Most of our busyness is done, and we are now winding down to Christmas Day. Today is the last day of work for both of us. The office will shut down over Christmas and New Year, although I will need to make some factory payments before the end of the month. I hope to make it to the beach this afternoon. Maybe I can ride on my bike to one a bit further away? We had two possible beach days over the last week, but I didn’t make it down either day. Sunday was 32C, but we didn’t get over 30C until 5 pm when we headed to church. Monday was 41C with the most horrendous wind, so after I did mainly music in the morning I went home and laid low for the rest of the day. In other news, Riley may have a hot spot, so he has an appointment at the vet tomorrow. Here are some of the good things from this week.
Independent toy shops. My sister had her daughter quite late, so she is our extended family’s only little one. I was tasked with buying a Christmas present for her, so I went to the gorgeous little toy shop in Elwood. It is a treasure trove of the cutest toys and I spent ages browsing the shelves. I finally settled on some crafty supplies. She seemed quite excited about the doodle board when she unwrapped it. I’m hoping she brings the puffy pens to Point Lonsdale after Christmas so I can see how they puff up.
Another puzzle finished. This was a 1000-piece and was not too difficult. H did most of it, although I did a bit of the water. We finished it last Friday, but I had to stop H from getting another puzzle going that night since we had 24 people coming over the next day.
We had my family over for an early Christmas lunch on Saturday. E and his girlfriend are going to be in South Africa for Christmas, and my sister and her family will be in New Zealand with her in-laws, so we needed to get together before everyone flew out. My dad bought his homemade sausage rolls for the start, and we picked up a sushi box and charcuterie to have with drinks before lunch. The champagne was flowing. We baked a ham and roasted potatoes for lunch, and my sisters bought a green salad and coleslaw. It was a super easy way to cater for the day because we didn’t have to try to get lots of hot food ready simultaneously. The weather was perfect, meaning we could use the outside and inside tables to seat all twenty-four of us. Everyone was relaxed, happy and had a good time. E’s girlfriend had bought a bag of fun to entertain my niece, including a jar of bubble mix. This entertained both her and Riley for a long time. The last guests left at about 6:30 pm.
After everyone left, the kids gave us their gifts because the girls weren’t sure they’d be over at the same time E was home before he went away. They gave me a new puzzle, which we started that night. It’s a 4000-piece, so we had to get out the extension to our puzzle board. I made this board out of extra thick card from the newsagent, and it is the thing that allows us to attempt all these big puzzles. If we need the end of the table, we can quickly move the board. However, I forgot to cut down the width of the extension piece so it doesn’t fit through our bedroom door. That’s why the puzzle looks strange—we had to tip the board a bit to get through the bedroom door on Tuesday night.
The puzzle needed to go away on Tuesday night because we had Christmas drinks for the residents in our building. I’d had to invite the neighbours over on my list, and this was the perfect occasion. A few couldn’t make it, but I count this as done.
And a few more:
- We had Blackened salmon with Tropical Pico for dinner on Monday night. I had to make some alterations to the blackened seasoning, but it was still very good. The girls love this dish, too.
- We just finished watching the four seasons of Slow Horses. We both enjoyed this. It was not predictable.
- Our last session of mainly music went well. I was pleased our families braved the hot weather and came down, although I suspect that was part of the attraction—getting out of the house somewhere inside and not too hot yet.
- My sister-in-law was able to get me the Garmin I had my eye on with a discount through her health insurance provider, and it arrived this week. It was for my birthday, but we didn’t want to pay full price. I’ve been wearing it for three days now and done some runs with it, and it is still on 79% battery, which is so much better than my old watch.
- I cracked open a pretty new journal that the girls gave me for Mother’s day.
- I got flowers for the tables for Christmas lunch and enjoyed them all week.
- Woodfrog sourdough bread. So good! We also got their baguettes for our Christmas lunch.
How has your week been?
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