We had a great time hosting our family, especially Christmas Eve with Kate and the kids watching Carols By Candlelight, then watching their excitement on Christmas morning when they saw the presents under the tree and the snow that Santa left behind.
Mum and Dad came over a bit after 1, then Rob and Nic arrived at about 5 and we all tucked into a Christmas dinner of roast lamb, turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnip, peas, mint sauce made from mint grown in our garden, a nice 2000 Woodpark Cab Sav Shiraz from the cellar, then rhubarb and apple crumble, trifle and christmas pud for dessert after the kids had convinced us that presents must be opened between courses.
The weather was rainy (good for the garden) so although we managed to get to the beach for a quick walk on Boxing Day we spent the rest of the time indoors. That was OK though; the kids had a great time playing the organ, the new Playstation games and with their other presents.
Mum and Dad said it was the easiest Christmas in 36 years for them! Good. It was about time one of us assumed the mantle.
Some photos …
Mmmm … trifle.
Today we had a busy day getting things ready for Christmas. Safeway / butcher / fruit + veg shopping this morning (not too crowded down at Highton Village, luckily), then cleaning and tidying the house and garden, then some food prep. I started the trifle and also made a rhubarb, raspberry and apple crumble, and Jayne’s having a great time making some gingerbread men.
It’s nice to think that we have around 10 days of relaxing, eating and drinking with friends and family in front of us.
It’s as big as a 1kg block of Dairy Milk, but on the plus side it’ll be difficult to lose and it works both the TV and the DVD player. Cool.
Great birthday present from Rob, Nic, Hayden and Renae. Oh, and they also gave me a Traveljohn.
Just a short post to say that we’re really looking forward to hosting family and friends over the Christmas and New Years’ Eve weekends.
Kate and Matt and family are coming over on Christmas Eve, which means Christmas morning presents with Bailey, Olivia, Dayne and Hannah, and staying for a couple of days, which means beach-going, boating, golf and an extended play with the kids for us, and maybe a bit of pressure off Kate and Matt.
Rob, Nic, Hayden and Renae are coming over on Christmas Day and staying that night (maybe the next night too?), and Simon is also coming over that afternoon, we think, with Bec coming the next day.
Not sure about Mum and Dad though. Are you staying over?
Then over the NYE weekend we have at least Adrian & Nat, Matt, Jacqui and Oliver, John & Bec and Jed & Gita, with Jon, Hannah & Brittany, Iao, and Damian and Kate possibles but unconfirmed. Oh, and at least three dogs to keep Max company.
Looking forward to it.
I’ve just experienced first class vacuuming. Absolutely A1.
Peter and Christine left us their hoover. It might look like the one that Inspector Clouseau struggles with in The Return of the Pink Panther, and it must be close to 20 years old, but it makes short work of Max’s hair (lifting it from the carpet, that is – we don’t use it on him … but that’s an idea).
It even stripes the carpet like a lawnmower.
Officially it’s an Electrolux Z747.
From now on it’s the Jumbo.
P.S. That’s our Boony doll next to it. For scale purposes.
This “photo” effect looks nice, doesn’t it.
If I can be bothered, I might use it for pics on jayneandmarty.com from now on.
I’m a few days late with this post as P&C went home on Sunday afternoon. Anyway….
…we had a great time with Peter and Christine while they were here, and they certainly kept themselves busy, but from our perspective we just hope it was enough of a holiday for them: we whisked them up the Hume for four hours to Mulwala the day after they arrived, then they went to Tassie for a few days, retrieved a shipping container’s worth of their furniture and other boxed-up possessions, unpacked some of the boxes here when they came back (after wasting a day waiting for the truck to arrive with the container – only to find that it wasn’t theirs and it had to go back), helped us host the rest of Jayne’s family for a weekend, then finally had a few days to rest before heading back to WA.
Except that on those downtime days they didn’t rest. Peter took most of our balcony to bits and replaced the dodgy joists and rotten beams, as well as fixing up various other odd jobs around the house like tap washers, wonky doors and so on, while Christine got busy culling dead plants and undergrowth from our garden (a skip was required to take her clippings away), cleaning the house, and doing everyone’s washing and ironing. Even my undies saw the iron – it was like pulling out a brand new pair each time I got dressed.
We had some great meals where Peter cracked a couple of top wines from the secret collection (a ‘92 Penfolds Bin 407 was the pick of the bunch), our previously empty ballroom is now full of furniture including a cool old Thomas organ, we had a morning’s fishing on Corio Bay, and most importantly we all spent lots of time together.
We miss them already but with any luck they’ll be back for good sometime next year.
I handle our Google AdWords spending at work and was lucky enough to score an invite to Google Melbourne’s Christmas party on Thursday night. They’d booked us for joyflights around the Bay and over the CBD on Melbourne’s Gooney Bird, which is an ex-RAAF 1950s Douglas DC-3 that switched to civilian service in 1989.
^ That’s the view from the hangar at Essendon Airport, where we had drinks and nibbles before heading up for the flight. Here’s one of the other planes that was in the hangar – a WW2 fighter.
The plane’s interior had been refitted with Airbus seats and other comforts but you couldn’t escape the "lie-back" take-off. The plane points upwards when stationary (see first photo), and because the front wheels leave the ground first you can imagine the angle you’re at during take-off.
The flight was very relaxed, smooth and friendly. There was no door to the cockpit, so you could see it from all the seats, but we were all surprised (and happy) when the hostie said we were free to come right up to the cockpit to talk to the pilots and take photos.
I think that’s Williamstown.
There were two flights organised, but the second one had a few spare seats (the landing of the first flight was a real "bouncer" – we’re talking two seconds between wheels touching the tarmac and then touching again, that might have had something to do with it), so I went up twice. This is St Kilda marina.
Great company, great event. Thanks Google!
Blog posts have been few and far between in the last few weeks. That’s because we’ve been busy having fun with Jayne’s side of the family. Peter and Christine arrived a couple of weeks ago and it’s been non-stop for them since they arrived: Geelong – Yarrawonga – Tasmania – Geelong – Glen Waverley – Geelong. Then last weekend Jayne’s older brother and his family came down from Queensland, Paul (even older brother) drove across from Glen Waverley, and cousin Jen came from Northcote. 10 adults and 4 kids under 9 stayed in our house on Saturday night.
We’re pleased to report that the house coped admirably with the large number of people, so if Jayne and I end up with two sets of quadruplets we should be fine.
All had a great time. Here are some photos.
Golf on Saturday at Curlewis. Peter had what he reckoned was one of his best rounds of golf ever. Bang up the guts every fairway but one all day for a 102 off a 34 handicap (that’s 4 under for the non-mathematicians).
The 17th at Curlewis. We all hit the green – if you look hard enough you can see all four balls (yes that’s mine 5ft from the pin).
