Happy New 2011!

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Wherever you are,

and whatever you are doing,

I pray that you will be able to look back on 2010 and count your blessings,

and that 2011 will be a year where you lose count of them! 

Happy New Year!

xoxo 

A happy flashback

I've been looking through some photos taken earlier this month when I came across these...

We had just been to see Mary Poppins in the theatre and had had the best night. We loved the music, the dancing, the acting. The show was unbelievable and we were on a high. This was also because Kat and I were spending time together and that doesn't happen very often. Kat was my house-mate when I first bought my little place and we shared the unit before she moved up north to begin her work as a nurse. She had come to Melbourne for the weekend just to see the show and celebrate my 30th. What a great friend!
The train was running late and so we had some time to kill on the station. We had a camera so what else were we going to get up to? LOVE these photos and how they capture our fun friendship.

Love you Kat
xoxo

Christmas Day revision

It was a wonderful day.

Tobes and I had a sleep in, exchanged our gifts to each other and then got busy preparing for the day. I made a salad to take for lunch and Tobes finished off some wrapping.  We headed over to Tim and Rachel's place to open some pressies with my immediate family.  Kids always light up the day don't they? There's something magical about Christmas that children understand better than us adults. We must become used to the story and overwhelmed by the busyness of the season- let it not be so. After thanking each other and having a play with some of our new things, we made our way to my dad's sisters home for lunch with dad's side and my cousin from mum's side. Sadly, my aunt was unwell and had to stay at home. We enjoyed a yummy lunch and of course, our family tradition, pineapple pudding. After some family photos we headed home for a quiet hour, before spending the evening with my Anthea's partner's family.

Sensible now...

... not so much!

 That was lots of fun and I have to say, the best Christmas meal I have ever eaten. Melt in your mouth turkey, beef and honey glazed ham, with honey straight from Frank Senior's hives. Delicious! They are a welcoming and warm family with incredible stories to share. I won't share them here, but I will say that I left their home last night with a renewed appreciation for who God is and the power that He has.
He is the God of the impossible.
He answers prayer.
He protects those who love Him and answers when they call.
He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It is His son whose birth we remembered yesterday and because of Him, I can know that powerful God. Amazing!
After the meal of meals, we went inside to share the presents and then we headed home.

It was certainly a full day, but it was fun.

I hope that you all had a great day too.
xoxo

'Twas the night before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
except Sandy cat to see what mum and dad were up to!

I hope that you enjoy a wonderful day tomorrow
and that amongst all of the food and presents and songs and family time
you will find a moment to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Saviour.

P.S. A friend posted this on facebook... what if it happened today?

What did we do today?

images care of www.weheartit.com

Well, we visited a travel agent and got started on thinking about our trip for next year. The current plans are to be away for around 4.5 weeks and to take in a fair chunk of Europe. I am very excited. I am also a little overwhelmed. I've never been there before and it's a place that I've heard so much about from friends who have visited. I want it to be worth the time and the money that it will take to get and keep us there.

Have you been to Europe?  
Where are your 'must see' and 'must do' places?

Under the sea...

We had a great time at the Melbourne Aquarium on Monday, the first day of the school holidays! Cooper slept over for the night after my party and then we met Tim, Rach and Ty in the morning to make our way into the city. I had not been to the aquarium for a long time and there are certainly some changes since last time. A real highlight for me was seeing the penguins. They were so large and animated, and strikingly beautiful. The coral atoll was also stunning. Watching Cooper see the sharks, which he has a newfound admiration for was also fun.

It's certainly somewhere that is fun to visit once in a while, but I was glad that we both had an Entertainment book for the 2 for 1 deals!

Some scrapbooking!

I can't believe I did it- I actually scrapbooked! The urge came, the creative juices were flowing and I knew exactly what I was going to do.

My brother and sister in law gave me some fabulous stamps that I'd been wanting for a LONG time- banners and an outlline alphabet set (with numbers)!  They arrived yesterday and so I got to work...

This layout features a photo that I blogged about back in January this year. It was fun to look back on the things that I was grateful for in our little home back then. I'm grateful now for this blog and for the prompt that it provides to the past. Must use it more for this now that the scrappy juices are flowing.

Here are some details...

                                             The title                              Using my banner stamps!

And now, some views from my scrapping room. I am VERY spoiled! Here is the view from my desk...

and my lovely wardrobe...

How lovely! :)

Bunting, buddies and balloons!

All were in place at my birthday gathering over the weekend.  We could also include blowing a gale, because the weather was terrible! Original plans were for a picnic near home, but on Saturday we pulled the pin and called it inside, therefore, it became something of a house warming too.
It was lovely to have everyone together in the same place and to celebrate together.
I was very excited about the Red Velvet Cake that I made, complete with cake bunting! And the good old tissue paper flowers were made too. Lots of fun!

My cake!

         

Best friend Mary and old friend Mat, Deakin buddies!

Friends watching the cake cutting

The kids enjoying our backyard when the rain stopped.

My love and I

Cutting my beauty

My pompoms... they worked!

More playing

My crazy family singing happy birthday to Rach and I
(mum is taking the photo)

Pretty fabric

How gorgeous are these...

