A lovely couple of days.......

I hope everyone enjoyed a very Happy and Peaceful Christmas as we did here at our home.
Our day started with yummy freshly baked croissants for breakfast, followed by opening of our family gifts.

Morning tea followed with delicious fruit cake, almond butter balls and almond and white chocolate shortbread.

Lunch with one side of the family and dinner with my Dad and Mum completed a lovely Christmas Day.
Today is another public holiday here in Australia - Boxing Day. We've been relaxing at home today and it was thoroughly enjoyable!
It's been a rainy and quite cool day today, perfect for stitching the binding on my quilt. I've been hoping to get to it now for quite a few weeks, but with all that's been going on I haven't had a hope or when I did have a few minutes it was too hot to be manouvering a quilt to try and stay out from under it. But today it was lovely!
My feet were even cool enough to try out my new little sockets!!

Isabella and Hamish........

Where do I begin to share with you the thoughts and emotions that engulfed my being today.

I grew up in a farming community and worked in the small town within that community until the birth of my first child. BJ and I have had our business in that same town for the past 14 years. If you have lived for a long time in a small country town you will somehow understand my writing tonight and if you haven't I hope that you will come to understand a little more.

This morning the news on the radio reported that two young children, a little boy of eight and his seven year old sister had been missing overnight. At first I didn't realise the impact this would have on the rest of the day.

They had been out walking late in the afternoon with their Mummy, had gone ahead of her on a quad bike and when she caught up, they were nowhere to be seen. The police searched most of the night and then resumed this morning. Their little bodies were pulled from the dam on the family farm this morning.

Our little town is in shock and the sadness on the faces of the people today was enough to say what we all were feeling. People were going about their business as usual, but there was a sad quietness, there seemed to be quiet all around and not much chatter going on.

I have known this family the whole of my life and although not close friends, we went to school with them and have known and respected all of the family all of my life.

This comes at the end of a year that has held so much tragedy for a small community, that one can hardly believe that we are once again trying to make sense of just another happening. We have mourned the death of a young women to cancer, the senseless murder of a young man by his brother, accidental deaths and sudden death of two teenage young people connected to our town. All this within a population of just 4000 people.

I just ask that you pray with me tonight for this family, for the parents, older brother and sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and their little friends. May they know the peace and comfort that only Jesus can bring to them in this time of grief and sadness.

The Christmas Cake......

Well, I feel as though I am at least another step closer to Christmas Day. This morning I have baked our Christmas Cake and boy does it smell good.
The process always starts the night before when I soak the fruit and nuts. I don't use alcohol, only orange juice. I really hate the bitter taste alcohol seems to give rich fruit cakes. I also prepared the tin with all the layers of brown paper, foil and greaseproof paper.
This morning I gathered the rest of the ingredients together, beat the cake mixture together and then added the yummy fruit. Into the oven and three hours later - delicious.

While the cake was baking BJ and I had time to clean the deck and all the outdoor furniture ready for my family Christmas together this coming Friday night.

Now I just have to be patient and wait. I think I had better get another made too. It's always nice to take a cake to the beach after Christmas. I am starting to dream about sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view, and of course some more cake!!!

Thank you........

I know, second post in one day. But I just had to!!

The postman just arrived and look what he brought for me today.

My set of patterns from Rosie and Melly. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The patterns look beautiful and look at the gorgeous little card that was enclosed. What a lovely parcel to receive today.

Enjoying December.....

We are well into the swing of the Christmas holidays here. Alexandra has had a lovely visit to the farm and enjoyed making Christmas bon bons with Grandma. The boys had a great weekend at the beach on their youth camp and BJ & I had the most enjoyable weekend at home- CHILD FREE!!!! We actually watched two movies, gardened, went out for a lovely lunch, had Chinese takeaway and did some Christmas shopping!! Boy did we enjoy it! Oh, and of course I cleaned and cleaned and tidied the house from front to back.

