Way back to last December...

Now that the grandies are getting older, I like to involve them with things like decorating for Christmas. 

When the tree first came out of its box early last December, Miss Anthea straight away put 2 decorations on the tree...just 2! 😜

Firstly a toy phone from our toy box...

And Mary from my knitted Nativity...Along with baby Jesus too of course 😄. 

The next day, Holly came for a sleepover so that was a perfect excuse for more decorating of the tree...but first there was some playtime in the red felt sleigh. 

Holly loved helping me with unwrapping the decorations from the tissue paper and then organising me to put the decorations on the tree where she wanted them 😉


We left Mary on the tree...

Holly even got to play with a Santa decoration made with a dolly peg that her Poppy ( her mum’s dad) made when he was at kindy! (Some how this family heirloom is still in my Xmas boxes) 

Before Holly went home after her sleepover, she had time to write out some of her Christmas cards...

This was the card for Mummy and Daddy...

A few days before Christmas I dropped something I’d made in the letterbox at Anthea’s place...ready for Christmas Eve. 

A mug rug! There’s a pocket to put a letter to Santa in. 

As the month went on I did some more Christmas decorating...this year the knitted Nativity was set up on the corner table...

 We added some battery operated candles....

But alas no Mary and baby...she was still on the tree. 

As usual we had the family Christmas on the evening of the 24th. And what a bonus; this year all 5 of our girls, our 4 sons in law and 5 grandchildren were able to come! 

All lovely memories. 

Who knows what Christmas 2020 will be like. It’s closer than you think...a mere 6 months and 2 days away! 😂 🎅🏻 

A Birthday Present...

I mentioned in a previous post that there were 4 family birthdays for us in May. Two of those were mine and DH's.
For my birthday, I celebrated all day, with a morning tea treat of a florentine and coffee at Marche du Macaron, lunch at a lovely cafe, then a pizza dinner ( takeaway) at home with the family. It was a cold night so we all squeezed into the dining room for dinner rather than the more spacious verandah.
DH's birthday celebrations was again a family dinner, but this time the meal was cooked by me and the birthday cake was made by DsD2!

But this post is really about the joint gift that the family gave us...

They all contributed to the fee for the photographer to take a series of photos over the course of 1 1/2 hours. It was the same photographer who took the photos at DsD1's wedding last July; a lovely young lady named Rebecca.
So last Saturday we all met up at Shorncliffe, a beach suburb in north Brisbane. The first photos were of the whole family. Rebecca posed us against the railing above the beach with a magnificent morning sky behind us. Then she broke us into groups...all the girls, all the young parents with the babies, the 'blokes', some individual photos, DH and I, then DH and I and the 4 grandchildren.
I took a few photos while Rebecca was setting up some shots with the girls and the babies...

Then Rebecca moved us all to the nearby jetty, for lots more photos; again in different groupings as well as ones with the whole family all at once.
Our sons in law...

The 'boys' with their babies...

Us girls got a bit of time to relax from all that smiling! Lol 😉😆

The DsD2 suggested to Rebecca that it would be nice to get some photos of the 4 babies...I knew it wouldn't be easy! The term 'herding cats' came to mind! 😕😬. The young Mothers had to work hard, I can tell you! Lol

Hopefully Rebecca got some better shots than us.

It was so lovely getting together as a family for this session; DsD1, Dan and Baby A drove the long trip from Wandoan especially for the photo. The deal with the photos is that the fee paid by our family entitles us to the photos in digital form to do with them whatever we wish. So in a week or so, they should be available online on Rebecca's website via a password.

My sister in law...

Last Sunday the families gathered to celebrate a number of anniversaries being celebrated by my sister in law Sonja. Sonja had organised a barbeque lunch at the Coorparoo Bowls Club. Ever the organiser, she distributed white napkins to serve as placemats and folded paper napkins (serviettes) in red, white and blue.

When it came time for the guest of honour/hostess to give a speech, Sonja explained why this year was a significant one regarding anniversaries.

Firstly, last Sunday was her 71st birthday. Secondly, Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of Sonja arriving in Brisbane with her parents and older sister, after they had emigrated to Australia from Denmark. Sonja reminisced that she could remember the ship ( a Norwegian cruise ship) making its way up the Brisbane River to where the port was then located, right in the city at Petrie Bight. She recalled that she found the houses in Brisbane so colourful after the 'white and grey' of Denmark.
And thirdly, Sunday was just a few days short of the 50 years since she became an Australian citizen. So lots of good reasons to have a celebration as the family all agreed.
The desserts were amazing! The large rectangular cake is a traditional Danish cake...sorry I don't remember the name though! It's layers of sponge cake (like a Victoria sponge cake) with jam.. The chocolate cake was made by a niece of Sonja's, the pavlova was decorated by Sonja and the iced fruit cake with Australia on top was made by our cousin.