Retro mummy is having a giveaway... imagine winning! :)

Merry Christmas from Us

Follow this link to see us enjoying some Charleston dancing just this evening! Even Sandy got in on it! ;)


School is over for another year and I was once again thoroughly spoiled by the kids in my grade. We've enjoyed a few transition sessions with the new class for 2011 and they look like they'll be fun. I don't really feel like I'm on holidays yet, but I'm sure it will start to sink in on Monday when I don't have to be at school. 


We're having a small gathering for my 30th tomorrow. We had planned to have a picnic near the lake, but those plans have changed due to pretty terrible weather forecasts. I guess that it will become something of a house warming at the same time! I baked myself a birthday cake today, I've tried Red Velvet. I looks good so far, just the frosting to do in the morning. There's also some hedgehog and honeyjoys made- yum! 


Enjoy your day and night, wherever you are! 


xoxo   

The Polar Express

I have to share...we're watching this DVD, The Polar Express,  at the moment with some of the Junior grades to celebrate the end of the year. A sweet boy in my grade, M, decided that he's rather write in the session because "he doesn't really like that movie."

I just caught him watching and I said, "I thought that you didn't like this movie?" to which he replied, "I watched it when I was young and I didn't understand it, but now I do and I like it". He's 7 years old and in grade 1. I love it! :)

The birthday roundup

It was a lovely day. The kids really spoiled me at school with lots of cards and pictures and chocolates (!) and Tobes bought me some lovely things including this silver bracelet that one of the teachers at school is involved in making with her twin sister! :) I love it! :)  Dinner was delicious and it was LOVELY to not have to cook and clean up after. I love birthdays!

Happy birthday to me!

Thirty today! Eek! The years go by so fast, it's hard to know where they go! Here is my birthday muffin from the lovely Jenna. This birthday will spread out a bit so expect more to come! :)

A bit sad

 

 Final goodbye tonight and yes, I cried. The ugly cry as you can plainly see. ;) Home here feels like home, just without the memories attached. This shot was taken in the room where we spent most of our time, where we shared our first kiss and where Toby proposed. Lots of memories. Time to fill this place with them now! :) On a lighter note, today I spotted Santa out walking. He looks like he's shed a few kilos but that beard is a dead giveaway!

 Have a great night!

It hits me

I have 3 more sleeps as a twenty-something. Eeek! ;)

Fill the blank: Holiday Spirit

Playing again with Lauren after a bit of a break!

1.   Holiday spirit reminds me of my childhood and of simple, happy times.

2.  The holidays are incomplete without family, friends, the tree, carols and decorations.

3.  My favorite things to do around the holidays is spend time with family and friends and start to wind down after a busy year... and celebrate my birthday! :)

4.  A holiday tradition my family and I have is   always spending time together on Christmas day or Boxing day. We also have food traditions- we always have pfeffernusse, a German biscuit in memory of my nanny and old nanny, mum's shortbread and ginger nuts, my spiced sugar biscuits and rocky road and my old nanny's pineapple pudding- a custard, meringuey thing that sounds disgusting but is actually delicious! My cousin took over making it when nanny died and we always have to spot the thing that is different about it. In the past we've had it made with soy milk or diet jelly!

5.  Holiday music is cheery and sets the scene for the holidays. Even the cheesy ones!  I'm usually the one singing  them for the community at carols by candlelights, but I'm having a break from that this year.

6.  This year, I'll be spending the holidays  with my dad's side for lunch and Toby's family in the evening. 

7.  Holiday wish list to have a clean and tidy house! :) And a bracelet from my coworker at school. And some papertryink stamps.

What about you?

Moving in!

Here we are (most of us anyway) last Friday evening when we were preparing to move into the new house. We had just taken settlement and spend the (rainy) evening unpacking glasses boxes and enjoying pizza with mum and dad and our new neighbours (and great friends) Wal and Steph and their girls. Rachel, Cooper and Ty visited earlier with a lovely bunch of flowers from their garden and some choccies and Tim stopped off later on the way back from work. We couldn't believe that we'd actually got to our settlement date and that we were going to actually move in the next day! 

One of my favourite memories of this night was having everyone together. And earlier, before anyone else came, Tobes and I took some quiet time to sit on the floor of the room that is now our bedroom to pray over the house and to thank God for what he had done in allowing us to have it, and to sell our other place. We dedicated this new place to Him and asked Him to use it as He will, for His glory. 

        

 The following day was very full on! We awoke bright and early and spent the day carting boxes and furniture across town in our upgraded truck (thank you for a brother with a truck licence!) with the help of some wonderful family and friends- mum and dad, Tim (super driver), Rachel (organising queen!), Cooper (pocket rocket!), Graeme and Rach, Mat, Steve and Jack. Wal and Steph lent a hand when they could and were an amazing help. Mary and Phil popped in later in the night for a cuppa- phew. It was so lovely to have everyone there to celebrate and help us. And in the last week I've had coffees with many girlfriends here after work. So lovely. A BIG sleep was had that night and we continue to unpack.

Photos of the afters to come! :)