“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.†Mary Ellen Chase (1988-1973)
This year/last year (Christmas 08 is what we are talking about here), instead of getting a Radiata Pine from the farm, we got a farmed Radiata from Real Christmas Trees. Oh my lordy what a tree it was. It was just packed full of branches and it was shaped like a real Christmas Tree! In saying that in hindsight, we would have done some selective pruning as since the tree was so bushy, the ornaments were to a degree buried in the pine needles.
Karl, the girls and I decorated on the afternoon of the 23rd. Well perhaps it is more true to say Karl and I decorated the tree whilst the girls had fun with the tinsel and taking photos. What follows are photos, lots of photos. IF the photo has Silja in it, it was taken by Birta, if it has Birta in it, it was taken by Silja, that applies for most photos, but pretty much the first half were taken by Birta, the next half were taken by Silja and then the last handful and the first few were taken by myself and then a handful near the end were taken by Karl. Does that make any sense? probably not.
Eventually the tree was covered with ornaments and then out came the magic texters and the girls gave tattooed our legs. I went to the doctors that afternoon to see about my leech bite with one leg covered in doodles 🙂
Karl
Wrapping the tree in tinsel
Birta and I doing silly faces
Due to the sheer number of photos to share from this day, here is a slide show again 🙂
I’m moving house in a week today and one of the things I hope to have done by then is to have finished blogging about Christmas 2008. So here is another post to bring me a little step closer to the end of the 2008 Christmas Extravaganza.
I have wanted to make chocolate truffles for quite a while now and on more than one occasion I have brought cream with the intention of making truffles but ended up using it for something else.
For Christmas I made two types, the first where Peppermint Dark Chocolate and the second where White Rum, White Chocolate. They were rolled in a mixture of toppings, crushed Candy Canes (any idea how hard that is?), coconut, cocoa and sprinkles. I was not 100% happy with how they turned out so I won’t be sharing a recipe but here is a link to a search on FoodBlogSearch where I got my basic recipe from. My main problem was getting the consistency right and looking back now, I can also tell you that the Brisbane weather might have a little bit to do with it as well.
The truffles were rolled over two sessions. The night that I made the mixtures Karl and Matthew came over for a little gathering. We tasted one of Karl’s beers that he brought with him. By far the best tasting beer I have ever had, if I could get a case of it I would. We sampled different liqueurs and port with ice-cream and then we rolled truffles and we rolled till the mixture warmed up too much and the table warmed up as well.
The next truffle rolling session was the day that we picked Erica and Ash up from the airport. Having learnt our lessons we knew how to roll them now and Mum’s house has air-con which made it a bit easier to roll them 😀
The following photos were taken by Mum.
and this is how we roll
They were a lot of hard work but oh my they were pretty tasty and they do look pretty!
FYI for the future though. Crushed candy canes absorb moisture from anything and turn into liquid candy canes. Eat them shortly after making them.
I’m thinking that this year truffles will be made for winter celebrations not Christmas!
And speaking of Candy Canes, here are photos of the girls with candy canes they were given by the Station Master at Albion train station. Anna, the girls and I went into the city before Christmas to do some shopping and check out my office – the idea was to look at the view but I think they had more fun having their height and weight measured by one of the nurses who is my work mum #1 (I have two work mums at work :D) and listening to everyone gush at how cute they were. 😀
It is 0615 as I write this on Christmas morning and I am sitting in the living room amongst a bombsite of wrapping paper, ribbon and cardboard boxes. Pabbi is awake and Karl is dozing in his bed but apart from that it is just me and the birds. We had a very big night last night and I don’t think it has ever taken that long for us to do the presents, with 9 people though it takes a little bit longer. Oh we had a ball.
A family from Iceland should come every year for Christmas, well at least one every second year. Matthew and I had a blast making a clued treasure hunt for the girls, which had us laughing till we fell off the chair. All those photos will come later though and oh what photos I have, as well as photos from decorating the tree and decorating biscuits.
It has been such an amazing last few days and now there is only three and a bit days till Iceland flies home. After having our Icelandic Christmas last night we will shortly be heading up to The Farm for our Australian Christmas.
Currently Birta is eating chocolate, Silja is playing with her magic balloon, Mum and Pabbi is eating breakfast, Matthew is still asleep (despite my attempts to get him up), Karl is finding chocolate on the tree, Anna and Toti are walking round.
I have gone out two times in the last few weeks to have a look at Christmas Lights, the first time it was just Karl, Mum and I. We stopped first at a street in Carina which is where the following photos were taken.
