What a busy month that was!

Yes May 2016 was definitely a busy month! It started with the tidying and sprucing up that goes with having a guest to stay.

And then we did lots of things with our guest. She arrived on a very busy weekend with Mothers Day and a family get together in honour of our son in law's mother who was visiting from NZ to see/meet/ and adore baby Anthea...( like we all do!) 

Mothers Day lunch at DsD2s place...

And we also celebrated with a Mothers Day Dinner at DD2s....

We celebrated a life at a family gathering to scatter a much loved relative's ashes...

Then a day later it was my birthday celebration with a dinner at a favourite local Swiss restaurant.

 And I've already written about those 'cemetery safaris' tracking down family graves.

We took our visitor to museums too...

We got to travel a bit too...

Close to home was Stradbroke Island with its picturesque scenery and wonderful wildlife...

A bit farther away was a trip to Taree in New South Wales...the Manning River district was beautiful. 

We enjoyed a few meals out during our Taree sojourn...

My ankle continued to improve and only had light strapping on and even though closed in shoes still didn't fit, I could wear my Ziera sandals again...( the bruising on the toes in this photo has now faded somewhat) 

We waved goodbye to our visitor on the 23rd...

 

Near the end of the month, the family gathered to celebrate DH's birthday...

Because we had so many family 'dos' in May, we saw more of DD2's dogs Jimmy and Missy, and that's always a bonus!

And right at the very end of the month, I managed to get to a Knit and Natter with K4BN. I have missed a few of these, so it was lovely to catch up with some knitting friends again.

So I wonder what June will have in store??🤔

Christmas is close!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, which is when DH and I have our family Christmas. Some previous Christmases...

2012...

This tradition started when I joined DH's family, as Christmas Eve had been when my family gathered to celebrate Christmas thus allowing my mum to join her friends on Christmas Day. In the early days of our new blended family, my stepdaughters used to spend Christmas Eve with their mum and grandma and see their dad on the morning of Dec 25. But after their grandma moved north to Ingham (in North Queensland) they started coming to our Christmas Eve dinner and spending Christmas Day with their mum. 

2009...

Today we have been tidying the house, I have been doing some food preparation, gift wrapping and preparing the spare bedroom for our visitors for the next few days...DsD1 and Dan arrived at about 7pm tonight...they live 6 hours away in Wandoan. 

( in the background Eduardo is asleep on that chair on which I draped a small patchwork quilt this afternoon...he doesn't waste any time sitting on that quilt! He seems to have radar to find quilts and knitted/crocheted rugs! Lol)

Now that the girls are all grown up, organising this gathering has become much easier and less work for me! DH sent out  messages to family a few weeks ago inviting them as usual, and asking them to nominate what food they would bring...

Then I made a list from collating all their answers...DH mailed that to them...

And it's all organised! Done and dusted :-)

The gifts are wrapped and under the tree...DsD1 and Dan added a whole lot of gifts this evening....hmmm I wonder which one is mine! Lol.

I made 2 lots of brandy truffles this afternoon; Dan has sampled them and said they are yummy :-)

This year, 4 of our girls will be here on Christmas Eve. It's a long time since all 5 were here for Christmas. There were working holidays overseas, DsD2 and our son in law spend alternate Christmases  with his family in NZ and my girls have also spent time visiting their dad in Victoria. This year,  DsD3 will of course be again celebrating Christmas in Ottawa so we will Skype her, just like we did last year... 

So tomorrow we will get out the Christmas tablecloths, set the tables, find all the serving spoons etc, bring out the extra chairs, and generally get everything ready. It will be wonderful! My niece, her husband and their 2 children are coming and children always make it special. My 2 nephews are now 17 and 22...it's lovely that they still want to come along and help us celebrate. 

Merry Christmas !!!