Everyone is home again today. The little ones have cooked and now the boys have gone for a walk to meet a friend. Hopefully the holidays will be a long and happy summer break for them. It seems that the 29th January is forever away, but I am sure that it will slip by all too quickly.

I plan to hopefully enjoy these holidays with the children. With Cameron already graduated, I realise how quickly time is just passing us by.

We have had another lot of beautiful rain, even though it is still so patchy. We are still all hoping that a huge amount of water will soon fill the dams to full and overflowing.

So with the rain, the garden is looking fresh and beautiful.

My first Hollyhocks......

Roses Blooming......

The vege patch looking promising.......

Herbs too......

A new Crabapple tree........

Last week Mitchell had made a delicious batch of white chocolate biscuits and I had decided to mix up a quick batch of blueberry muffins - afternoon tea was all planned. Then disaster struck - just as the last of the biscuits came out of the oven, it stopped. To start with I thought it was just the fan part, but after my delicious muffins sitting in the oven for forty minutes and looking very much a disastrous cooking adventure, I conceded that yes, the oven had died.

Now, this oven only being eighteen months old, I was one very cranky cook indeed. So, to cut a long story short - the oven is now fixed (well usable) until a part arrives. Given that Christmas is upon us and all those types of places somehow just shut down for weeks, I hope that it holds up and that I can get on with some baking.

I am so looking forward to making a delicious rich fruit cake to enjoy with many cups of tea.

Gardening and fruit cake with tea - two of my favourite things!!

Gremlins in the system?

Not sure what happened here - a mystery post. Hopefully a post tomorrow!

Christmas........

I just wanted to show you today the few bits and pieces that I have been putting together for Christmas at our home.

I have really enjoyed pulling out the boxes from the garage and finding all the little bits and pieces I have collected over the years.

I also love getting out the special things that I have made for Christmas too. It feels so long since I have made anything, especially anything special for Christmas - maybe next year.

The main big Christmas tree is mostly purple and very sparkly this year. I think I have put five sets of lights on it. So it certainly lights up at night!! I have a small blue and silver tree in the lounge and also a mid size tree in the entry decorated in red with an angel that I made a few years ago.

December Already

It is so hard to believe it is December already. The year has whirled past again. We have lived in this house for 18 months already, my how time flys when you are having fun!!!

I have started decorating for Christmas and still have a few things I would like to do. I will take some photos when I have it finished.

The garden is looking quite lovely at the moment. The roses have had another flush of growth and flowers and the vege patch is looking great. Of course the weeds are enjoying it too. Alexandra and I shared our first little snowpea this morning - it was delicious. The rain last week freshened everything up and made such a difference again.

The ballet concert was absolutely beautiful once again. The costuming and the presentation of the children was an absolute credit to the studio. Our little princess was still whirling when we got home. Today was quite a different story, I think it has all finally caught up with her.

We went to the local Christmas Carols in the city park tonight - it was really lovely to sing along with the songs. The boys were in the choir for the night and really enjoyed the experience - very up close and personal - whereas we were way up the back and saw some glimpses up on the big screen.

I am really looking forward to preparing for Christmas, just have to get organised this week and hopefully really get into the Christmas Spirit after that.

So Excited

Just a quick hello in amongst the madness of this very busy weekend. Our week ended with sitting through three separate Speech Day/Night sessions. At this very moment my sweet Alexandra is on stage performing in her ballet presentation of Snow White. We are going to see her tonight. I am so looking forward to next week when all the end of year things are over - just have to concentrate on our business then.

Last week I put my name into the draw for Rosies new set of patterns for her beautiful new quilt. My dear friend Barb sent me a little message this morning to ask if I had checked out the newest post over at Melly and Me.

Well I clicked over there as fast as my little fingers would take me and guess what! I am the very, very, very lucky winner of the patterns.

I am sooooooo excited - my first blog win, PLUS it's from Rosie - YAY. What a wonderful end to a very "bumpy" week!!!! Thank you Rosie and Melly for your kindness and generosity with your giveaways - I feel truly blessed.