29: Christmas Holidays 2011

I always look forward to the Christmas / New Year break - I love to spend that week or so on the farm at Ebenezer with the friends and family that inevitably gather.  People seem to come and stay for a few days, then move off to their next destination. 

I had the Friday before Christmas off work and Joe and I spent the morning doing the last minute shopping - we picked up a fabulous ham from the Black Forest Smokehouse, fruit and Veggies from Banana Joes and a few other bits and pieces, then back home to pack the car and set off.  Saturday was spent getting the house ready for guests and doing as much of the prep for Christmas day as I could.  Dave, Lucinda and the fast growing Baxter arrived with a ute load of gifts and Joe's mum Penny arrived later in the afternoon, also with armloads of gifts to be put under the tree we finally put up!

We had a lovely Skype session with Mitch and Lins on Chistmas morning - still on their honeymoon in italy and enjoying their first cold Christmas. I'm loving seeing Mitch's photos on Facebook every couple of days.

Then a lovely relaxed lunch - not the full Chistmas shebang as we'll be having that later in the day - but some nice finger foods and a few glasses of bubbles,

followed by the ritual exchange of presents - Pheebs I love my key - I'm thinking that it might be at home above the back door.  Later in the day, Joes kid's Christoper and Jay arrived with their partners Sophie and Chris for the kind of traditional Chrismas meal - well we had the baked ham, roast chicken with bread sauce, roast potatoes, but then some cold salads instead of the full hot dinner.   We did finish off with Chrismas pudding and hard sauce (thanks Penny) - the pudding recipe I used this time was from Not Quite Nigella and is Queens Elizabeth's Christmas pudding recipe!  

Boxing Day was quiet - we all needed a recovery day - playing cards and Pheebs new Cranium game. 

My project for the week was to strip the wallpaper off my childhood room - lovely pink and green daisies from the early 1970's - a little tired and dated...  Have been dreading tackling this job after reading up on stripping wallpaper on various blogs, but it was actually quite easy.  I just sprayed it with warm water, waited a while for the glue and paper to soften, then scraped it off.  Lucky for me there was only one layer of paper over the plasterboard which seemed to have a slightly shiny finish - a bit of a scrub with a scourer and sugar soap and it was all gone!  I sealed the ex-papered wall with 2 coats of 3-in-1, and got one coat of gloss white on the windows, skirting boards and wardrobe, and 1 coat of colour on the walls - well not much colour - I chose Dulux Antique White USA.    Will try and post some pics as I go along...

We also had a lovely visit from one of my besties - Miss Mimi - who arrived in her usual style in high heels carrying boxes of chocolates and bottles of bubbly!  We had a great couple of days chilling on the verandah, reading (her), cross stitching (me), gossiping and drinking T2 French Earl Grey tea (us).  Of course we had to introduce Mimi to the gorgeous Murray - ever thirsty and keen for his bottle. 

Watching Mimi feed Murray and fend off his butting in her heels in the long grass was so funny I almost fell over backwards!

Our final project for the week was to wash the three dogs:
Lily was very well behaved

Sparky gave us the 'this treatment is SO beneath me' look

Baxter was a nightmare - this may have been his first time in the tub and fitting all of his legs in at the same time was somewhat difficult!  He paid us back by shredding yet another cushion!