Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

Well it's officially 2017.  On the last day of 2016, I reflected on the year that was. Did I have amazing highlights? YES!  Did I have devastating lows?  Yes. 😭 Did I accomplish my non-resolutions that I set in February?  Sure, it's a work in progress.  Did I focus on what's important to me?  Yep.  Did I make good decisions?  Sure.  Did I make mistakes?  Yep.  Did I apologise for the mistakes I made?  Nope.  Did I care what anyone thought about the decisions I made?  Nope.  Did I beat myself up over "Could have, should have, would have"?  Nope.  Each moment is about the experience it gives you and is what shapes your life.  This year was about living unapologetically and so will 2017. What I love about the new year is the clean calendar pages, the new notebooks, new confidence, new chances and fresh starts.

And now I'll do what's best for me…
- John Green

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Thank you to everyone who sent Christmas cards.  We love seeing your family photos!  We stopped doing Christmas cards some time ago, opting to send out a virtual card (you are reading it now) so enjoy our Christmas 2016.

Official Santa Photo 2016
QVB, Sydney

Christmas in the City

Closest we get to licking snowflakes

Santa Train
(MissE's last year probably!)

Tis the Silly Season = Christmas Parties!

My Christmas party was at Madame Tussauds this year.  While pretty much everyone else went red carpet glamour, I went costume (the original theme), channeling a '90's classic: Clueless.

AS IF!

Psycho

Spiderman

MrH's Christmas party was amazing this year.  It was at the Australian National Maritime Museum.  It's always good but this year was a stand out, we boogied until midnight!

I'm on a boat!

Rhonda Burchmore

Groove Factory 

The best cover band ever: Furnace and the Fundamentals

It's not a boat party until fake Cher sings If I Could Turn Back Time

Christmas

Gingerbread is not my friend, but chocolate is!

'Twas a Night Before Christmas...
A boy and his pup watch Christmas movies

We had a quiet Christmas this year.  We stuffed ourselves silly and introduced the kids to Christmas classics: Home Alone.

Elf on the Shelf

Holly, our Elf of the Shelf, returned for Christmas 2016.  She was up to no good a lot of the times!  Here were her antics this year:

Left to right, each row

Dec 1: I’m back, bi… oh wait… playas!  As usual Holly brings with her advent calendars.

Dec 2: Holly makes her ‘wish’ list.

Dec 3: We’re… we’re going streaking!  We’re going up to the qquad and to the gymnasium.  Bring your RED hat…

Dec 4: Were you raised in a barn? Close the door… and FLUSH next time!

Dec 5: Was it something we did?  Where are you going?

Dec 6: I’ve got a stowaway to Singapore!

           “Elfie” at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore.

Dec 7: Holly meets the Fullerton bear.

Dec 8: Dang girl, your breath!  Holly visits Straits Kitchen and eat like the locals, including durian ice cream.

Dec 9: You can't leave Singapore without visiting Raffles (luckily it was across the road from my hotel)
           One last ‘Sling before leaving Sing (Long Bar Raffles Singapore)
           Some of us spent the day at work, then there’s Holly… (Fairmont Singapore pool)
Dec 10: Oh, hi!  Another helper elf! (at Changi Airport)
             There’s no place like home… where the coffee is hot and flat whites exist. The darn elf does it again!  She’s in business while I’m in cattle-class!

Dec 11: Rested from her holiday, Holly is up to her tricks again.  It’s December not Mo-vember

Dec 12: Holly got into the wrapping paper.  We kinda need the backpacks still.

Dec 13: Weee….

Dec 14: The ole stocking switcheroo

Dec 15: Holly the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul.

Dec 17: Hey fishy, fishy!

Dec 18: Today’s the day!  ROGUE ONE… Holly brought some early presents for the movies

Dec 19: Quality control.  Do not leave these for Santa, they are horrible.  Santa PAWS might like these?

Dec 20: It’s not rocket science… it’s a gingerbread house.

Dec 21: Holly “decorates” the kitchen.  Holly wuz here.  Elves rule, kids drool

Dec 22: I’m just saying nobody has ever seen me and Spiderman in the same room together…

Dec 23: TP Party
Dec 24: Nativity Set & Farewell

So that's it for 2016… and here's to 2017!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

It's that time of year again… we hope you have yourself a Merry Little Christmas!  We're saving the trees so here is our e-greeting and our annual Santa photo.

Having a bit of fun with Santa

Me... I'm going on a bit of an official blog break.  I'll be back in the New Year with our Christmas adventures and year in review too.

The Silly Season is Upon Us!

Oh dear, so the days have gotten away from me again.  We have been busy getting into the spirit of the holidays.  We also had a surprise visitor!

School Photos

We finally got school photos back!  Here is MissE:

Unfortunately, I don’t have this keepsake for MrE this year.  His day-care did not take photos on the day he was supposed to so my $45 worth of photos is of him with bed-hair and he of course dressed himself that day.  Never mind that it took me 20 minutes then eventually a bribe to get him into wearing clothes he didn’t want to wear and to allow me to put product in his hair for these really great photos.  I am not impressed (I gave up waiting for my apology).  Instead here is the swim lesson photo:

Kids Go Free

After the excitement of Halloween, we had our last ‘free’ weekend until … umm, yes.  That’s right.  It was also Kids Go Free at Darling Harbour.  Being the budget-savvy person that I am, we had a Kids Eat Free lunch, played at the free water play area, capped it off with a Kids Free Lindt Sundae (adult sized!) before the rain came and yes, discounted parking too! 

Minions were here!

 

They didn't share with us.

