Bounce

When you are on a trampoline you can only smile and laugh.  I love these pics of Nic, Ben and Olivia on Christmas day

Olivia

Ben

 

 

My favourite. 

Distraction

It is Boxing Day morning and I have just enjoyed a little bowl of tarty fresh raspberries from my parents garden, coupled with a couple of dollops of tarty yoghurt.  This is my antidote after a day or two of delicious indulgence. 

When I talk of distraction I am referencing the fact that is has been over a month since my last post.  Days have been flying by and energy levels depleted with work burnout and Christmas preparation.  Perhaps next year will be better.  Apologies to anyone who pops in regularly.

My camera has some issues with uploading photos onto the computer and as Jonty is still asleep and he sorts these things out for me, I am going to post up some pics that Jasmine took of our festive day yesterday.

As you can see, she focused on the table decorations more than the people which is totally cool.  Since I was a child the decoration of the Christmas table has been my job and it is probably still very high on my list of most enjoyable activities.   This year, last minute, I made paper chains which looked awesome.  I also picked some flowers from abandoned sections in our neighbourhood.  As homes are being demolished due to the eq activity, lovely gardens are being left also.  The poppies are courtesy of Churchill Courts  Stunning.

Ruth, Simon and the children bouncing. 

My wish for 2013 is normality, a wish unlikely to come true.  Mended roads, houses fixed or removed, people continuing to thrive and be kind to each other, health and happiness for all my friends and family.  For myself and my small family, I am looking for harmony and adventure on top of all the other things we wish for.  Some things we can make happen ourselves, others are in the hands of others.  I intend to influence what I can and not get too bent out of shape about the other stuff.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Happy New Ears

Let's hope 2011 is a fantastic year for everyone.  We in Christchurch have all agreed that the earthquake has sucked the life out of all of us and Christmas just did pop like it normally does.  So here is to a happy and safe year to all my friends.  Enjoy our modest but warm family photos of the season
                                                     

     Pre-Christmas lunch with teh P-Zers

Under the tree

 Fan man and chopsticks

 The new bike with gears...star of the show!

 Special Christmas table on the deck with the cousins

 Jasmine came home, yay!!

 mmmm

 The joke book goes everywhere...hanging out at Julian and Lesley's

twas the night before Christmas.....

...and we went to Ballantynes to check out the window and get a decoration each for the children.  A lovely family tradition and how cute are these guys? I think my mother looks fantastic for 72 and half years old.

Richness

Contemplating Christmas ....grandad
love

Friends
Nice...

crackers

friends and family

sunny garden (you can just see the bbq spit roasting the turkey in the background)

pink perfection

Cruising in the garden

Nic's childrens table with adornment and'activities'

The haul
*******************************

What you CAN'T see due to the need to abandon the camera for cooking and hosting duties

• 2 x 1.5 hour Skype sessions with Louisa and Co in Leicester
• Skype session with Jasmine in Dunedin
• Chatting with Philippa in Troutbeck
• Julian, Lesley and Ria enjoying pudding in the backyard in the late afternoon sun (yummy panna cotta, chocolate roulade (thanks Marie - Anne), fresh raspberries and strawberries
• Present opening
• The SPREAD mmmmm
  
  ...ending on a sad note, thinking about a young colleague waiting to meet the angels, people who can't bring together a happy Christmas for all sorts of sad reasons

...and the winner is

...jeepers, that was something I hadn't thought of, having to pick a winner out of my friends. So, here is what I managed to come up with....K and A and Lou are my lovely friends and family and there are presents under the tree for them already. Peach is a mate and he wins the main prize because it was really funny and I REALLY miss him and miss laughing a lot at work. Now, Jus is new bloggy friend and is also really funny so I bought her a little something at Ballantynes last night, in the form of a decoration, that I think she will really like. So THANKS you guys for sharing your stories. I loved them all and each on had memories for me attached which is very special. So thanks again.

Peach, I need your new address pronto to get your prize in the mail. And Jus, same with you. I will set a thingy on the blog to send me a message.

Love you all lots

Happy 300th post Christmas

Hi my bloggy friends. This is my 300th post and as it is Christmas I thought I would send a present out to someone in bloggy land.

I don't have a huge readership but I know there are some regular readers who don't comment as well as those who feel moved enough to make a comment. I love hearing from you.

Sooooooo....

Please leave a comment telling us all about your most favourite Christmas present and why you loved it. In a week I will pick the one I like best and send you a wee Christmas pressie for your tree. (see, it is made of little people holding hands??? ohhhh)You can leave a comment with out being a blogger, just go anonymous and then we can hook up later.

