Christmas Day at our house

I said I was going to take a week off from blogging but we had such an enjoyable Christmas Day that I couldn't resist sharing it with you all.

Hubby went to Christmas Mass while I set up for Breakfast. For the last couple of years, we have started the day with a healthy breakfast and hopefully avoiding too many chocolates before lunch.

 After Breakfast, it is time to gather in the living room for gift giving, lots of hugs and kisses and present opening.

this is my much anticipated gift from Red. Sam from The Wanderers and The Wolves had us out for photo shoots on two weekends and it was so much fun.  The results are stunning. Go and visit her web site here and look for the other photo's of Callie and Lila (Clover as well)

When we had all unwrapped our presents and oohed and aahed over everything, it was time to pay some attention to the doggies.

Patiently awaiting the surprise

the bags contained a doggie treat, a tennis ball and a big chew bone....look what they were only interested in!

By this time it was time to prepare the lunch. 

This year it has become a family affair with hubby getting the two boys to join him in shelling the 2kgs of prawns (enjoy the rare view of my boys!)

hubby organises and prepares all the seafood including these devine Tasmanian Lobsters......oh so yum! No hot Christmas dinner of turkey or ham for us....hey, the A/C was turned on at 8am!!

Miss M and I were busy preparing the salads and the rest of the meal as well as setting the table fit for this feast.

close to 5L of Sangria, seafood and salads

oh yummy, yummy.........positively mouthwatering!

After lunch when most people head off for a nap, we watched a movie.  Hubby is not a movie buff so he occupied himself cleaning up after lunch (bonus Xmas present for me!). Two hours is long enough to make room for the pudding. This is the only traditional part of our day and steamed plum pudding with custard is a must.

normally I pop a gold chocolate coin ontop of the pudding but I forgot to get them this year. No fear, plenty of other chocolates floating around.

Talking about floating around...4pm means that conditions are just right for splashing in the pool.  The dogs love this and Callie came for a swim too.  Lila slipped and "accidently" went for a swim while Clover very cleverly avoided going too close to the edge. Ted had left by this time for another engagement so hubby, Miss M, Red and I took the dogs for a walk down to the river (takes us about an hour) to work off all that food and alcohol consumed. It was thirsty work so on our return home we had a cup of tea with a mince pie. Well we tried to work off the excesses.

Christmas is my very favourite days of the year. I only wish I could spend it with more of those that I love most in this world.
 

Deck the Hall.....Big Time

Want to see some MORE Christmas Decorations? This time, on a larger scale.  Last month, we were in Melbourne for a family event and Miss M and I went a day early to explore the city.

Funny that we haven't seen our own city lights and decorations but experienced Melbourne. Unfortunately, I couldn't get close enough to the Myer Christmas Windows to take photos but I hope you enjoy these ones.

Tiffany and Co.

 I will have any one of those presents thanks Santa

Window of the Lindt Chocolate Shop

Christmas Bells above Bourke Street Mall

Drummer Boy guarding City Hall

Royal Arcade - Bourke Street

And here is Christmassy goodness we found in and around the Arcade:

This shop is full of Nesting Dolls and also sells Christmas Decorations

A group of reindeer in a shop window

Macaron Christmas Tree

how about a pair of these to wear on Christmas Day

or these if it is a little cooler in your part of the world! LOL

Actually Santa......Can I have these, Pleeeeeeeeze!

We really did have a good time, exploring Melbourne.  Maybe next year, I will make a special effort to visit my own city centre of Brisbane.

'Twas The Night before Christmas.....

...... and after spending all day at work wrapping presents non-stop for customers, you would think I could not bear to wrap another present! Well guess what? I spent all evening wrapping presents at home too. Not just presents from me to those I love, but my sons also dropped off  their presents to get wrapped.

these are Ted's presents for the family

The colour theme this year is Blue/Red/White with touches of silver.  I bought my wrapping paper (the best quality) last year at the sales and the crazy thing is that I forgot about the paper but somehow I still picked the colours for this year and the paper was just right.

