Heaps of Heaps

We have just waved good-bye to the Berowra Heaps. We had such a lovely time with them, though we missed Marlee. The kids played together really well. It has been disgustingly hot, the kind of weather that makes me really want to move to England. I was whinging after church yesterday (I know how annoying it is, but heat brings out the worst in me!) and a friend said that it would be wet and miserable in England, but I was wet and miserable after sitting in an un-air-conditioned church all morning! At least it isn't humid, and while evaporative cooling doesn't quite deliver the results of refrigerative air-conditioning when it is 40 degrees, it does keep you cool if you don't exert yourself too much.

We went to the Junee Pool on Saturday morning and I was very sorry that I forgot my camera because everyone was having so much fun. I had decided not to swim, I would really rather just have a cool shower if I am hot, but I did regret it slightly as it was very hot if you weren't in the pool. I sat and half watched the kids/half read Jane Eyre. After having seen the latest BBC version of Jane Eyre I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING the book. In the afternoon we went to the Andersons' at The Rock. There were lots of people, the kids had a ball and we had a lovely BBQ. This is the girls playing under the Christmas tree.





And one where Alannah's head isn't a tree.



Having packed rather too much into Saturday we decided to have a quiet day yesterday. Waffle came to church and did the kids talk with Andrew. It was really great, even if Mal isn't Elmo! After some intense wiiing, the girls had some very girly time. We made jewellery and put make-up on. Bethany was in her room not sleeping very noisily during the beading, but she joined in for the make-up.

I planned our menu when the weather was much cooler so I ended up putting the oven on hot and making dinner from my new Nigella Express (thanks P & K, I love it!). We had brandied-bacony roast chickens and potato and mushroom gratin. I gave the kids ice-cream in a cone and got them all ready for bed before we had Eton mess of which we all had seconds! At least I had planned a summer dessert. Mim was over for dinner and afterwards we played Spicks and Specks. It turns out that singing a song you know, using a book off the shelf for lyrics is a very difficult thing to do. Which makes it so very amusing to watch and listen to - Mim almost wet her pants! I don't have a picture of that. Instead, I will leave you with pictures we took this morning. So many great faces...

Smiles


Silly

How big can you open your mouth?

Sad

Very happy

Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

Kissing

Mal, Alannah and Jordy are arriving this afternoon and we have been counting down the sleeps! Jossie and Alannah and Toby and Jordy will be having slumber parties every night, the grown-ups can play the Spicks and Specks interactive quiz and watch The Long Way Down (it feels so good to be back with Charley and Ewan) and we can all go bowling and play tennis and whatever else is available to play on the wii. We could, of course, go outside but it is terribly hot, and there are insects... and rodents (Pippy came home for a visit).

I have some chocolate banana bread in the oven (from Nigella's How to be a domestic goddess - I highly recommend it, even when you have to leave out the rum-soaked sultanas because several family members don't like them) and Toby chatted to me while I made it. He was telling me how he and Jossie connect their Tamogotchis and they go on honeymoons even though they aren't married. I told him that you really need to be married to go on a honeymoon because that's what a honeymoon is, a holiday you go on just after you get married. He wasn't convinced but he told me about how he and Ella F(with three Ellas in a class they all had to have an initial) were talking about marry (that's how he said it). As it happens, Thomas wants to marry Matilda but Toby and Ella F don't want to get married because Miss Shipard (their teacher) isn't married. Also, you have to kiss. Toby is not at all keen on that and checked that kids aren't ever required to get married. After making sure that he was not going to have to kiss anyone he said that when Thomas and Matilda get married, if they are in a kissing mood, they can kiss all the time, and he giggled.

This is he and Jossie doing a wii bit of boxing, which, surely, is the opposite of kissing.

Christmas Day

It was a bit sad not having Christmas with the whole family, there was something, or some people, missing, but we actually had a lovely day. After all the late nights it was a challenge to get to church by nine, but we made it and were thankful we did. Andrew did a great kids' talk and he played piano while Christina sang my favourite carol, O Holy Night.

Much of the day was taken up with a very demanding present. I am completely rubbish at tennis but OK at bowling. The rest of the family all beat me at bowling, but at least I get a much higher score than I ever have at real bowling.

Bethany is not into the wii but was very taken with her rocket launcher. Actually, we were all thrilled with all of our presents, it was a very good haul!




Now back to the wii (it is exercise you know).

Christmas Eve

It has been really cool here during the last few days. We haven't had the air-conditioning on at all, so it has been a great time to play outside and do a few things in the garden - not too much ,of course, there are still flies to contend with. At the beginning of winter we planted this ornamental grape and now it is all the way up and two thirds of the way over! I think we can probably get rid of the protective barrier now as our rabbit, Pippy, has grown up and left home. That isn't a euphemism, she has just moved into the neighbourhood in general. Wanderlust I suppose...