Really looking forward to hearing from you all...Love Sally

Social 2#

So, how has it been? Thanks for asking Jus. I have been trying to summons the strength to write about it. Like you I am fairly knacked. I have to admit out loud that I piked on a few things. Oh the shame...

Tuesday lunch, very fun and delicious and post upholstery class drink, very nice. Will post a picture of the chair sometime soon.

Wednesday - Party at Jasmax...very fun!! Had a great time, so great that I was late for my next bit and had to sprint down there without changing and also without my wallet that I had inadvertently left at home. Still, financially bailed out by Alex, I enjoyed the evening. Picked up a few books too. Lovely people.

Thursday - Bishopdale breakfast, Very pleasant. Sadly after a full on day at work, I piked for drinks outside at the Dux. Shame.

Then on Friday I piked for an early breakfast for Khrys but did catch up with her in the afternoon. Friday farewell drinks didn't happen either... got caught up at the pub with the people I was meeting with in the afternoon then had to get into work to pick up stuff for AFFIRM the next day and then Jasmine was in town. Shattered by then.

Saturday....a stunning morning at AFFIRM and then afternoon shopping and cooking for Lesley's birthday. Great night, a groaning amount of moreish food and bubbles.

Wayne taking an amazing amount of care in his drawing of what he would like to see in his Aranui library Our first photo wall contributor A photo wall close up. Very proud of this. Gorgeous Clare with the wheelbarrow of books

Saturday - The children at the birthday party. Of all the photos these are the only publishable ones. Not one adult managed to smile nicely for the camera. Love these little faces.

Sunday night was a repeat as we needed to get through the leftovers. OH DEAR GOD!! Seriously, I put on 1kg last week. Sunday - The gingerbread house (on Acid) I made with Nic, Olivia and Ben

Today! 12 stunning cupcakes courtesy of a supplier. Made by Cup Cake Parlour...the box looked exactly like this. I couldn't resist. It is just all too much, in a very good way. Heading for a lie down soon. More little gatherings are materialising and I know I am going to explode.

Sorry about the GIANT post but the next is my 300th and I want to save it for something.

Social

I am a social person, I roam the halls at work chatting to people as I head for the loo or the staffroom. I do lunch, coffee, drinks after work and enjoy being interrupted by a phone call. Before Jonty I was VERY VERY VERY social, after Jonty but before Nicholas I was just social, since Nicholas I am not social at all outside the hours of work. It is the biggest thing that has changed in my life, time to socialise. So, it is with a modicum of sadness that I am sharing the extent of my Christmas socialising plans. My entire Christmas social calendar takes place in ONE WEEK!! For some reason my Christmas fun is squeezed into one little week.

Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming and I could organise a wide range of things myself to ensure my early December activity does actually link to Christmas. I am very grateful to have the following social events to attend next week. Sadly they are all, but a few, work related which tells me I need to sort my life out and start heading out at night and being a part of the world outside my work Saddo.

Fortunately I work with a wide range of lovely and engaging people so each one of my work related activities will be interesting and enjoyable...

Tuesday

• Lunch with lovely Viv our most recent interior designer. Will be an enjoyable interlude
• After Upholstery class...the last ever! We are off to the Fox n Ferrit for a pint. Jonty is kindly taking the night of work to facilitate that. Much appreciated.

Wednesday

• Early evening Jasmax Architects 1st Birthday roof party. Not sure how this will go but I am guessing it will be friendly and stylish
• Later evening Book group Christmas outing to the Crumpet Club. Will be loud and fun. Can't wait.

Thursday

• Early breakfast with the Bishopdale library team before we deliver a 'Roadshow' to them. Will be very nice. Great team, generous invitation
• Early evening drinks and chat at the Dux De Lux with Aoraki LIANZA peeps. Not sure who is going but should be ok. Nice to sit outside in the evening sun if the weather behaves

Friday

• Early breakfast farewell for Khrys at Upper Riccarton library - retiring to Hokitika. That will be fun. Also an opportunity to check out how the re-laying of the tiles in the library is going.
• Early evening - farewell to Lovely Elizabeth a colleague whom I appointed some years ago who is feeling the pull of her homeland and heading back to the States. One of my most favourite appointments. I will be the Nana who leaves early as I know this evening could get very messy and I am not really comfortable losing my composure at a work related function.
• Jasmine is also coming to town that night.

