Full of hot air?

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to everyone...hope your day was great! Our present opening took forever, not because of the many gifts, but because we had to prod Rhys along the whole time to actually rip the paper open to see what was inside! He did enjoy his gifts though.

Getting into his stocking
His main present takes up his whole room and its not even set up completely!

Toy Library Gingerbread House

This year I made a gingerbread house for the Toy Library Christmas Party. It was a great hit with the kids and adults and it was quite yummy too!

Close-up of the little people and pile of books at the front

Really bad picture of me at the library

Bad picture again (my camera)....the ladies who run the Toy Library

Aussie Jingle Bells!

To get you in the mood....

I'm a big boy now...but I still require my dummy!

Well, we've done it...there's no going back now! Rhys thinks his new bed is pretty cool and so far he's done really good. Tonight is only night #2 so I may be changing my mind on that. He did get up and play when we put him down for a nap today but one stern talking-to was all he needed. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the change...now we only need to potty train and take away his dummy....now you know why I picked the easy one!

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree..."

I braved the shops this Saturday and got some Christmas shopping done...thank goodness Eldon stayed home with Rhys! I know Mount Isa isn't a very big "city" but all we have is Kmart...so just imagine 25,000 people trying to buy all their presents etc at one shop...two weeks before Christmas. Anyway I was successful at least...I got the last christmas tree available...the checkout lady had to unplug the display one for me! (the 50 people behind me in line were none too impressed!) I really wanted a tree this year to make it feel like christmas. It doesn't hold a bar to a REAL tree but I can settle for this. ;) It has fiber optic lights on it so we just decorated it with red balls, silver bells, and candy canes. I thought Rhys would get a kick out of it, and he did...he even let me take pictures of him putting things up which lulled me into complacency. The fun game now is to take off all the ornaments and stick them inside the tubes of wrapping paper where they fit perfectly! I must have had a severe mental blockage when I thought if Rhys didn't see me getting the candy canes out of the cupboard he wouldn't know you could eat them....what was I thinking? The first thing he did was stick one in his mouth. Then he let me hang them all up and proceeded to take off all the bottom ones one by one and try to eat them! So...our poor christmas tree doesn't look nearly as good as the pictures lead you to believe! There are a couple candy canes left at the top where he can't reach and every night after he's in bed I put all the ornaments back on for tomorrow's game!

This is our christmas dog, Mr. Jingle Bells. Rhys loves him! Rhys has a little conversation with him: "Push the button?" "Ok, push the button." (jingle bells, batman smells...) "Push the button?" "Ok, push the button." This goes on 10 or 11 times before he moves on to something else!

Mango Madness!

Oh, if we could only send mangos to all our family for Christmas! :) We've had a bounty this year and still have some coming from friends and neighbours. Love mangos!!!!

Eldon and Rhys picking mangos

This is only 1/3 of the original amount we had....these are the ones too green to process
Preserving mangos by the dozens

The finished product!

Thanksgiving 2010

Well I'm only a couple weeks out of date here! We've been to convention, which was wonderful, had a mini holiday, and now we are anticipating Christmas with our friends. I am missing our family this time of year! But we had a nice Thanksgiving (a little early) with some of our great friends here in Mount Isa!

Our feast - Turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and greens, and of course, rolls!
Dessert was equally fantastic....pear toffee cheesecake from Wendy

...pumpkin pie (half with topping and half without) courtesy of me...

...and apple crumble just to top it off!

We had a wonderful evening playing games and stuffing ourselves and we didn't even have to go home that night...so nice!

Gingerbread Competition

I had my first Christmas show on Friday night at my friend's house and we had a gingerbread decorating competition! What fun! We made such a mess but we had a blast!

Here I am with my product display

Closer up
Close up of my display gingerbread house

Tyron and Lachlan got roped into doing the whisk game...you have to beat 3 egg whites to stiff peaks and then hold it upside-down over your head...first one done wins...what fun!

This is how the kiddos entertained themselves that night...Eva the porcupine

don't know if it was Rhys or Eldon who was clipping them to her back...

The boys hard at work

Lachlan adding the santa to the chimney

And the finished products...#1

#2

#3..the boys' effort...notice the santa head first in the chimney...

...and the savage in the yard with his fire stick and bonfire behind him...
All three houses lined up together....no one could decide a winner, so we ended up sharing the prize, which was a plate of cookies! (like we needed any more sugar!)

The fate of these awesome houses....#1 is going to be raffled off at the respite center where one of our friends works...#2 is being saved for family coming for the holidays and #3...well...it's already more than half gone! Yum!

Busy Weekend

Well, what a weekend we had! It's almost Thursday and I'm still getting over it! :) Our local fishing competition was on this weekend so the boys were busy with that. So, of course, that's our cue to have a girls night! We made a scrumptious asian meal, put the kids to bed, and had a foot spa! It was a great start to the weekend. Saturday Danielle had a stall at the Arts and Crafts Fair selling her hand made breastfeeding covers, fabric boxes, burp rags, handbags, etc....very talented!! Wendy and I watched the kids for the first half of the day and then we all met up again at the lake in the evening for dinner and fireworks. A storm had come up overnight and made the boys' slumber party in the boat rather rocky...so they were ready for a good nights sleep! :) The boys didn't win anything...but they had a lot of fun doing it!

Danielle and the kids playing on the futon

Crispy Orange Beef...yummy!
Our meal...Shallot Chicken, Crispy Orange Beef, Fried Rice and Prawn crackers! And chocolate cheesecake for dessert! Truly spoiled!

Danielle at her stall

All of us at the lake ready for fireworks

Pictures from Pink Party Night

I had a "pink party" last Friday for Breast Cancer Awareness Month for my business, The Chefs Toolbox. It was a great night...lots of pink food and prizes too!

Rhys wearing my feather boa...unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of myself!

The pretty arrangement I made from several different bouquets to get all the pink!
food table

Chicken and Strawberry Salad

Beetroot and goats cheese pizza

Beetroot soup

Wendy and her pink outfit!

Nesta, Desley and Lorraine

My product display table