The week before Christmas...

Well, it's the week before Christmas and I'm as ready as I'll ever be. All of my shopping is done including the food shopping for a little soiree we are having next Saturday night before we leave for Sydney on Sunday, Christmas Eve. The weather is holding out so once again we will have moderate temperatures, which is one of the reasons we moved down here. I just couldn't put up with the heat and humidity in Sydney. The little soiree is just a few close friends that we had over last year with some drinks and lovely nibbly bits. I am making lots of my old favorites including, deviled eggs, vegetable dip and prawn and crab dip. I'm also going to attempt to make a few new surprises. We shall see...

It's also only two more weeks until the end of 2006 and I have never been so ready to see the back side of a year as I am this one. I'm sure that if you've been keeping up you are aware of what a crappy year it has been for us both and at this point enough is enough. We just want to move forward and get on with it!

So what is in store for the new year?

1. I am taking James to Melbourne for his birthday to see one of his favourite comedian/variety acts Dame Edna.
2. Some friends are coming out for a visit starting in February and will be staying through the end of March. We will be going up to Cradle Mountain and also making a short trip to Sydney with them.
3. James goes to Sydney for a week to do the residential part of his college distance course. He has been working on this course which is an add-on to his degree for over a year and will finish it in June this year.
4. After James finishes his course we plan to start our travelling around Australia. So many people live in a country and only travel outside of their own country, never seeing any of where they live. So, we are going to do just that and head up to Darwin, Perth, and Uluru to name a few. We are going to rent a camper van and take our time to see what there is to see. I'll be taking our laptop so I can post pictures and updates

That's about all we have planned for the moment but a week before Christmas and all through the house all is calm and it is starting to look like a good year ahead!

A Christmas list...

This was fun. I stole it from here and he stole it from someone else. If you're brave enough or just plain bored give it a try and let me know how you went so I can have a read. I could tag some one (Mark) but I won't.

Happy Holidays!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
Hot chocolate all the way. Egg nog tastes bad besides it's hard to find here in the land down under.

2. Did you ever do anything for Santa?
Yes, but he had me promise not to tell anyone... I'm just kidding, we put out milk and cookies.

3. Coloured lights on tree/house or white?
Coloured lights on tree, and I used to put both on the house but we don't put them outside anymore because it stays light outside until almost 9:30 here in Tasmania so it seems senseless to put out lights that most people won't see.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
No.. never bought into that one.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
December 1st or weekend closest.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
Cranberry sauce

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
Not being able to sleep on Christmas Eve and always trying to get my parents to get up to open presents at about 5:00am, but they always made us wait until at least 7:00.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
I think I was about 8 when I found the box for my GI Joe jeep; hidden down in the basement behind the hot water heater.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
We open one gift.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
I don't like one theme or just one colour. I use different coloured lights and all different ornaments that I collected over the years. (As seen previously)

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it.
I love it but we don't get snow at Christmas time here because we live in the southern hemisphere where it is summer so I have to wait until June to see snow.

12. Can you ice skate?
Yes, but not very well and it has been a long time since I have been skating so I would probably fall straight on my ass.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
All gifts are wonderful because people go through the trouble of buying/making them so I think they are all great.

14. What's the most exciting thing about the holidays for you?
The tree, I love watching the coloured lights twinkle.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
My mum's rum cake which I will have to try to make myself this year seeing that we live on the other side of the world.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Staying up to midnight with James so we can open presents on the very beginning of Christmas Day.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree...

Well it's that time of the year again and I love it. We bought a new tree this year as the old one has done yeoman's service over the past 7 years but I finally told James that it had to go as it was looking a bit pathetic. So the new tree is great it's real bushy but so bushy I can't get any presents underneath it. I'll figure something out. Our tree is not your typical all one theme tree that seems so popular nowadays. I like a variety of ornaments. I have been collecting ornaments since about 1990 adding at least one new one a year. Some are from friends and many of them with dates which remind James and I of different Xmas' of past and where we were and what was happening in our life at the time. I love Xmas although it is also a sad time for me because it also is the anniversary of my late partners passing. He died on December 21st which has always put a damper on this time of year from that point forward. I have moved on from that day and since then found love and happiness with James. We have finally settled and we have made a home and in that home I try to bring back a little bit of Xmas. so I share it with you even though it's not the best picture...



...and another

The human pillow...

I love our cat Molly even if she is a right royal pain in the ass. All she does is eat and sleep, eat and sleep. When she's not here in the house she usually is sleeping in one of the big cushioned chairs out on the veranda. Or she is at one of the neighbors begging for food or sleeping on their bed. (I know that's where she sleeps because they told me). What I find to be the most brazen of acts is not that she goes into other peoples houses and sleeps on their beds but that she eventually comes home at night and thinks that I'm as good as a bed and uses me as a human pillow. Of course she waits until I've fallen asleep which I inevitably do every night while watching TV. I love her but really...




Anyway, I want to come back as a cat after I die because life is so easy for them especially her.

Remember...

On December 1 buy a red ribbon to support the fight against HIV. Thank you...