple of days we have had.  Christmas has been WONDERFUL this year.  We both have felt so much joy and so blessed, we embraced the day and ran with it.  Literally.

Christmas Day.  Beautiful weather.  We had done the big family thing the weekend before, so Christmas Day was to be ours.  Amazing how many people try to talk you into coming to their Christmas day meals when they find out you are spending it alone.  But we actually love the Christmasses when we hide out here, do our own thing, have our beautiful meal, take our time, enjoy each other's company.  This year was no exception.

Michelle Bridges at 12wbt had asked for a Christmas gift from us 12wbt'ers, that we do a workout on Christmas Day, with a Christmas hat on, and send it to her.  So I went jogging around town just after 7am.  I hope I gave the neighbourhood of this little town a giggle if they looked out their windows and saw me jogging by wearing a santa hat.  And kudos to Mike he got up after I left and hung around outside waiting to see me jogging back down the street from the other direction to snap some photos.

Yep, I do live in a little community, we don't have footpaths in the majority of streets, so jogging is usually down the centre of the road!    I love that last photograph, you'd think I'd just won a gold medal for a marathon run!

We then went back to bed and opened our Christmas stockings.  You know I'm doing December Daily so nothing is off limits in the camera department.  Scared look on Mike's face!!

I made sure I set up the tripod and thanks to the timer, I got a photograph of Mike and I.   Took about five photos and this is the one I really loved.

Caught in the kitchen making the fudge cakes.  Yep, the hat stayed on me all day.  Just in case you're wondering.  :-)

We did the ham and turkey and vegetables as usual, it was delicious.  And we don't do the whole plum pudding thing here, Mike is used to me going left field for Christmas dessert, usually buying a magazine and saying "yep, that looks good" and setting about making it.  This year I made little chocolate fudge cakes, served with raspberries and icecream.  Oh My Goodness - delicious!  This was from the 12wbt Christmas menu.  I really enjoyed this sweet treat at the end of the meal.  Mike however had a number of them, hmmmm.  Well they must have been good.

We set about opening presents and I was over the moon that Mike gave me a fabulous walking back pack, he knew how much I loved walking the Otways and hiking Mount Abrupt and I've said I want to do more of that in 2013, get right out into nature and breathe the fresh air and push myself to achieve.  This is so perfect, it is light, it has nooks and crannies, perfect for camera, lunch, water bottle, jacket or whatever else I would need.  And it's so comfortable too.

Inside the backpack there were smaller wrapped up gifts, oh joy!  This man of mine really put thought into surprising me this year.  I got a beautiful pendant in the shape of a heart with the inscripton "LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH".   How perfect is this motto for me.  And there were a couple of Michelle Bridges books too, another great choice.   

More presents to be had.  Someone is looking a tad pleased with himself, he didn't know where to start.

And here is the darn blasted #%&(*%&(@#$& pang hat I've been making.   Firstly the moment when he opened the box and realised what was inside

And here it is.  Round of applause, this blasted hat has kept me on my toes.  It looks relatively easy, it probably is if you read the pattern correctly.  And Mike is just eccentric enough to wear this, tassel and all.

The hot diggedy dogs loved their presents too.  Molly got a pink rope thingy.   And let's face it, this was the best five minutes Lucky has had!  Demolished!!

 

 

There was a bit of this going on after that.   Someone felt full as a goog.  That totally would have been me in years gone by, sleeping with a gurgly stomach, but not this year.  I had energy to burn, so played with the dogs for a while with their new toys.

I took this photo of my angel as a way of remembering my dad.  Five years ago on Christmas day.  I know he was with us.   And Pat.  We also had a candle burning for them.

And we ended our perfect day watching a movie.  Someone else wanted to snuggle, after all it had been a big day for the little boy.   Complete and utter peace.

So that was it, our perfect Christmas Day, followed by another perfect day for Boxing Day today when the kids came last night for dinner.  Those photos for another post.

So I hope that your Christmas has been a wondrous as ours was.   

Tomorrow's plans

Looking forward to tomorrow.  Yippee, Christmas is here again.

We are having a cruisey day, being that we've done the big Christmas family thing a week ago.  So we'll have a sleep in maybe, perhaps I might go for a jog, delve into our Christmas stockings which are overflowing  :-)  

Christmas lunch I have planned turkey, ham and vegetables, followed by Mini Chocolate Fudge Cakes courtesy of the 12wbt Christmas menu.  They look delicious and being that we are not plum pudding people, Mike is used to me going left field and making something completely non-traditional for dessert.  Of course his Chocolate Fudge Cake may not be so "mini" as mine!

Then we'll probably wait till the afternoon to open the presents, keep the suspense building!

Mike made a couple of his traditional Christmas santa calls tonight to the children of my bestie and another call to his niece and nephew.  Boy he has to think quick on his feet.  Then at the end of the call young Sean, his nephew says "I love you santa".  Ahhh, that's what it's all about.