Eden wasn't too sure about ferris wheel
Oh hey, he's wearing what he was supposed to wear for school photos!

Hey, Cuz!

I was checking Facebook one morning and I see that my cousin is in Sydney for work!  The last time we saw each other was 12 years ago at his wedding!  We were able to meet for dinner at Mr Wong’s.  Hopefully he comes back Down Under with his family next time!

The Silly Season Begins!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at TGI Fridays.  Don’t laugh!  They do a very large plate of roast turkey, green beans, mash potatoes and roasted carrots.  The only thing missing is corn bread!  For dessert we have a Tasting Platter of apple, pecan and pumpkin pie.  My pumpkin pie is better.

End of Year Parties

I had my work Christmas party at The Australian Maritime Museum.  It was a fun night despite it being 43c (that’s 110F)!

The girls of the Team Spine

I also had my team Christmas festivities.  This year, we decided to contribute to the community before having a team lunch.  (One of my favourite tenants of my company, the year-round focus on philanthropy)  Fittingly, it was on Thanksgiving Day too!  We spent the morning with OzHarvest.

OzHarvest is the first perishable food rescue organisation in Australia collecting quality excess food from commercial outlets and delivering it, direct and free of charge, to close to 500 charities providing much needed assistance to vulnerable men, women and children across Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Newcastle.

OzHarvest is the only food rescue organisation in Australia collecting surplus food from all types of food providers including fruit and vegetable markets, supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, corporate events, catering companies, shopping centres, delis, cafes, restaurants, film and TV shoots and boardrooms.

 

Here's what we made!

We also attended MrH’s Christmas party; the hottest ticket in Sydney and I look forward to going every year.  This year it was at the Argyle Precinct which is a number of restaurants.  It was also co-sponsored by Virgin Australia so the theme was Sky High and we had passports to get stamped at each “country” to gain access to the VIP Lounge.  They had entertainers in each section (Jazz singer for NYC, J-Pop DJ and Hello Kitty candy bar in Tokyo, pretzel towers in Munich, a steel drum band in Rio), a surprise appearance by Ricki Lee (Australian Idol runner-up), DJ Hot Dub Time Machine, and were giving away Virgin flights – we didn’t win.  Boo!  We enjoyed the night out despite it taking us over an hour to get home!

Pop star Ricki Lee

The real Optus wives
(It's rare we get a photo together)

At the Hello Kitty candy bar in "Tokyo"

Taekwondo

This one gets a special mention because it was also an Awards Day and MissE was recognised!  She received the Outstanding Student 2015 Junior Technique trophy.  What an exciting achievement for her!

Christmas in the City

I had a day off with MrE and gave MissE the day off from school too.  We took the train (this was very exciting for MrE) into the City and spent the day checking out the Christmas decorations and of course, saw the big man in red too.  I will hold onto those photos for a little bit longer but they are coming soon!  

This photo won me burgers x 2 for our next visit!

We had lunch at my favourite burger place in Sydney (my favourite in Australia is in Melbourne) then checked out David Jones’ Christmas Cave.  Unfortunately their display windows and the cave weren’t much to write home about.  The kids exchanged the Magic Tree.

Next it was onto Santaland at Myer.  Their toy department was pretty awesome with life-sized Stormtroopers!  The kids rode the Santa train 3 times.  This may be MissE’s last year!

I'd buy it...

And this one too.

Finally it was time to meet Santa!  We went over to QVB.  This year, as a Mastercard holder you could pre-book your Santa time.  Awesome-sauce as the queue for Santa here is nearly 6 hours! 

The always amazing QVB Swarovski Crystal Tree

After it was time to get the train back home.  We were all exhausted but it was a fun day for us!  I loved the lack of crowds!

MissE

Well, my little superstar at the moment!  We were invited to attend the End of Year Medal Assembly.  MissE received the Term 4 class medal for her enthusiasm at school.  Well done!  (It’s not chocolate – ha,ha!)

Her class also spent a few weeks’ talking about water and how important it is to a community.  They learnt about communities that don’t have clean running water and wanted to change that so they have partnered with OxFam to hold a cake stall.  Their goal was to raise $98 AUD to put a tap in a school in South Africa.  Anything extra will go to putting a tap in homes ($9) or buy a family a goat ($39).  They raised $445.15!  They are going to put clean water taps into 4 schools and buy a goat!  What a wonderful initiative at this time of year.

MrE Says the Darnedest Things

These days it’s MrE that keeps up laughing.  From scaring us silly by donning his Hulk mask and staying surprisingly quiet in his hiding spot, he also delivers these:

18 and Over

MrH and I were in the office one morning when MrE was watching TV.

MrE: Mama?

Me: Yes?

MrE: Are you over 18? 

Me: Bless his little heart

MrH: What did you see on TV?

MrE: I need a parent or guardian.  Are you a guardian?

MrH: Yes.

MrE: Oh good.

It’s Hot!

Me: You both can have an ice block (Zooper Dooper) since it’s so hot today.

MrE: I want the pink one.  Can I have a whole one and can you give it a blanket?

Geography

MissE: Are we going to Fiji?

Me: Vanuatu

MrE: I used to say that when I was a baby!

Me: What?

MrE: Wa-tu

Me: Laughing, which he did not like. Yes, you used to say “Don’t want to” and that sounds very similar.

Just Going for a Walk

MrE is all class.  At taekwondo lessons, he casually walked away from us.  We thought he was going for a better look at the kicking.  Nope.

MrE: Walking back to us.  I just had to fart.

And a special mention goes to MrH who completed Tough Mudder!!!

Until next time!