Christmas Day and Boxing Day 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas & Boxing Day with family and friends. Our star "Joel" enjoying his first Christmas and taking it all in. He was not in sleep mode as he did not want to miss any of the celebrations and was most impressed to have so many people around and so much going on.

On Christmas Day we had fourteen adults and two littlies for lunch - Joel (7 months) and Eloise ( 2 1/2 years). Eloise is Graham & Anne's granddaughter (Nick & Carla) & she was a delight. We had far too much food as usual with Mum's Roast & vegies followed by pavlova & steam pudding - not to mention the nibbles & chocolates. Later that afternoon Len & Helen called in so we celebrated with them into the night.

Boxing day we spent with Rod's in-laws Ron & Rae Jay at their home with family & friends. It was a lovely relaxed day with even more gifts to exchange. Joel was in his element & once again resisted sleep mode as there was so much going on.

We have not had too much time to appreciate the new lounge but have voted it "a beauty" as it is just soooooo comfortable. I did very well with gifts which included among other things - a new Panasonic Lumix Camera which I am still learning to use. My old camera was on it's last legs as I have taken 100's of thousands of photos over the last six or so years that I have had it. This new camera is very easy & it is fantastic what it can do. I also got a new 500GB external hard disk drive to save my photos on & a jigsaw puzzle mat for my jigsaw work. I have a lot of new toys to play with. Happy days!

Over the last 24 hours we have had some nice steady rain to give the gardens a good soaking so that will take some of the stress out of the plants.

Thursday 24th December 2009 - Christmas Eve

This week has been a shambles of gardening and preparation for Christmas Day. I played golf on Sunday 20th December 2009 and our playing partners were Ray & Norma Presdee. We had a good day & I managed to scramble into respectable territory by not wiping any holes.

The rest of this week has been divided by gardening, Christmas shopping and preparing the house for Christmas.

Monday 21st December we had our normal F-Troop Day at the Golf Club where we felled down one of the big trees and did a Christmas tidy up of the course.

I had a few hours at the hospital on Friday to check out a rose thorn injury from my gardening efforts at home on Tuesday after golf. There was no infection or anything sinister like a spider bite - just internal bruising from the thorn.

One of my new toys from this week's purchases was a steam H20 mop which has proved to be a great purchase for my floors. It cleans the tiles beautifully & does quite a good job on the carpets as well - so my floors have all been rejuvenated through the week.

Rod, Anne & Joel came for their traditional breakfast on Sunday morning before golf - Bacon & Eggs on the menu this morning. Joel was impressed with my Christmas Train & we enjoyed a walk through the garden. Rod checked out all the wrapped presents to see if he got a Toblerone Chocolate & was a bit distressed when at first everyone seemed to have one except him. (They are a bit obvious in the wrapping)

The rest of the week has been taken up with Christmas shopping and house preparation. One of the good things about the "Christmas Clean" is that with the tidy up one finds many mislaid items like my housekey that I put in one of my golf vests that has been missing for months.

Our long awaited leather lounge arrived today (Christmas Eve) & thankfully it fitted perfectly & is just what I wanted for a TV Lounge. Very, very comfortable which may not be a good thing.

Shane & Rod collected our old lounge on Tuesday afternoon & that is finding a happy home with one of Shane's friends.

All is ready for Christmas Day so we can look forward to a nice relaxing day with the family.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE & may you have a lovely day. All the best for 2010.

Wednesday 16th December 2009

This week has flown by in a flurry of shopping, gardening and golfing together with general preparation for Christmas.

Thursday 10th December 2009 we met Anne and Joel at Erina Fair and had coffee with Anne's Aunty Gayle before we all went to witness Joel's first visit to Santa at Myers store. Joel was perfectly behaved (apart from trying to pull on Santa's beard) & was all smiles for the camera so we got a beautiful photo for the keeping. After that it was concentrated shopping for the rest of the day achieving the purchase of all the important items. A very tiring day but worthwhile.

Friday 11th December 2009 we had the tree up and presents wrapped & a bit of a house clean & the house decorations up. I was very impressed with the animated train I bought for a Christmas decoration to impress Joel. It is just georgeous & makes train noises & plays Christmas songs, the village lights up with Christmas lights & the train runs right around the track. I love it! I think I bought it more for me than for Joel. (Another gadget for Jan to play with)

Saturday 11th December 2009 we had another quick early morning dash to Erina to beat the crowds to purchase some late items we missed off the list. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up the back yard & loading the garden refuge onto the trailer so it could go to the dump. My garden room is starting to take shape again. While shopping I got a couple of Joel sized garden chairs to go in the room. I potted some plants & did some new colour hanging flower baskets for the front verandah to give some colour for Christmas Day.

Sunday 12th December 2009 Rod & Anne did not come for breakfast as they had other comittments so I did some house cleaning before we went to golf at 11.00am to play in the re-scheduled foursomes championships that was cancelled due to wet weather previously. Unlike the first match, we both played badly and did not combine at all - so this year we did not feature in the mix. Our playing partners were Bob Knox, Doon Jansen, Peter Davidson & Margaret Davidson. They were good company. Peter & Margaret took out third place which was a good result for the day to bring home a winner. We stayed for dinner & celebrated with Peter & Margaret.

Monday 13th December 2009 was our F-Troop Day & we had to be there by 7.00 am as I had a delivery of 2 tonn of pebbles for my new garden on the 3rd. It took me most of the morning to do that but the finished result was good. We didn't get home until 3.3.0 pm so it was a long day.

Tuesday 14th December 2009 I played golf (very badly) in one of those dreaded par matches.

My playing partners were Pam Bourne and Iris Talbot. They were great company although none of us were stars on the day. I got some gardening doe in the front gardens in the afternoon.

Wednesday 16th December 2009 (today) I spent the morning at my hairdressers getting my hair cut and rejuvenated for Christmas. I feel much better now as my hair was getting quiet long. Then I spent an hour or so in Gosford just checking for the small extra gifts that one has as stocking fillers and for unexpected guests. I managed to pick up some good items. Tonight we have an important meeting at the Golf Club so will have dinner out somewhere.

I am more into the Christmas Spirit this week now that the tree is up, presents wrapped & house decorations in place. We are having a Mum's Roast Dinner for Christmas Lunch, Pavlova/plum pudding for deserts and I am expecting maybe about 15 including all and sundry of the family - not sure of the numbers yet. Next week I will be focused on food.