Let me tell you a bit more about my lovely sister in law...long before I could ever have imagined marrying into the Goodwin family, I cut out a photo of the Brisbane evening paper, the Telegraph. I had recognised someone from a family that had gone to my primary school. In my teens I kept scrapbooks filled with newspaper cuttings of people I knew even if some didn't know me!! That 'someone' was Keith and his then fiancé Sonja.

They were buying Sonja's wedding shoes. An old Danish custom involved a bride-to-be saving for her wedding shoes, collecting copper coins in the lowest denomination, and storing them in a champagne bottle. In the article (from 1967-68), Sonja explained that she was glad that Australia had new coins after the switch to decimal currency, as the old penny and halfpenny coins would not have fitted in the neck of the bottle.


The shoes, described as 'guipure lace sling backs' cost $10.99. ( so there were at least 1099 cent pieces in that bottle...or so we're told!)

Sonja and my brother in law, not only had teaching careers in Australia (North Queensland and Sydney), but also some time in Canada. They had 2 children and Keith was active in the Jaycees. Then he entered politics  and became Mayor of Cairns in 1988.

Then tragedy struck...Keith was killed in a plane crash in May 1990. In an interview with the New Idea magazine, my elegant and dignified sister in law stated, 'Maybe God was calling a meeting upstairs and he wanted a very good chairman'.

And then Sonja stood for council herself.

Eventually Sonja came back to Brisbane to live, which was great because most of the family is here, and we see her a lot more as a consequence.

 At DH and my wedding in 2004, Sonja caught the bouquet, but no Mr Right has come along...we still often joke with each other about that! lol
The next photo was taken on Sonja's birthday 5 years ago...she came for afternoon tea and brought her own cake!

And finally a photo of me with the youngest guest there last Sunday...little Anthea!

 

25 Days of Christmas Project.

In December 2013 one of my friends invited me to join her in a little Facebook project that she had devised. Jenny called it 25 Days of Christmas and the idea was to post a photo with the Christmas theme each day from December 1 right up to Christmas Day. I seriously doubted I could come up with enough photos but still agreed to join Jenny. Well...I ran out of days before I ran out of photos! 

My friend decided that the one year was enough for her, but I've kept going and here I am in my 4th year. I thought I would share some of those 2016 photos on the blog.

Day 1 

DH standing beside the Christmas tree in the foyer of the Geebung RSL club. We were there last week to play Trivia.

Day 2

Most of our Christmases were spent here in Brisbane, but a few times we spent Christmas with our Melbourne family. My girls were probably 7 and 10 that year.

Day 3

This ornament has already  been written about on my blog; De, my Secret Santa at Sunday Stitchers made it for me. 

Day 4

This photo is of DsD3 at 2 months with her big cousin on Christmas Day 1986.

Day 5

This photo is of an animated Christmas tree that I saw at Costco a few months ago. I loved it but didn't buy it. It was cute though...that little train running along the little track and beautiful music and lights.

Day 6

This day I posted a collage of some of my favourite Christmas projects over the years using hexagons. I've masked out most of the new project on the left as it's a Secret Santa give for someone in Blogland. 😉

Day 7 

This is another photo collage from the family archives...1983; DD1 received a Fisher Price Musical Carousel toy from her dad and I. As you can see in the top photo, I loved playing with it too. 

The photo in the bottom right hand corner is 'borrowed' from the Internet. The original toy also included 3 little people figures who sat in the little seats that spun out when the handle was turned to play the records. We loved that toy! Unfortunately when Miss DD1 was about 5, she poured cordial into the mechanism and it never worked again. My budding scientist wanted to see what would happen if a liquid was added...😒. All wonderful memories and what family stories are made of. 

The pictures I've posted in the previous 3 years have prompted some lovely reminiscing from both family and friends...and that's what Christmas means to me...memories and special times with family and friends. 

So that's the first week of my 25 Days of Christmas for 2016.

July...

Today is August 4, so July is well and truly over for another year! The way things worked out, this last July was a busy one for us in terms of celebrations! 

First up was the weekend of my annual high school reunion...our numbers were small this year but what we lacked in numbers, we more than made up for in enthusiasm.  😉

Then 6 of us met on the Sunday for lunch...

The next weekend was the annual Art and Craft Show in our parish...

We didn't buy a painting this year as none took our fancy...so I gave a donation instead to help with the fundraising.

On Bastile Day, I put on my 'Paris' scarf and DH and I lunched at a local cafe called French an Mor...

Next up was my brother's 60th...we had a lovely family gathering at his place...with pizzas from Tomato Brothers. 😉

Later in the month my brother's youngest had his 18th...the family celebration was held at an Italian restaurant...I just had to put a couple of photos of Rowan as a little boy in the collage! 😉

Also in July we welcomed DsD3 home from Canada with some family dinners...one at DsD2's place

And one at our place!

I think that August will be a little less hectic...although DH reminded me just before that we have a '60s night' in a few weeks. What on earth are we going to wear I wonder??? Lol