Christmas Day

Here is our lovely, low key Christmas day.

Presents in the morning - with a cup of coffee lol


OMG!!11!!! Makka Pakka!


Lolly playing the drum we got from Oxfam for Snail.


Snail with her doll, nawwwww.


My Mum and Dad came round, with my little sis Julz. More presents!!



Snail thinks this one is hers!


Lolly and Nanna.


Can't resist a shot of the spelling mistake on the Mega Blocks box... lol


One of Lolly's favourite things of the day was this floor cushion that Julz had brought over for us (not a pressie, just getting rid of some stuff) - Lolly loved climbing on it, walking over it, sitting on it, and flopping on it.


She also got a very pink (!!) trike that was a hit (though I have to confess we almost forgot to give it to her lol). She already does wheelies, takes after her father.


Here is DinnerDad in his traditional xmas attire of a garish hawiian shirt, having a rest after cooking us an awesome steak xmas dinner.


Merry Christmas and happy holiday season, everyone.

The Unveiling of the Kimchi...

Kimchi (phew, stinky!).

This year, DinnerDad wanted to make a Korean banquet for xmas Eve, so decided to stink up the place by making his own Kimchi. Of the cabbage variety. Blerg!! So he heats up the cabbage and stuff, does something awful to it, and puts it in some innocent bottles that had never done him any harm. Then it has to stay out and ferment (I like to call it the fancy word for rot) for 40 hours before being refrigerated. mmmm, yummy!


He unbottled it on the 23rd so he could make Kimchi soup for xmas eve. Doesn't it look great!


It had to be wrestled into submission with scissors.


Tasty?


Mmmm, Dadda, can I have some!?


Here is the finished soup, it looks kind of like intestines that someone sicked up.


The soup was delicious, BTW! I don't know how it can be so yummy when containing carefully rotted cabbage, but it was... (lol, just teasing DinnerDad, you rock). We had the left over soup with noodles on xmas night for dinner, it was seriously tasty stuff. Weird.

Merry whatsits and whoosits to all!

Here is our family's Christmas story in pictures...

Nudie chasing games with Smash and Snail a few days ago (shake it, baby!).


A Christmas Humbug Lolly with traditional "Bah Humbug" hat.


Snail all ready for more Xmas shopping.


Proof Mister B made it to another Christmas (he is 17 and a half!!).


On Christmas Eve, we had my BIL and SIL over for the afternoon, and had lovely pressies and chats. I totally forgot to take photos (lol).

That night, we had our delectable Xmas Eve Korean feast - we had kimchi soup, potstickers, and sesame beef with rice. soooooo tasty!


DinnerDad and Smash and I finished wrapping all the pressies and here they are on Xmas Eve under the giantest tree evah!


Phew! I'll tackle Christmas Day in my next post. Season's greetings everyone!

Pool Party!

Today, Lolly and I went to a pool party with some lovely friends for an end of year/solstice gathering.

It was a long drive for Lolly and I, but we got through it just fine (with the help of some chips and a large coffee for me). Lots of our lovely friends were there, in particular Lolly's favourite toddler pals, Damara and Darcy.

The yard and house are awesome for kids!! A huge run around area, with everything a kid could want to play with. It was meant to be a pool party, but it ended up being dark and stormy, here is the storm coming in.



Lolly and her friend, Darcy, thought this was great fun! Here they are playing in the rain... "It's raining!" and "Where's Darcy?" says Lolly.


Hello over there!



Here they are catching rain pouring off the roof.








Watching her friend.


Just gorgeous, Darcy.



I bought you some rain, Mummy.

A 9 foot Christmas Tree!

We've been busy lately, Christmas shopping and having fun with friends. Yesterday we had lots of women over for an informal seasonal party. Lots of friends came, and Lolly had great fun. In fact it was sooooooo fun that she went all day with NO NAP! Eeeeek!

Here are some shots of our life lately (as this blog has been photo poor of late).

Toddler jedis!!



Going for a walk with Mummy.



We decided to buy ourselves the world's biggest Christmas tree this year. DinnerDad really wanted one! So we went late and bought a display tree from Myer. It's missing two branches at the back, so we got a discount, and then when I went in the next day to pay and pick it up, they were having a 40% off sale on xmas stuff, so we got it for $220!! If you've ever looked at a 9 foot Christmas tree, you'll know that is an amazing price :-) So now we've got to keep it for at least 15 years to offset the carbon produced in making it (lol).

So, here it is being put up by DinnerDad, Smash and Lolly.





Decoration



Nearly done (we need more tinsel, clearly).

Climate Change sites

I got some great links for climate change today, and thought I would share them - register at each site for updates. Both do some amazing work!

350.org is aiming to reduce Co2 in the atmosphere to 350 ppm. Here is there nifty short animation:



The other site is AVAAZ - which has a number of amazing campaigns for justice in the world.

And of course, don't forget Get Up!

Time Alone...

I'm enjoying some time without the lovely Lolly here this morning! As much as I love the bundle, it sure is nice to sit on the computer, drink coffee, and eat some chocolate by myself in the house!!!

We've been busy lately, we had a lovely week with friends, went to the museum, went to Rocks Riverside Park and played in the water - Snail loved it, Lolly was a little scared of all the people trying to escape the heat - we've done some Christmas shopping, it's been a full week. Snail is on holidays as well now, though they are both off to their mother's this week, we've got lots planned for the week before Christmas, and DinnerDad is on holidays! *woot!*

I'll be back to post some photos once Duplicate Annihilator finishes sorting the *48,000* photos that apparently I have now after moving back to the laptop *shock*. It's been running for days! And you can't use iPhoto while it works *sigh*

Memo to Self...post more in blog!

I have been slack of the arse lately and not been updating here, which is a shame as Lolly has been through a lot of stages lately, both delightful and otherwise (lol).

Here is my commitment to posting more here :-)

And in other news, my cousin got engaged this morning, awwww. Congrats to you, C! And here's hoping we catch up in the new year!