Christmas Time 2018

Well it has certainly been a busy busy time this Christmas, with all 5 children home, plus partners and their children, 16 in total, we have been very busy going to one outing after the other. Our youngest daughter and husband flew in from California, and haven't been home for 3 years.

Both my sister's 2 girls and my children all visited our mum at the nursing home, followed by morning tea/brunch at our favorite restaurant near her, perched on the river. It was quite a bit overwhelming to have so many visitors, and we only stayed 30 mins.

Christmas Eve had us touring the local house lights, showing how some people go to a great deal of trouble. Lots of cars everywhere, doing the same thing as well. Does anyone else do that?

 

 

 Christmas day was spent having croissants with bacon,egg and tomatoes, to set us up for the day. We opened presents in the morning, from under our loaded tree, after all the very excited grandchildren arrived.
 

Presents stacked on top of each other.

 We took it nice and slow and had a couple of breaks as well, so we weren't finished till 1pm. So much laughter and ooooh's and aaaah's, and bags of paper afterwards. The quiet after the gang went home was amazing, and all 6 of us left spent some quiet time.

No lunch as we had eaten bits and pieces while opening the presents, I had to get the  nutella cheesecake and pavlova ready, which I had made the bases earlier, to take with us.

About 3pm we joined  the others and had a pleasant lunch under the pecan tree. It wasn't too hot and a nice breeze. Cold roasts of  lamb,beef, pork and turkey. Hot veg of pumpkin, new potatoes from my garden, and carrots picked earlier. Various homemade sauces. Lots of wine and laughter. As much as I would love to show all the family playing ball, eating etc. rule with children is not too.

 

We stayed till the evening, enjoying a board game.
Boxing day was another quiet one, cleaning up for me though and preparing for our 3rd. sons 39th birthday on the 27th. down at the river again.

Busy doing sausages and satay chicken. 

The kids supervised by all the adults went swimming while dinner was being prepared.

Our 2 daughters and John, showing off cameras.

Had to show mine lol.

The youngest daughter and husband are now flying back home to the USA as I type. Hoping 2019 we will Skype regularly as it is very hard not seeing them or participating in their everyday lives.

We are now on our own, mountain of washing done. No2 son  and family, is still here camping on the eldest's acre and we will get together for New Years Day, as well as see my sister for her 61st. birthday, on that day. The year has  certainly gone fast.

Time to make a New Years Achievement list, think of a Word For The Year to focus on, and relax.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year for 2019.

Till Next Time.

Pasta Grannies

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Pasta Grannies, where  various Grannies from all over Europe show how they make pasta of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

It is very addictive with many, many shows. Here is the link.
Pasta Grannies

Our youngest daughter and husband have arrived for Christmas from USA this year and as another Pasta Granny convert, they decided to make a ricotta and spinach ravioli.

Rolling the pasta, several times to make thinner and thinner.

Once the dough is made using a 4 000 flour and rested then it is a case of rolling it out several times after lowering  the width of the  rollers each time, and the pasta gets longer and longer. I have had all the gear but it has been a long time since I made pasta, never ravioli though always fettuccine or similar.

Tried this first  inherited from my Italian Mother in Law.

The first tray they tried was useless as it stuck every where so then they went bigger, with a roller. The plastic roller cutter wasn't that sharp but it worked out ok. A metal one would have been better.

Cutting the shapes.

They sealed very easily with a bit of water around the edges and then a Carbonara Sauce was made up. The ravioli was cooked in boiling water and added to the sauce.

Yum!!!

With a bit of parsley added on top one of the nicest meals I have had in a long time. This has given me inspiration to try it again.

Another Grannie, my Mum at her Xmas Party. 2018

It has been a very busy week with one thing and another, getting presents wrapped, shopping for groceries amongst the enormous crowds, Mums Xmas Party at the Nursing Home,  and I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone A Very Merry Christmas, and thank you all for following my blog, and especially thanks to those who  comment, it is very much appreciated.

Till Next Time.

At the Beach

While the parents went off to do some major shopping for Christmas, as hosting the  family Christmas Party, we minded the 3 youngest, 5 year old twins and Miss P who is 10. After making some chocolate balls then watching a movie we took them to the beach at 4pm when the UV is safe enough.

Always has a camera in hand

 Really windy day but  others found time to fly this huge kite.

  The kids were really excited to go and we took some buckets and spades and they ran all over the place and of course got wet. Eventually got them to settle down and make sand castles.

Miss V and Miss P

 The water wasn't too cold, but the kids didn't care.

I ended up having to redress the twins both got saturated. Used the old fashioned way of wrapping a towel around them and helped changed them under the towel. That bought on giggles. 

On the way home got some really nice hot chips and cooked up some crumbed fish, which I haven't had for ages but was delicious. Must be the sea air. 

Of course the usual thing when you go somewhere like the beach is, "we must go more often" lol.

We had a burst of hot sun this week and I had to pick tomatoes they are starting to out grow us eating now, and going to find time somehow and bottle them. Just as many are in the fridge. Also cucumbers and zucchini with only 2 plants of each are full on as well.

