Christmas Lunch

We had a very enjoyable Christmas Lunch. We ate about 3pm and had the missionary elders from our church over for to eat with us. We had roast lamb, turkey and ham, potato salad, tomato mozzarella salad, beans, and char grilled veggies for lunch. Followed by the traditional Christmas Pudding with the coins for desert. We didn't even get out the rocky road and apricot fruit balls but tucked into those later. The two missionaries we have in our ward at the moment are a great pair. One is from Tassie and a real Aussie- he taught Lachlan and I to crack the whip after lunch. The other elder is from Boston in the US, his family has Monkey Bread at Christmas time so I found a recipe and attempted to make that for him. They normally have it for breakfast, we ended up having it with desert and giving him the rest to take home. It was very yummy and something we will make again- sugar, bread, cinnamon and butter!

Christmas Morning

Had a leisurely Christmas morning- Lachlan gave us permission to wake him at 10:30am so it was around 11am before we opened our presents, as you can see we had the dogs to help us!

A Very Doggy Christmas

Amy picked up a job dog sitting two dogs over Christmas for week- Jubi and Wrinks. I am not sure who has enjoyed the dogs more- Bill or Amy. As you can see by the above photo they have had no trouble settling in! I must admit I was not particularly looking forward to having 4 dogs running around the house but they have really been no trouble at all and have been a real part of our family over the last few days. Bill and Amy have been coming up with numerous plans of getting out of giving the dogs back to their owners-like "Sorry there was a storm last night and they all ran away" or "Kennel fees have gone up to $2000 if you want your dogs back"

Christmas Eve

Twas the day before Christmas so what did I do? Last minute Christmas shopping- no, last minute Christmas cooking- of course not- ride my bike- of course! The Sue Frost Philosphy of " live to eat, ride to eat" came in to play!

Now, a few people out there already think I am mad and this will probably just confirm it, but on Christmas Eve I drove out with a couple of my female cycling buddies to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. We parked our cars, got out our bikes and then road up to Corin Forest where as you can see from the photos it was a bit cool and foggy- 10 degrees actually. Then we rode down to the dam which was 100 percent full. Last year it was 38% full and the year before 8%. We then had to ride back up again. In total 25km of climbing! We then headed back towards the Nature Reserve but had to ride in and out to the tracking station (another 12km and more hills) before heading back to our cars having ridden 68km. What did I do the rest of Christmas Eve- slept and read my book- I was a bit tired!

Hydro Dog Visits

Benji is the most excited when the Hydro Dog lady pays us a visit. Clancy is not all that thrilled. He is the one that gets to have a clip, a bath, and his ears cleaned out. He always smells lovely after his bath and always looks very skinny after he has been clipped but it keeps him cool for the summer and it soon grows back. Benji just charges around and loves the excitment of something different happening and he knows he usually gets a treat from the Hydro Dog lady just for being there!

Amy's New Drink Bottle

Amy has acquired a new water bottle- it is filled with water - or so she tells me. One can only hope!

Amy's Birthday

Amy is about to turn 17 around 10:30pm tonight! She celebrated her birthday by having a party at Zone 3 with some of her friends. They used to go there when they were younger, have not been there for about 3 or 4 years now. They put on these laser packs and run around and shoot each other. The first time Amy ever played she did okay, the second time she beat her brother Lachlan and her uncle Simon and has never been beaten since. I was wondering if after not playing for 4 years she might lose her unbeaten record- but she didn't - beat him yet again!

They had a great time, I managed to lose the candles so we had matches on her mango cheesecake instead!

I could have killed Amy when she woke me up at 12:15am to tell me she was 17 and I could wish her a happy birthday- that was not what I was wishing her at 12:15am!

Christmas has Arrived

Christmas is nearly here and I have put up the Christmas Tree- this year I did get some help from Amy so that was nice. Bill just stays out the way and is a bit of a Christmas Humbug but we just ignore him! I love putting up my little Christmas Elves that wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I cannot get away with not putting up the Advent Calendar- even the teenagers are not to big for that. I brought the panel from Spotlight a number of years ago and managed to sew it together. The kids like it because we can buy the chocolates we like to put in it. Funny they never need reminding to get their chocolate out of the Advent Calendar and I guess they would let me know about it if I didn't put it up!

More Rain In Canberra

On Wednesday night we had another massive thunderstorm and 90 mm of rain fell around Tuggeranong. Our rain gauge was full at about 45mm and overflowed. Reports vary from 50 to 78mm aroung Gordon so not sure what we actually got. I went for a walk on Thursday morning to Pt Hut Crossing. It was closed yet again and the Murrimbidgee was very full, water flowing right over the top of the road, you could not see any evidence of the road underneath at all. There is so much water flowing everywhere!

Bill's Birthday

It was Bill's birthday this week, so we had a birthday dinner. The kids got him some goodies from Darrell Lea as well as a selection of coffee, soap, biscuits and shampoo from the motel they work at. They know how much he loves soap from motels as he always wraps the half used soap in toilet paper and tries to bring it home if we don't catch him at it!

Picking Raspberries and Logan Berries

Picked my first bowl of loganberries and raspberries this week. Very yummy. Some of them are a bit waterlogged because of all the rain we have had this year!

Black and White Masquerade Cruise

One of Amy's friends had a cruise on Lake Burley Griffin for her birthday. They all had a great time. They had to wear black and white and a mask! It was a bit of a soggy night though with all the rain we have been having. We were beginning to wonder if the boat could have picked her up from the front door!

Work Christmas Party

Had our work Christmas dinner on Friday night. Had a lovely meal at "A Bite to Eat at Chifley. Antipasto plates, Roast Turkey, Roast Pork, Platters of baby carrots, squash and brocolini, couscous salad and Christmas pudding and ice cream for desert. My secret Santa present was a bag full of chocolates and lollies starting with S- someone must have know I can't resist the lolly jar at work!

The Big Wet in Canberra!

We have had a week of rain with rain, showers and thunderstorms every day from last Sunday to Saturday. Even this afternoon it looks like another thunderstorm is brewing! Thursday night or Friday morning we had one very scared Clancy on the bed next to us when the thunderstorm struck- I did not get much sleep that night! The dams are now 100% full, lots of roads were closed and Pt Hut Crossing where I took these photos was also closed for a couple of days with the Murrumbidgee flowing very swiftly!