Rest of 2025

 

It has been a busy December. After we got back from Melbourne we had Bill's Men Kitchen Christmas Party. The instructors were putting on the lunch, it was lovely, Amy we came with us and we had a lovely time and nice to meet Bill's fellow Men Kitchen people.

It was a lovely meal; we were very full by the end of the meal.

This is the metal tree sculpture "Forever Free" that I bought at Juet at Sassafras. I used some of the money I got from mum so I could remember her. Mum loved being in the garden so thought it was a fitting tribute. Obviously, the birds did too!

Then we had Bill's 70th birthday celebration. We had it at our local cafe- Little Luxton, but as it was 38 degrees we retreated into the air-conditioned community room. Nate, the owner of Little Luxton was great, he came down and took drink orders and brought them down- he was such a great help. Love our Little Luxton Cafe and how it has contributed to our community,

Bill enjoyed the day and had a great time.

 Bill and I went and did a volunteer shift on the Giving Machine at the Canberra- finally felt like I was getting into the Christmas spirit.

 Christmas Day, we joined Abby, Lachlan and her family out at their property at Bowning. We were made so welcome and had a lovely time. We meet Abby's extended family and ate way too much! It was a great day but a long one, glad to get home and relax.

Then the following day- Boxing Day we went to Bindi's for Christmas Lunch. Mia and Noah spent Christmas Day at the Stuarts so it was Bindi's for Boxing Day. We had such a nice time with them, Amy was very excited about having 2 Christmas lunches. Last year she was really sick and was having great trouble eating-so this year was different.

Charlie made a cheese ball bread roll cake- delicious!

Dessert was a very delicious trifle and raspberry and a Malteser ice-cream cake. We played Holiday Bingo; Bill had us in stitches as he tried to read the bingo cards with his reading glasses that don't appear to work particularly well- it hurt my stomach with all the laughing. We also played Roach Poker, it was a fun day.

Mia's Wedding

 

We had Mia's wedding on Saturday 29th November 2025. They had the temple sealing at the Melbourne Temple- it was a simple ceremony and so nice and uncomplicated. It had rained all night and was raining when I set off to the temple but by the time they came out the rain stopped and stayed away for the rest of the day.

Charlie, Mai, Noah and Bindi

Micheal and Emma Stuart with Mia and Noah

Lovely photo of Charlie

We then headed up to Lyre Bird Falls in the Dandenong's for the reception. It was such a lovely setting, and it was the same venue for Bindi and Simon's wedding. Mia also wore Bindi's wedding dress. The weather was very cool- top of 16 degrees. The food was great, lots of lovely drinks, company and setting. Great opportunity for family photos.

All the Mamouney cousins except for Josh (in Amsterdam) and Nicky (in London)

Me, Amy, Lachlan and Abby ( 6 months pregnant)

Amy and I with Ron and Louise Vinck

Amy and I

Amy and Abby and I

With my 3 brothers

Abby and Lachlan

Lousie and I

Amy and I relaxing at the Vinck's with Rosie and Lucky

We love staying with them, we both feel so at home.

Another Week in Melbourne

 Amy and I headed back down to Melbourne for Mia's wedding. We left on the Tuesday and drove to Euroa where we stayed the night- we had to be at the Windsor for Mia's High Tea lunch in the lead up to the wedding.

We had a lovely time, lots of lovely food!

Mia and Utopia

Bindi and Tammy

We were very full after our lunch; we then checked into our rooms as we were staying the night at the Windsor. Amy had a sleep, I went for a wander then we had to meet for dinner at 5:30pm at the Farmer's Daughter for dinner- it was lovely, but I was so full from lunch so could only order a small meal- will have to go back another time.

After dinner we hung out in Mia and Tammy's room for a bit before heading to bed.

Thursday morning, I went for walk around the city, it was lovely to wander the streets of Melbourne, check out the Christmas decorations and the alleys and laneways of Melbourne

Checked out the Myer windows- had a lego theme this year

Always love the Hopeton Tea Rooms- one of these days I will have to eat there!

I ran into Bindi at the Myer Windows, so we wandered the laneways together- we came across Mork's so had a very yummy cinnamon/cardamon bun and a hot chocolate.

Amy and I ubered back to Steph's place where we had left the van. We had driven down in Bill's van as we were bringing down one of Amy's plant cabinets for Steph and returning with the tree sculpture from Sassafras that I had bought on our last trip down. It worked out well, we could park the van in Steph's car parking space, that meant it was safe and locked up. It was a short trip to the Windsor. We then headed out to Ron and Louise's where we were staying while we went to Mia wedding.

Amy had headed back to stay with Steph on the Thursday night as they had plans for the Friday. Louise and I headed to the temple for a session, we met Bindi there, then we headed up to the Yarra Valley Chocolatier for lunch, we had a lovely day.