Our youngest daughter and her husband will be arriving home on Tuesday from America, and I am really looking forward to it. Followed by our other daughter and youngest son nearer Christmas.

 The 2nd son is camping on the eldest's acre. All together there will be 16 of us this year to celebrate.

We are celebrating today our 46th wedding anniversary today, and going out to dinner locally .

Brother in law, Sister, Us, Cousins, and my brother.

 Till next time.

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Well it is that time of the year when we all begin decorating for Christmas.This year I actually put up a tree due to the fact that our youngest and her husband are coming home, for 10 days, plus the rest of the family as well. 16 plus us Woo Hoo
So out came all the boxes of the stuff. I am hovering on letting all the children pick what they want as mementos of their childhood.

My brain telling me time to declutter my heart is  saying don't they look nice. Anyway the tree went up first.
 

When the children were little I made an ornament for them every year till the youngest turned 18, so when they left home they had some to start with. None of them are in my collection now.

 I love this dresser, but had to find a place to put all the stuff that was sitting there.

This above is a favorite of mine, I have two different ones, just love the little blocks.

 You will notice that snowman feature quite largely in my decorations, always loved them.

Reindeer

I am having a reindeer theme, this year. These were purchased on a last visit to the youngest in America.

The second little blocks.

I don't entertain anymore, but at least the place looks tidy enough for visitors.

Entrance

 So how are your decorations going? We didn't put up any outside lights as most have blown bulbs etc now. Hoping though to do a lights tour Christmas Eve.

Till Next Time.

Christmas Party

Today is so hot and I had planned to do several early morning gardening hours, but in the end just did the watering, picked the rhubarb from the front, still the back to go, tomatoes and zucchini, and cleaned up the kitchen after the mess of the Christmas party overload, which took 2 hours would you believe.

After

Before

Mixed Bag of Tomatoes

The Party was down at the creek which I had organized, before I quit the co-ordinator/Sec. position and it was themed on a Mexican Taco Party. Easy to do and cheap, charged $10 head.

5pm and a nice breeze, was perfect

Looking towards the entrance

 Forgot to take the main dinner photo but we had  Spicy Chicken strips which was cooked there and Taco mince which I prepared at home and heated up there. The salads were, lettuce, grated carrot, tomatoes,grated cheese, cucumbers and sauce from the packets. We ended buying 5 of the box kits as cheaper in the long run, and catered for 16.

Cooking the chicken and heating the mince.

For dessert I made a lemon and blueberry cheesecake, little strawberry chocolate tartlets, and we bought a Panettone from Aldis as I though some might not ever buy one, it certainly was a hit as were all. A spray can of  cream came in handy as well, should anyone like to to try this party.

Waiting on Sweets

Waiting on Cheesecake.

John made up a punch bowl of  Sangria which disappeared fast even though everyone bought their own drinks.

Having a good time.

Everything went off very well. Final meeting today then John will have a break from meetings over Christmas January. 

Till Next Time.

Einstein's Pamper Session

It has been another quiet week, John away on various things and the community garden, so just Einstein and I,  and I decided it was time to get his fur cut, plus his nails, and of course washed as well.

The problem with him is the fur gets in the rug and I usually have to deal with it by hand with a small scrubbing brush in a circular movement. The vacuum gets a bit but not all, such a pain.

Before

There is a cute little blue doggy trailer locally, that is a franchise I think Australia wide, and you can book online which I like so very easy. Violet runs the local one and arrived at 12 noon. She is very used to old dogs as well, so was very careful with him and his arthritic back leg.

Parked in the Driveway

The vans are really well equipped, including a dog bath, and a sink, cupboards, for equipment etc. A connected hose fills the dog bath, and I presume heated as well, as she also plugged into the electric power, to use the clippers.

               So cute for a van, great idea.

Took about an hour for Violet to get it all done, and Einstein now looks like a big puppy lol. This morning though he was shivering so may have to find a blanket for him.

After

The weather here has been really odd, cold in the mornings, but then really hot by 11, so I have been doing short stints in the garden trying to keep weeds down. Planted some more carrots, climbing beans, rocket, beetroot. We bought some more cow manure and mushroom compost to fill the beds up as they had sunk down from the first lot.

Grown from Evi's sweetpea seeds.

Picked some sweet peas from my garden with seeds I got from Evi a forum member. My sister and I cleaned up after hours quite a few gardens in the front area  of the community garden, as it was a real mess, in preparation for the local member visit on a grant John managed to get, which was the next day.  I picked some sunflowers and zinnias from there on the way home. Next day went to greet Luke Hartsuyker and we were on the NBN news. Our interview was cut, and he said Coffs Community Garden lol.

Jan and I will look at helping in the garden after hours, when it is cool, especially sorting out the bush house, and seedling starting.

This weekend was supposed to be a scrap booking one at the guide hall, but unfortunately was cancelled Friday night.  All my stuff was in the car ready as well.
I was so looking forward to it too, the first time I didn't have to be at the community garden. In the end though I still spent 9am to 5pm scrapbooking at home. Managed to get a lot done as well.
I do hope you all had a great week.

Till next time.