Christmas Cheer 3

Later on Christmas day (after initial sample of Christmas bread for afternoon tea) we headed ‘round To Roland & Jany’s for dinner.

We were there with 20 people (5 Sparks, A+E, 6 van Esch, Jany’s parents + sister + her 2 kids & friend + Tante Bab).

Back home about 10:30 pm. Steve threw up in his bed at about 12:30 am (food poisoning we think – though he was fine after that & next day). Took us about 45 min to clean it all up. That pretty well summed up the whole evening for me.

Boxing Day

Steven up earlyish and he had a decent breakfast so had no after effects. Nice sunny day outside. Chris and I went out for a walk in the afternoon to post an Xmas card for one of his friends who lives close by. The snow on Christmas morning turned to rain later in the day – so most of the snow has disappeared.

A & E came around for Boxing Day dinner. Torkey (orange zest, thyme & butter mix shoved under the skin and the two oranges halved & stuck in the bird. Some kumara & beans & gratinated potatoes to go with it (plus a Mount Riley Sauv Blanc & later a Jacobs Creek Cab Shiraz) Much more relaxing & the food was decent (and no-one got sick…). Watched the Willy Wonka film (the new one) on TV afterwards.

Sunday (Today)

More rain outside – generally blad weather. The kids were gaming upstairs. Bri & I finished painting the door frames upstairs in the afternoon. I played a bit of Risk with the boys.

Torkey pie (thanks to Aunty Mick and the Edmonds cook for that!) and home made Tiramisu. Just as good as the meal last night!!!

Just FYI – I keep calling it “torkey” in ref to the Swedish Chef on Sesame Street (oor de torkey!)

Christmas Cheer 2

Continuing the build photos of the Xmas bread…

Fruit added and kneading like hell…

The bake it off – low head for a bit to re-rise it then later at high temp to bake them off…

 

Christmas Cheer

Sunday evening – back to work tomorrow (for a day_ so I thought I would catch up with some blogging.

Christmas Day

After Christmas brunch & chatting to Mum & Dad on the phone Bri and I started on building the Christmas bread…

First mixing in the yeast etc

…Bri took her rings off first though…

 

Let the dough rise for about an hour…

Then add the marinated (rum) raisins  & lemon zest

White(ish) Christmas

After the heavy snow last weekend and some repeats during the last week – I think (not sure) that this might be my first white Christmas in NL.

Up not so early this morning – 0800 or so – and it had rained a bit last night. The snow in the back yard was starting to retreat a bit. About 0900 it started snowing for real – big heavy clumpy snowflakes (too warm for anything else). Has kept raining and snowing off and on this morning.

Short call during Xmas breakfast with Mum & Dad after several failed attempts my side to get through. Network is always overloaded to NZ on Xmas day.

The fam is currently settled on the couch watching “Up” on DVD. I’ll have a look at it later.

Later on the prog today is baking the Christmas bread (sweet, filled with nuts and rum-soaked raisins – El’s recipe). Bri just getting started on that now.

Meanwhile am considering whether to brew up another batch of Ginger Beer. The last round (#3 attempt) was better flavoured but:

• Go back to 50/50 split raw & white sugar to lighten colour
• Used less ginger and more spice last time – ok for taste but gave more sediment. Hmmm
• Brew time. 1 bottle had 24 hr (too little fizz) and the other had about 36 (too much fizz). Still need to get the yeast/brew time sorted out so that I get right fizz level. Too much and I lose too much drink fizzing overboard when I open the bottle.

Dinner tonight is at Ro & Jany’s – our turn again next year. Meanwhile our Boxing Day Torkey is busy defrosting in the garage…

Dark Days

Plenty of snow outside – and it’s dark(ish) at 4:30 in the afternoon…it’s funny how the snow glows a kind of blue colour.

‘Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

  

Quite a busy weekend – and real winter weather started in the last week. Caused quite a bit of chaos with the traffic in the last week – and with more snow on the way it could be a white Xmas…

In the meantime Steve had his Judo exam on Saturday afternoon – and gained his green tip…

Winter scenes in the street on Sunday morning

Out and about in the park Sunday afternoon – snowing steadily all the while. Back home after sleighing at the hill in the park and we decided to make a snowman. Bri put a super cool Elvis haircut & sunglasses (a pair of leaves) to make him a really cool snowman…

Ah yes – hat hair…one of those things about being out in the elements…

Sinterklaas 2009

Yet another year has passed and it was Sinterklaas again. After the great success last year we repeated the formula of table grilling and making a Surprise for each other (we drew lots to see who we had to make it for.

Below some photos of the event & the Surprises.

Steve & Rob’s waiting to get started

Chris got a big heart (with some running shorts & shirt & aftershave inside)

Andrew got a VW Kombi (with a webcam & a bottle of whisky)

Steve – a gameboy (with Spongebob)  with Lego and a PS3 Lego game

Robin got an iPhone (with a PS3 headset)

Bri not featured – as Chris had made a fake present – and hid Bri’s real surprise in the garden under the apple tree (wrapped in plastic because it was raining). She got a silver Trollbead and some nice shower cream stuff)

Here are the surprises again.

