Happy New Year

It is hard to believe that another year has flown by. Thank you those who read this blog for your continued interest. I enjoy writing as it is a diary for me and am glad that others enjoy it too. Thought I would finish the year with a few pictures of the Christmas decorations (helps me remember where they go for next year).

It is all a bit over the top but I do love seeing all the stitched decorations and special gifts each year. I also want to share a few things that were stitched for this Christmas and some lovely gifts too. I stitched these decorations as gifts this year.

 I was also very spoilt with some lovely gifts. Thank you dear friends for these beautiful gifts.

Happy New year everyone. Hoping rains and kind winds come soon to stop these terrible fires!

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas dear readers. We hope you have had a lovely time with your family and friends and that you are able to relax today after all the busyness! We had afternoon tea and a light meal on Christmas eve this year which was a bit easier than our normal baked dinner. The kids enjoyed a swim and then headed home to bed ready for Santa!

 On Christmas day, we went to church and it was a lovely service and the singing was amazing. Nothing better than Joy to the World and Hark the Herald Angels Sing sung by a packed church. We then celebrated with our family. First we had photos (the children were bribed by the thought of presents!).

 Little Jack was Santa's helper and handed out all the presents, just stopping occasionally to open one himself.

We then enjoyed the yummy cold lunch and delicious deconstructed pavlovas for dessert. We have all eaten too much and will be eating leftovers for quite a while.

More parties...

We have continued to celebrate as we lead up to Christmas. It was a delight to watch little miss's music concert at the preschool last week. The children were so gorgeous and so well behaved!

 Last week,  we enjoyed a lovely lunch with the Thursday group girls. We all brought food to share and it was a feast. The desserts were amazing!

On Friday, the evening stitchers headed to Les Bistronome for a delicious meal! It was amazing especially the desserts. 

 We exchanged Secret Santa gifts and they were just lovely. Paddy has the bowl that Cathy made and is showing off her new necklace.

 Here are some of the other gifts.

 This was the one I made. This is the second time I have made this one and it is a favourite. Another lovely pattern by Anni Downs.

Here is my lovely gift from Sue.

 

Today has been a busy one with baking, cleaning and shopping. Mostly done now so it is nice to have time to blog.

Celebrations...

There have been a few parties and celebrations recently. On Wednesday 11th, the night class girls came to my place for our annual get together. It was lovely though I didn't get many pictures other than the Secret Santa gifts. They were just lovely.

 We also headed to Carols in the Park last Sunday evening. It was a balmy night and luckily the wind died down a bit!

 The boys joined in the Jingle Bells and Away in a Manger ....sort of! We weren't sure what Ben was doing!