Christmas Crazy From the Land Down Under.

Burgh Baby is hosting a bit of Christmas Crazy and while I do love all things Christmasy I have neither the money nor the space to go all out. A post from 2 days ago shows you a bit of my decorating and though I did not take pictures of Christmas towels I assure you tha they are in all 3 bathrooms. I am surprised by the amount of people who don't put Christmas towels in their bathroom.

Today I am posting, totally without permission and stolen off of facebook, pictures of William's mother's house in Melbourne. I said myself in that same post from 2 days ago that I didn't fully feel the Christmas spirit until the snow arrived and I just don't know how Australians do it. Not only is there no snow, it's the middle of bloody summer! It's unnatural is what it is. Imagine trying to cook a turkey dinner in 40 degree heat. Do they even play Let It Snow on the radio there?

My MIL, a very kind and lovely woman, is a wee bit fond of knickknacks. When the shelves in the 2 pictures below are not full of snowmen, Santas and other assorted Christmasy decorations (minus, I note, the fun filled Hallmark snowman we sent her a few years ago) they are full of pictures and other assorted garage sale knickknacks. Now I'm a pretty cluttered person myself, but her shelves make my eyes hurt.




A white tree. My SIL sent her this tree all the way from Scotland as she couldn't find one in Australia. No offense to any white tree lovers out there, but I hate and despise them with all of my being. My mother shocked me this year by buying a white tree. I was appalled and called her all sorts of grinch like names. Have I said my mother and I are very different? Her white tree is themed in red and silver, while I buy into the theory that your tree reflects your life story with ornaments that are loved and have a tale behind them. Anyway, back to the MIL...They do have a regular normal green tree as well, in the sunroom, but I could only steal so many pictures.


Deer in the garden in the back yard.


The front of the house.


The inside of the carport.


Carport roof.


I am not sure how much decorating the average Australian home does, but I am told that people do stop and get out of their cars to take pictures. But, for me, it just doesn't look right without snow.

Happy Birthday Holly!!

Everyone's favourite anglophile turns 31 today! (Which would make her exactly 4 years and 3 days younger than moi. Bitch.) In honour, or perhaps in spite of, turning the dreaded 3-1, Holly opened up her blog to questions. 31 of them to be exact. Today she answers those questions and is hoping to hit 100 comments (frankly I'd be pleased with 31, which is exactly the number she had a couple of hours ago when I read her post) so, if you happen to be a lurker at Holly's blog, or have yet to visit her, do so today, learn a little bit about her and throw a happy birthday her way.

Hope you have a fantastic birthday Holly!

The most wonderful time of the year. Or is it?

I am having a hard time believing it is only 8 more sleeps until Christmas. It took me a while to get into Christmas this year, usually I am pulling out Christmas CDs in July and starting my shopping. Money was tight this summer so I didn't start as early as I normally do. Money is still tight, but I have had a bit of help from my own Father Christmas (aka my Dad) and some fantastic sales so I have managed to do pretty good. Of course, I have still yet to get Taylor and Liam's big gifts (an iPod touch for Taylor and a PSP for Liam). It was so much easier when they were little and you could buy 10 or so gifts for the $200 plus it now costs to buy one single gift for a teenager. But as much as I worry, I know that we are very lucky. Everyday in the paper there is a column about Adopt-a-teen, where low income families are given a $50 Wal-Mart gift card for their teens. As of today, 4000 teens still were in need of a gift card. I can't even imagine that being all my kids would get, so definitely, I know that we are blessed.

The other thing that was keeping my normal Christmas spirit at bay was the lack of snow. I can't believe I just said that! I always say that I would like the snow to arrive Christmas Eve and to be gone by New Years but really, it just isn't Christmas until it is white. I really don't think I could live somewhere warm. Or somewhere rainy, for that matter.

Normally, as soon as the Halloween decorations come down the "snow" ones go up (and stay up until mid-March, when I am finally absoultely sick to death of the snow!) But, with the exception of Remembrance Day there was no snow in November. I put off putting up the snow decorations until the last weekend of November.

Snowmen in the hallway.


In the last few days we have plenty of snowflakes to wish upon.


Put up the snow decorations and bring on the snow! Liam built this fort that Saoirse loved playing in.


Once the snow decorations were up it was time to get ready for the Christmas decorations. I just bought this one at a craft fair and although it is technically a snowman, he will only come out for the month of December.


He's perfect for our fireplace-less house. No more untying stockings from the bansiter. They tell me he can hold the weight of all our full stockings so we shall see.


A mish mash of decorations...the tree at the back was made by Saoirse in layschool last year, and the pine cone is from this year. On the right hand side you may notice a glass candle holder, it has an etching of Mary holding Jesus. I bought that for my Granny when I was about 13, it was one of the few things that remained with her for the next 15 years and when she passed away my aunt gave it back to me.


The Christmas tree, partially decorated. It is still only partially decorated. The girls keep removing decorations to play with them and they don't seem to make it back onto the tree. Saoirse is quite concerned over what ornaments belong to who and quite can't understand why Liam and Taylor have so many more than her and Sophie. I have told her that as they move out and have their own trees their ornamaments will be given to them and she is now laying claim to numerous ornaments. "Can I have this one when I grow up and have my own tree Mummy?"


I love these bells. I bought them about 8 years ago at a home craft show. They are hanging this year on my garage door so that I see them whenever I come in or go out.


So I'm feeling the Christmas spirit now. I constantly have the radio set to a station that has been playing Christmas music since the end of November. I wish I could find my Time Life Christmas Treasury CDs because it has about 4 songs I love that I never hear and have on no other CDs. I need to wrap a whole lot of gifts. I am stalking the Christian television station to make sure I watch all the Christmas episodes of Facts of Life, Happy Days and other retro sitcoms. We are reading multiple Christmas related books daily. I am pretty happy. I am excited to see how much Sophie will love Christmas this year. Everyday she says "Mummy! Guess what?" and when I say "What?" she says, with absolute glee, "Christmas!!!" How can you not love Christmas when you have little kids around?