We then continued on our way to Rochedale South where Mini Sal (the little brother of a friend of Karl’s) had put on a *little bit of a light display*. Such a *little display* that he won the best new entrant in the lights competition. Which is pretty cool. So cool that he got on Gizmodo a couple of days ago. It was so cool.
Here is a little bit about the display as written in an email that Mini Sal sent.
– It’s all computer controlled, with almost 300 individually controlled channels of lights,
– It’s synchronized to music, which is played on speakers in the yard and broadcast over a low power FM transmitter (which you can listen to by tuning to 91.7 FM),
– There’s about 600 metres of rope light and about 420 sets of fairy lights used in the display, which gives a total of more than 70,000 individual lights,
– The entire display consumes about 85 amps of power when fully on — I don’t actually have the power capacity to turn it all on at once, even after getting 6 extra dedicated circuits installed for the display. 🙁
– The display this year is dedicated to the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, and there’s a collection box out front if anyone would like to make a donation.
The display was soo cool. Lots of red, white and green lights, Christmas music and a whole heap of lights. Here are a few photos from the display and then I will put some of the youtube videos at the bottom which give a good picture of how the display works.
This row of Christmas trees was probably my favourite part of the display, so keep an eye out for them in the video and watch them dance.
The introduction to the loop and a little about the display.
Silent Night – I love how the the lights “wake up” in this.
Wizards in Winter – like many others inspired by this youtube video from a couple of years ago
Good King Joy- watch the row of Christmas trees.
Jingle Bell Rock – do the rock.
Christmas Eve Sarajevo – lots of colour runs in this, I love it
The house is on Childs St, Rochedale South, so if you are in Brisbane and have a free evening, take the kids, take the dog, take the neighbour, it is well worth it.
The 2008 Christmas Spectacular aka all the family coming home for Christmas is fast approaching. My dear brother Karl arrives in 9.5 days (I am sooo looking forward to having Karl around for a couple of weeks) then in 10.5 days Toti, Anna and the girls arrive (kids to take photos of!) then a week and a bit after that NZ starts arriving and then Tasmania starts to arrive as well.
Today Mum and I made the Christmas Puddings, using Grandmum’s recipe. The recipe makes a big, big, big pudding (it uses 8 eggs). We split the pudding into two though, one big one with coins in for Christmas Day and then another smaller one as a back up in case we run out or to eat as left overs in the new year.
I am 22. Well 22 point something.
For Christmas. I got a few books and a few CDs.
One of those CDs was a box set. 3 CDs of Peter Combe goodness. I have no shame admitting that. I want to know why Peter Combe is not playing at Big Day Out. The man is selling out venues across Australia. Could you imagine him at BDO? 50,000 plus people, many slightly inubriated singing along to Newspaper Mama, that would be magical. If I was booking a festival, he would be one of the first acts on my list.
This morning it is raining. What did I do after waking up? Why play Rain of course. and the rain keeps tumbling down, listen it’s a wonderful sound. If you want to have a listen press the play button below.
[audio:Peter Combe-Rain.mp3]
The other CDs were from The Mountain Goats and Brindle that evens it out a bit.
Australia’s Democratic Traditions.
In many ways Australia is the most democratic government in the world. Certainly in the short space of 150 years, it has made many notable contributions to social legislation in which it has pioneered. it set up one of the first central banks in the world. Also the nation pioneered in social security and workmen’s compensation laws and developed a unique and workable system of industrial arbitration courts which have helped reduce strikes and disputes to a minimum. p.39
or
Australian Songs and Singing.
Australians, like Russians, are natural group singers. It’s one of the great differences you’ll notice between American camps and Australian – the singing. p.21
One thing I have noted is that throughout the book they continually point out that Australia is one of the greatest democracies of the world. 😀 well yeah.
At the back there is a section on Australian Slang. “Australians can give us a head start and still win”.
I will now use the listed slang to illustrate the bog standard New Years Eve party.
I might go to a shivoo (party) where the plonk (cheap wine) will abound, some people will get shikkered (drunk). It will be ding dong (swell) though. It won’t be a beano (gala affair) but I might be a bit crook (sick) in the morning.
It is a cracker of a book.
One of the other books I got is a cracker read. Titled A Teacup in a Storm: an explorer’s guide to life, it is set out like an instruction manual giving me advice on how to go about organising a grand expedition as well as how not to go about organising such an expedition. The sections include Getting There, Getting Along, Getting Started etc. The book was La Dolce Vita by Isabel Coe.
It is still raining. but now the Old 97’s are playing instead.