The veggie garden is going mad. The problem is I really only have one good spinach recipe (I do know that it is actually silverbeet) and we can't eat spinach and feta pie all the time. What else can I do with it? The tomatoes have also started to ripen. Maybe I should get in soon and make fried green tomatoes and cornbread. It is such a shame Janice isn't really in a position to travel (baby due in just weeks) because we used to make that together. Once, when I was working at a duty free shop in Sydney, Janice brought a gas burner into town and she made fried green tomatoes for us at Circular Quay....we got some funny looks!

These are our quails, Molly and Arthur. Molly is sitting on eggs. Sadly, she has been sitting on these eggs for months now so I don't think they are going to hatch. Does she know? Should we take them away? Especially sad seeing as the Molly and Arthur they are named after have seven children.



It is quite strange having Christmas at home with no visitors. We have still done Christmassy things. Last night, after watching Wind in the Willows (sweet and funny) Andrew took Joss and Tobes on a drive around town to look at the Christmas lights. It is very lucky that I am on holidays really, because it gets dark so late that the children don't get to bed until after 10. Carols in the Domain finished at 11! A Southern Hemisphere problem. It probably gets dark at 4.30 in England! This is Bethany eating our new favourite Christmas treat. It is a magical elf with little bits that explode in your mouth. Toby is doing his maths book.....I hope he doesn't grow out of that.


Merry Christmas everyone!

Community

I did some university marking this last semester, for the course that I finished last year. The subject was IT in libraries and in the first assignment the students had to create a blog. One student had a little rant on hers about how horrifying it was to see bloggers pouring their hearts out to people they don't know, and how she hoped they had real friends and colleagues to share with. I told her that if she couldn't see online interactions as real, she would have trouble providing real library services to people online.

Over the past year and a half, though you haven't heard my voice online, I have experienced the power of blogs to provide real community in a global environment. Through Tim's blog I was introduced to Tricia's and through her's came to read Ellie's. Ellie is a little girl around Jossie's age who has been fighting cancer for the last year and a half and hundreds of people, all over the world, have taken the journey with her thanks to her mother Sarah. Sarah shared their lives with us and I know that I am a better person because of it. Sarah has had to depend totally on God through this traumatic time and her faith, as well as her witness to God's perfect faithfulness, has strengthened my own. In return Sarah has really appreciated the support and prayers of people she has never met. Ellie lost her battle on Wednesday night and has gone home. Though I am happy for Ellie, I am devastated for the family and have shed so many tears. I want to say to myself that I shouldn't be so upset, that I don't really know these people, but that isn't true. I have come to love them as part of my family, and we are family in Christ. I may never meet them but I will continue to pray for them as they live their lives without Ellie.

And so I am back online. I can see the value of sharing my life with people I don't get to see day to day. We don't have any family here in Wagga so this really is a great way of letting them know what we are up to.

Below is our Christmas tree. We always had a real tree when I was growing up and I love the smell of a real tree. This one, however, can be put up on the first of December, comes with built-in lights(!), and doesn't make a mess. It has too many presents underneath it already. Bethany has left them alone, which surprises me. Jossie and Toby, however, have read the tags so often that the wrapping paper is starting to get a bit stressed. No touching from now on!

Today Toby has a friend over. He was meant to come over on Wednesday but threw up in the car on the way over - thanks Liam for not doing it when you got here! So they are at the Junee pool now having a swim and when they get home I'm sure they'll spend the rest of the day playing the gameboy like they did first thing. I have thirteen days off in a row! Pretty good considering I have only had to take three days leave - public libraries rock! But I'll tell you all about that another day...

The Nutcracker

Hello all, its Amy here. It has been years, literally, since I posted so I won't bother with any sort of catching up effort but just pretend that I have been consistently blogging all along. Thanks Tim for asking me to do that Christmassy question thing. I'm not actually going to do it, but at least it got me posting!

We went to Sydney on the weekend for the long anticipated, super special, going to the Nutcracker with Uncle Tim and Aunty Shona evening. I was a little bit nervous that it wouldn't meet expectations, but I needn't have been. Tim and Shona had thought of everything and, as you can see from all their faces, it was so exciting. (I can't make the photos go where I want them to, please excuse the odd format.)

Tim wanted Joss to have something for dinner that she wouldn't have eaten before...... so they had emu pizza. When the pizzas came Joss lost her nerve and went for the tandoori chicken, but she did eat a piece of emu! (It doesn't taste like chicken, more like beef). Shona had a new dress on and looked beautiful. Mum had bought Jossie's new dress too so she felt like a princess. The ballet was spectacular with wonderful costumes and Tim had Haig's chocolate frogs for Joss to eat at intermission. It was, as far as she was concerned, a perfect evening.


Having done that quick trip to Sydney I am thankful that we are staying home for Christmas this year. I will miss the family but definitely not the driving. The other photo, which I would insert here if I knew how, is of the cute cousins who won't be seeing each other at Christmas. I really think everyone should consider moving to Wagga.