I found this idea on Pinterest- instead of using tags, to use monograms.  My computer is not really up to the minute when it comes to programming so there was a bit of 'faffing' around but I am quite happy with how it looks

.

Sitting here, writing this post, I have just realised that I have forgotten a couple of presents from the back of my wardrobe.  Guess the wrapping isn't over yet.

 I didn't forget my work pals and made up these quick presents using votive holders from Ikea and filling with chocolates, Jaffas and mint leaves.  Looks so pretty......then all wrapped up in cellophane. Fortunately, I did this a few days ago.

I will be taking a week away from blogging so I will take this time to wish you all, my dear blogging friends, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

FNSI

Tonight I am joining in with Wendy from Sugerlane Quilts and many others for the FNSI. I certainly have to get stitching with only a few days left to get this quilt finished and make time to get some last minute Christmas Presents and all the food shopping for the day......thank goodness the hubby is cooking tea tonight!

So, I started this quilt back in 2011 for my son, Red, as he had bought himself a new queensize bed and I was planning to give it to him for Xmas. I bought the fabrics on my yearly Quilt Shop Hop.

Wishful thinking to think I would finish it by Christmas 2011 but in January 2012 I had high hopes it would definitely be done by Christmas 2012......Wrong.

Even though I had most of it pieced. It took me until January 2013 to finish the borders.......lack of space to lay it out was an issue and my excuse.

Fast forward to November 2013 and I got it loaded onto AVA for some quilting.  This was the second quilt that I finished on the big girl.

I did a meandering edge to edge with swirls every so often to create a woodgrain effect. I was really happy with how this turned out and the fact that I had already prepared all the binding.....phew! Just a case of sewing it on and now, this evening I am sewing it on by hand.

After 4 hours of stitching tonight, finally the binding is all sewn on and since it is officially now Saturday, I guess I should get some sleep.......will take a better photo of the whole quilt tomorrow...er..today!

A successful FNSI, I would say, and now I can wrap this one and put it under the xmas tree.


 

And I sent.....

Thursday was the day to open our Santa Sacks and I showed you what I got from Noela but for those of you not following Noela's blog, I thought I would show you what I sent to her. I didn't photograph everything so if you want to see it all, head over to Noela's Quilty bits from the Blue Room

You most likely already spotted the Santa Sack filled with presents from another post. I had no pattern for this, just told Miss M what I needed and she used a dinner plate for the base and put it together with a little know-how from me as I was using the other sewing machine next to her. I am so lucky to have such a clever little elf like Miss M.

 I bet you're all dying to know what was inside the sack!  Ta-da!

Only kidding.......

Firstly, you may remember that I was away in August and took awhile to get back into the swing of things around here. Because of this, I decided to make something non-sewing and sent Noela a framed picture of one of my manipulated original photos. Maybe you can see that it appears to be a watercolour. I also sent the *shopping bag shown here.

 Then I got some of my mojo back and got to work. I made these coasters and decided to make a table topper to go with them

 I packaged some *tea and *biscuits for Noela to enjoy with this gift. (not photographed)

Next was a cushion cover which I sent to keep her comfy while she writes in her 2014 *Diary with her new *pen

For the Christmas part of the swap I stitched a little wall hanging or table topper. This is the one that delayed my parcel getting off on time and I forgot to take a photo of it so I have borrowed one from Noela. 

 I also sent Noela this Chatelaine although I can't claim credit for making this one.  A lovely lady that I know through one of my sewing groups makes these and sells them at markets. I just popped in a pair of "blue" *scissors.

*In addition to the photographed items, I also sent Noela some tea and biscuits, fat quarters, embroidery threads, thread holder and a brooch which will hold her sewing glasses, a shopping bag, diary and pen, bath goodies and a washer. Oh, and the blue scissors.

When I saw what Noela had sent me, I was a little embarressed that I had not done enough ........strangely enough she sent me an email to say a similar thing....but she loved it all and I love what she sent!

Such a great swap