Saturday

• Morning - not strictly social but a day spent at the AFFIRM festival in Aranui doing some pre-new library- schmoozing with the locals
• Night Lesley's 50th birthday party. This will be fun and the food will be delicious.

And that is it. I am sure more personal non-work activity will crank up but I think others are far more busy than I and have much more exciting and flash dos to go to. Might do a report back later. Actually I think we forgot to go to a cricket club social last night. Obviously we need to do some calendar work and get our act together.

So, what is everyone else doing to celebrate in December?

Fa la la la la

Boxing Day has dawned cold and grey pretty much like yesterday. Nothing like crappy weather to slice a little of the Christmas cheer away. Yesterday had all the ingredients of a fine Christmas - family, friends, presents and lovely food. I was a tiny bit disconnected as I had reignited my old back injury on Christmas Eve (putting towels in the linen cupboard), so was in pretty bad pain all day and found it hard to relax and enjoy myself. The good thing was that I had to keep active so ended up co-ordinating the present distribution, table setting (in part), dishes and dessert preparation etc. Nice for my mother to have a bit of a break as she has taken on her hosting duties with great energy and commitment. Had a great conversation with Louisa in the morning a chat with Karen and Anna and a visit from Alex, Oliver and Joseph, a family lunch then Marie-Anne and Martin for a delicious light evening meal. Dad had given me some pain killers for my back and although they dulled the pain it wasn't until MA doled out some more heavy duty jobs did I find any relief. Shame it kicked in about 9.30pm. Still a bit sore today but will be up at the chemist getting some more little white pills today. Aaaaah the relief. This is going to be a giant post so grab a coffee...

FOOD

This is the delicious green bean and feta salad I made for Christmas lunch. I used a citrus dressing for the warm beans then left them to cool. I crisped up the panchetta and sprinkled that along with the other ingredients and left it to rest. Other food delights of the day included bbq spit roast turkey. NOTHING beats this. Dad used the Jamie Oliver method of carving and the result was superb. My mother's Christmas pudding is by far the most delicious on the planet. It is an old family recipe that it is best not to know what is in it....a heart attack on a plate. Fresh new potatoes loving grown by my father....later used for an evening potato salad. YUM!

PRESENTS Nic and Ben received the presents of the day. My dad had made the both the most gorgeous treasure chests out of wood, leather, copper and whole lot of other stuff. Inside each one was an eye patch, chocolate money and other treasure, pirate hats and stickers and an 'x' marks the spot cloth. These photos don't do them justice but they really were gorgeous. Other good presents of the day for us included my new MP3 player, with tonnes of features my new slimline Samsung T10 is gorgeous. I loaded up a whole of stuff last night and spent an hour with my eyes closed on the sofa listening to 'my friends', long lost after leaving my last MP3 player on a plane in September (I hope the bastard who took it has choked on the headphone cord). I took a few risks this year buying three of my friends some art and decorative art. Instead of playing safe I thought I would try something different and loved doing that. I hope they loved what I did too. There are too many other things to describe without making this into the longest blog post in history.
PEOPLE Here are some shots from the day. My mother at the head of the table, relaxed and happy...

Having been up since 5.30, Nic was less than co-operative for the photos and this was one of the few printable ones from the day. He is still being a total s^&* as he just can't sleep in or take ONE minute out of his day to rest and revive, consequently today is proving to be very hard and it is only 9am!!

Delightful Olivia sharing some ballet moves and being a vision of serenity and happiness all day.

My dad wearing the very aptly labeled 'Grumpy Old Man' apron. Although he was the consummate host yesterday, bad table manners and wriggly children are not his bag.Three gorgeous boys at the beginning of the day. Oliver, Nicholas and Joseph looking very cool on the sofa.What an angelic pose from Ben. Amazingly for a three year old he kept that white shirt white all day. Yay Ben. Didn't eat his lunch though but there you go...well just the chipolata which he tried out in his eye first...

Finally a few pics from around the house. This is the embarrassingly sad Christmas tree especially for Louisa who needs a laugh. Having red walls in our lounge is really just a year long Christmas decoration waiting for some bling.

The mantelpiece in the dinning room with a few of the lovely red cards we got this year

Right, I need to get on as we are having Jonty's family over for turkey and trimmings tonight so I need to get the dishes done and start planning the menu...a bit behind myself today but it should be pretty easy with excessive amounts of food in the fridge and pantry. I hope everyone had the Christmas day they desired. Love Sally