Just want to wish my blog readers a Merry Christmas and thank each and every one of you for joining me on this journey.

So we ATTEMPTED to get the PERFECT Christmas card shot of the "family".  We soon figured out there was no such thing, particualrly when we were trying to take it ourselves!  Mike wanted to wear his Bah Humbug hat (typical!) and he looks like he's strangling Molly (I promise he wasn't!), there was a dog biscuit stuck to the top of the camera to try to get Molly and Lucky looking in the general direction but it kept falling off (note to self - biscuits do not adhere to sticky tape!!), the cat wasn't having a bar of it and flew over the fence to next door.  Lucky kept jumping off my lap trying to retrieve the fallen dog biscuits, either that or he wanted to kiss me.  Molly was perpetually caught in a blink in the photographs with her eyes closed.  Eh, so we went with what we had!

Some like it hot

... and yet others do not!  Not this hot.  Oh my word, we have flagged today, really struggled.  It was forecast extreme fire danger, and you could tell first thing when I ventured outside it was going to be hot.   Although taking a look at the trusty Elders Weather site, it only hit 37.3 C (99 F) here and that was at 5pm tonight.   And I'm going to hit them with "liar liar pants on fire".  Surely it was hotter than 37, it certainly felt it.

Poor old Molly, she really felt it today.  Whenever I moved in the house, she followed me.  Never left my side, poor darling.  If I was in the loungeroom, she'd be laying on the slate.  If I came up here to the computer, she'd be laying on the floor next to me.  Heck, even going to the loo and finding her laying in the passageway waiting for me.  I gave her a big hosing down this afternoon, she didn't even run from the water, she just stood there and enjoyed the showery drenching.

Now biggest news and Lynne at Never Too Hot to Stitch will be pleased to see, I am showing a finished crochet project.  Lynne!  You okay?  I do believe you've just fallen off your chair!!!  I have been bemoaning this blasted Pang Hat for way too long.  Here I was patting myself on the back thinking I'd finished all my shopping, wrapping and the like, then I realised I hadn't finished the hat that I had started way back when I stayed with mum after she got out of hospital.

This hat truly has almost done me in.  I've frogged it three times, I mucked up the pattern on the brim, the second line was meant to be a mirror of the first, with the triangles facing the other way.  Eh!  And I got up about 7am this morning whilst his Lordship had a Sunday sleep in and finished the darn blasted hat.  I had to you tube to work out how to make a tassel, sewed the ends in, and it's finished.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he'll be the only person in this little town with one of these hats for sure.  And I'll tell you now, after all the effort that's gone into this relatively simple looking hat, HE BETTER DARN WELL WEAR IT !!

You'll recall he wanted to look just like his "friend" Billy.  Well this is as good as it's going to get.

The reason I have finished it in secret is that I believe he thinks I've forgotten about it, he knew I'd started it but he hasn't seen it around for the last month, being that I've been stitching in my lunch break and when he's not around.  Now to put it in a box, so he won't guess when he opens the present.  

Here's the next few December Dailys.  I'm going so hot and cold with this project.  I love that the end result will be a documentation of the month for us to look back on.  But I think I've made the project harder than it needed to be.  If I ever do it again it will be much simpler.

Credits Designer Digitals.

Now off to bed for me.  Lets hope I don't have a busy day tomorrow, I want to get in, get my work done, and get home.  Half the population will have taken Monday off I'm sure.

So I mentioned I had a fun day last Sunday

... and I never came back to tell you what it was.   We had an early family Christmas with Mike's family down the coast.   And it was TERRIFIC.  The whole day was just perfect from start to finish.  We did follow a big black cloud the whole way down there, the weather was looking ominous, but the day ended up beautiful.

We stopped for a couple of hours with my mum on the way through.  She is not "doing" Christmas again this year, although she did have a little tiny tree up, so is making some progress as this is the first tree in five years.   With the words of a very wise friend always ringing in my ears at this time of year, I can't change the way she is, I can only change my reaction to it, so I choose not to react.  Mike made sure he took a nice photo of the two of us.   Gracious my head looks big in this shot.

Then we headed down the coast to the extended family gathering.  I was lucky enough to get a tripod from my mum for Christmas so made good use of it and the self-timer on the camera.  This was the second group shot we got, there was a bit of laughter going on after the photo was snapped, we in the front row had no idea what they were laughing about, until we see the LED display and Miss T and her fiance having a smooch!  I actually love this photo best of all.  I also like the expression on Mike's face, it makes me laugh.

And here are some other random photos from throughout the afternoon.  I just want to add that my father-in-law and his partner put on the most magnificent spread - turkey, ham, vegetables and the trimmings and a big bowl of salad, so score for me, I just had meat and salad and it was yummo!  

Love this photo of my father-in-law and I.   I really scored the jackpot in the in-laws stakes with what I married into.  And love him I do, he kept that santa hat on all day.

