Hope everyone had a good Christmas and survived the frustration of all those darned twisted wire bits that hold toys captive in their boxes!! at the risk of sounding ancient...they didn't need all that in my day!!! lol!

Had a fun xmas day at our place hanging out with my Mum and Dad and enjoying a relaxing walk round the lake after lunch...

Looking forward to the New Year now...have our bottle of champagne fraise ( had to try it of course!!) chilling ready to share with my partner in crime on our back deck under the stars...

have flashed up the blog a wee bit with the new settings on blogger, looks better....even had fun playing with a new pic of me...not that you can see all the fancy bits cause its so blinkin small rofl!! here it is ...




If you have littlies to entertain over the holidays check out this cool kids activity site for fun things to do...I've got my eye on making one of those sock monkey's....for no reason whatsoever except its CUTE and I want one and maybe even get the boys making themselves one too!

Have a good NY's and stay safe!

A big MERRY CHRISTMAS to those who take the time to read my little slice of blogdom!

Some pics from today...berries and cherries...sweet juicy summer fruits = christmas to me and I had fun introducing the boys to the delights of chocolate truffle making or reindeer poo...hilarious to small boys...thanks Rae lol!

Things I remember from childhood christmas food....Mums huge hams complete with pineapple rings and cloves which would last for weeks after and the homemade chocolate truffles and strawberries doused in icing sugar...these were such a treat!! No roasts or ham these days...tomorrow we will be dining on barbequed chilli and lime prawns...and basil pesto chicken with cherry tomatos roasted in foil on the barbie...followed by mums wonderful rasberry marshmallow pud!

Announcement to those who took down the Kiwi cocktail recipe I blogged the other day...add lemonade too!!!! Sorry lol!!! forgot this bit...not sure your cocktail will be so fabulous without this ingredient.....!

We cleaned the house from top to bottom this afo...probably not everybodies idea of fun on Christmas Eve....but it feels sooooo goood knowing we have a headstart on the mess that will ensue tomorrow lol!

If you have checked out the NZdare site recently you may have seen I have been asked to be a contributer....what a cool christmas suprise that was...thanks a bunch Lianne and the Kiwi dare girls...looking forward to adding my inspiration to the melting pot! Check out Lesley and Liannes totally gorgeous christmas layouts....

I mentioned to Jim last night how cool it was for kids of this day and age of digital cameras to have all their achievements recorded and he replied 'yep imagine Joseph showing his girlfriend his childhood pics...'heres me picking my nose, me scratching my bum, me hiding from mum so she dosn't photograph me....' rofl .....anyway here he is at last nights evening assembly nearly finished his first year at school, receiving the class certificate for fantastic work in all subjects while his very proud Mum and Dad watched from the sidelines....and took photos!

Here are my first pages for Janines twelve days of christmas challenge. As you can see it is all about the Christmas tree...I have used an envelope on the left side which is for holding cards with written memories on them...I have started with some childhood christmas tree memories from myself and DH and plan on adding thoughts from the boys about what their favourite thing is about our christmas tree this year...on the other side in a pocket are the star decorations I made for the boys which I will give to them on Christmas Eve to hang on the tree! So cool to see this little book shaping up....onto favourite Christmas recipes next!

Talking about trees...I guess you could call me a tree hugger...I love them, they seem so strong and serene....my idea of Heaven is to sit in the shade of a beautiful tree and watch the world go by...my worst moment last year was watching my
beautiful Japenese Acer being ripped
out when added the extension to the
house...I have since aquired TWO new maples in my Japenese garden to make up for it lol!
and I just love the glory of the Pohutakawa during Summer trips to the coromandel.....anyway the point is when we moved into our house 7 years ago we planted an olive tree and have watched it grow and its trunk grow thick and strong...the ticket said it would mature and set fruit in 7 years and every year it would blossom and the tiny spikes of flowers would fall off....only this year they havn't fallen! I am so excited we are going to have olives this year!! I have no idea when to pick them let alone how to preserve them so need to do some research!

Two weeks until Christmas so we put the tree up in the weekend much to the boys delight and yay, Samuel although intrigued hasn't destroyed it like we thought he might! He gently touches the lights but thats it...

... and he has got a new face....all of a sudden out of the blue....it is the funniest thing I have ever seen and it never fails to make me laugh out loud...it starts off with him jutting out his bottom jaw in a real staunch way then all of a sudden he pushes his lips out...will have to try and catch it on camera...

Had a good night out for Jims christmas work do and spent most of Saturday recovering....thank goodness nights out are few and far between these days lol!

Hopefully we have some weather like today on the 25th...a breath of Summer...Jim and I have concocted a scrummy Kiwi Christmas Cocktail to have pre-lunch this year....

a tall glass with ice
a slosh of gin
a good dollop of feijoa smoothie (found amongst the fresh juices at Countdown)
and a dash of kiwifruit juice (found next to the keri and justjuice juices at Countdown)
Mix well

Delish! Should get Mum and Dad and Nana Jean in the christmas spirit mwah ha ha!

A packed week ahead with Kindy Christmas party, Athletics Christmas party and Josephs evening School Assembly and Playcentre Christmas party on Sunday....just party, party party this time of the year lol! Jims little red car will be transporting Mrs Claus which should be a camera moment....

Ok so here is what was keeping me from folding the washing mountain this afo ha ha!! These are christmas decorations to be included in a pocket on the christmas tree page for my boys to hang on the tree and they'll go back in when the tree is taken down.

This is the current state of my (and my poor husbands!) bedroom floor at the minute after such creative effort...I've made such a mess on my desk I had to abandon ship and move to the floor mwah ha ha!!


This is Patrick and Samuel at playcentre today....what a hardcase pair!!

Hooray I'm out of the starting blocks at last with Janines twelve days of christmas daily challenges based around the NZ version of the twelve days of christmas verse...although strictly speaking I havn't done day one yet lol!

Being the sort of person I am I always have to start at the very beginning and have created a cover and inside page first!!...now onto my first page!! Found it too exhausting trying to sort out and find!! actual photos so decided to create a sort of 'Merry Christmas' handbook for the boys which will be like a guide to creating magic at Christmas time....watch this space for more...