22 Nov

Some Sunday a.m. blogtime. Busy day yesterday. Started repainting the doorframes upstairs so off to pick up the paint etc and also prep some stuff as friends Heidi & Leo over for dinner. It was all a fairly tight schedule as Robin had an out game and we got back only at about 7:15 pm or so (won 6-5 but only just…)  – and Bri had to take Chris out to a party (school mates of his: boring party was the verdict when we picked him up later). And H&L were arriving at 8 – so it was a bit hectic for a while. OK evening but all were a bit tired.

Today – finish off the primer layer on the door frames.

Braces Out Yesterday!

Robin and I are now both braces-free as of yesterday afternoon.

We both have (not sure of name in English) splints? Epoxied wire on the back for the next 10 years though. For me it of course just on the lower set  from the 1st R canine – incisors – 1st L canine. Feels a bit funny but nice to have the braces off though!

Sunday Morning

Doing these posts with Windows Live Writer – which is a piece of software on our PC that lets me write the posts offline and post them later (rather than editing posting direct in the blog page online)

Hope the AKL family is all well and the BD boy had a good one!

Here Robs is on the mend though he did not play in the game last night (had 2-3 out w flu). They won anyway 7-3 and Chris, whose team played right after, also won with 10-3.

 

Nice to hear about the new car Mum – send a photo when you can. BTW should I give you access to post to the blog?

November Weather

Bit of a blah old week this week. Robin came down with the flu on Tuesday evening and spent the rest of the week at home sick – fever and all. At time of writing (Friday evening) he seems to be back to being his usual mischievous self.

In addition Bri is also off colour and Steve stayed home from school as well – all with varying levels of symptoms. Only Chris and me been spared so far. Here are the patients on the couch yesterday evening

In the meantime we’re still not quite adjusted to wintertime (waking up at 06:00 and dozing off at 22:00).

In the meantime Steve did have a great time last week end with his birthday presents. Here is a Lego model from Gran & Grandpa.

 

 

Here is the birthday boy and his cake(s) – need 2 to feed the tribe…

Also – a new update to Google Maps means we also have street view enabled for our street. Check it out – it is a recent photo of the house & street.

Steve Blows Bubbles

Steve had a nice trick of blowing bubbles in the bath. Check out how big they are!

Robin's BD Prez from Gan & Grandpa

Robin's T'shirt from Gran & Grandpa arrived today at lunchtime. Time for a quick try-on - perfect fit!
We'll give a quick wash first before putting it into service - as Robin tends to get a rash from the dye in new t-shirts...after a wash or two it's all fine.

Chris had a v. long day yesterday - with a day trip with school to Paris (!). I dropped at school at 03:30 yesterday morning (!!) the bus left at 04:00 and arrived in Paris at about 10:00.
I awaoke with a shock at 06:30 thinking I had slept in and Chris had missed the trip - but a quick look at Chris' empty bed reminded me I had dropped him off - panic over & back to sleep for a half hour.
They spent the who day (130+ 3rd years) walking around seeing the sights in groups of about 10 (with a teacher accompanying). The bus then departed again at about 20:00 (8pm) and arrived back at about 02:00 this morning. So it ended up being a bit of a long day for Mum & Dad too...
Will get Chris to load some of his Paris photos too...

My Splinter

Finally came out yesterday (Tue 7th Jul). I got splintered on the boardwalk at Domburg on the weekend after my birthday (19 May - 1.5 months ago) went in at the ball of my R foot. Got 2 bits out at the first aid post there at the beach then 3 more the next day at the hospital. Still knew there was something in there - mid June I had a lump at the back of the ball of my foot - toward the arch.
Finally after a run and a shower yesterday I was inspecting the lump with a needle & out it came, all 2cm of it...didn't hurt though there was also a bit of pus & blood & stuff.

Robin's Birthday

We took this on Friday afternoon. Anton, El, Jany & the kids came over. It was still +/- 30 deg. & hot, damned hot. Robin was happy though.

Next day (Sat) shot off to Domburg for a day at the beach. Everyone (except Andrew, got a bit sunburned due to unjustified faith in suncream ("only apply once a day!" yeah, right).

Robin helped make one of the two cakes....

More garden

The agapanth's are doing ok - though they're new ones as the others did not really survive the winter very well
Yes - we do have some apples.
The lavatera also in the side border upagainst the street wall (Grassbaan wall)
Meet your friendly neighbour

Beachtime @ Domburg

Some shots from Sat 30 May (Pentecost holiday weekend) from the beach at Domburg. Great day with free activities for the kids. Some shots of Robs, Chris and Steve with the skimboards. Roland and me surveying the situation...Janey taking photos & Rosa chilling.

Front Garden Doing Well

Came upstairs to find Bri standing (!) in the bedroom window.
Asked her not to jump - it wasn't all that bad.
Then discovered she was just taking some shots of the front garden as it is all flowering nicely. Oh well - the insurance money isn't that great anyway...
The pink spirea in the top shot is just full of bumblebees all day long.