My sister-in-law asked me to take a photograph of her so she could change her profile on her facebook.  Both she and I were thrilled with the capture I got here.   It was so funny during the day, in the present unwrapping frenzy, we had gotten each other near enough to exactly the same thing - a little three drawer glass jewellery case.  Laughed about it all day.

During the afternoon the kids decided to climb the apricot tree (as you do!!) as the tree was laden with them.  It proved to be fun, eldest stepson climbed way up in the tree, there were apricots being shaken off right left and centre.  I guess this is quite different to how my northern hemisphere friends would spend their Christmasses being cold.  Here we were dining inside and outside on the verandah and picking fruit in the warm afternoon sun.

We gave my nephew a remote controlled helicopter which he had huge fun playing with -- we won't talk too loud about when it hit the television cabinet when his grandpa was not looking -- and I love this capture of the helicopter in mid-flight in front of him here.

My eldest step-daughter and fiance.  I don't think he knew what hit him with the extended Clan gathering.

My eclectic unique youngest step-daughter, beautiful both inside and out.

My niece, this is the great thing about marrying into a family, you get nieces and nephews along with the deal.

Youngest stepson, just with the cool, hip and happening dude look.

Mike with his sister and dad, yep I was crazy with the camera, did I mention I took over 300 photos on this day.  Hey, my argument is, it's the photos you don't get that you regret.  I love that everyone just had the attitude of grin and bear it.  It's easier with me that way!

Handed the camera over to eldest stepson to take this shot.  Nice one!

And finally for tonight, how did I get so lucky?  Really?  Four absolutely beautiful amazing step-children that I am proud to say I am their stepmother.  Sometimes I forget they are not really mine.

And with that, it's waaaaaay past my bedtime, g'night.

It's official

This elf named "Carol" has stuck her last bit of sticky tape, tied her last ribbon, written on her last tag and wrapped her last present.  DONE!  ALL DONE!   And at last we can take possession of the kitchen table again, free from ribbon and wrapping paper, and scissors and glue.  Whew, big job.  And I wonder why each year I wait until I have everything bought before I wrap.  Why don't I wrap as I go?  One of those questions of my universe I'm afraid.

But one enjoyable part to today was that I played a new Christmas CD while I was wrapping.  The new Rod Stewart Christmas CD, and it's a great one.

So where were we, moving right along with December Daily.  I realised I left 4th December off the blog, so I slipped that in the last post.  So here are the latest entries, how our 6th and 7th December panned out.

Credits Designer Digitals

Crazy weather we've been having in the south-west, wouldn't you agree?  We had our Carols by Candlelight last night, for the first year for a while the Masons weren't organizing it, so it was going to be a treat to kick back on the village green, on a balmy night, singing Carols, having a picnic dinner, with Mike instead of him running around with a clipboard as usual.  

EXCEPT...

Down came the rain, all day.  The Carols were moved to the hall, but it's not the same atmosphere and although the organisers tried to triumph it really fell short of the mark, unfortunately.  Sad to say, we left before the end, slipped out the back door.  Oh dear.  

I have a fun day tomorrow, you'll have to wait to see.

A look at 4th and 5th December

And here's my page depicting how my 4th and 5th December turned out.  One of the things I mostly worried about when doing the December Daily, was that we didn't do enough Christmassy things every single day, but I'm actually enjoying this month long view into snippets of our lives.  I think it will be fun to look back on.  And now I'm pleased to say, Mike is totally on board.  He actually grabbed the camera here while I was at work, and snapped a photo or two as a surprise for when I got home.  Go Mike!

Credits Designer Digitals.

Cards are written, presents being wrapped

That's the status in the G House right now.  I've never left it so late before, and I fear some of my overseas cards and gifts are just not going to make it in time.  This is so unlike me.

And shhhh... I still have Mike's had to finish.  I'm making him a Pang Hat, worn by Billy Connolly is one of his grand adventures on TV.   Mike has wanted one of these hats for ages, and just quietly he wants the glasses too, eeeek.  There's no accounting for taste.

Well I found a pattern on Ravelry and I tell you this hat has been the death of me.  I've frogged it twice already.  The first time I hadn't read the pattern properly and increased every row instead of every second row for the crown.  The second time I did it per the pattern and I swear you could have fitted the biggest boof head in it, it was huge.  The third time I've made the pattern smaller and I think it's about perfect.  I'm now up to the turn over brim where the colours are about to start.   I'm making this one in navy blue, red and white.  Cross fingers I don't stuff it up again, I've only got 15 days till Christmas. 

Here's another couple of my December days.  I'm keeping up with the journalling, I have that completely up to date on future pages.  I'm taking the photos each day.  The page set up and finish is coming later.  All good.  Feeling pretty much in control.

and Monday...

Credits Designer Digitals.

Bed time, I'm exhausted.  Hoping for a nice peaceful day tomorrow, I have the office to myself the whole day.  Bliss.