I'm back...

It's been a busy few weeks - hence the lack of blog posts.

We were away for about 1.5 weeks at the Gold Coast - part holiday, part writing conference for me.  More to come in future posts. 

We got home last Wednesday - which left 2 days to plan and organise a birthday party for Billy on the Saturday.  Yes, the boy turned double digits finally!!

It was a Minecraft themed party.  (I know, total shock, right?!)

Minecraft presents..

Minecraft cake..

Minecraft games.. (Pin the Pickaxe on Steve and a Creeper Pinata)

(Even the non-Minecraft gifts were well received anyway!!)

So it's taken a few days to recover, and begin to catch up on reality after being away.  I think I'm finally starting to make some headway on my to-do list!!

Card tricks

For a few hours this week, the obsession with Minecraft has been overtaken by a new one.  Learning card tricks by watching YouTube videos..

I'm not sure how long it will last - but he's having fun, learning patience, and the value of practice!

Maitland Show

We met my parents and niece over at the local show today.  Despite being hot, we had an enjoyable couple of hours wandering around.

We looked at the handiwork displays first - photography, sculpture and artwork exhibitions - and the produce displays.  Sadly, these are much smaller than they used to be when I was a kid.

This platypus was my favourite sculpture.

Talented artists

The agricultural display - those are some big pumpkins!

Display of old photos from the local area.

There were the usual rides and food stalls.

The clowns have a special memory for me - I think it was the only thing we could afford to go on as kids.  Now however, it was $5 / game!

Greasy show food (with a strangely phallic looking pluto pup).

And the ever-popular dodgem cars!

There were lots of other rides, but I didn't take photos of them.

They also had a free circus - we weren't expecting a lot from it, but it was surprisingly pretty good.  It seemed to be a small, family run circus - the young boy in the last 2 photos looked to be about 12.  Very impressive!

Carols night

Billy's education was lacking.  He claimed he had never been to a Carols by Candlelight.  I think I have taken him once when he was little, but he obviously can't remember it.

So in order to rectify such a grevious oversight, we met my mum, sister and nieces at a local church run Carols night.  The weather hadn't been kind all day, but in an optimistic spirit, it went ahead outside as planned. 

Waiting to start - the empty spaces soon filled up quickly.

While waiting, we were 'entertained' by a local magician (whose jokes were corny when I first saw him more than 20 years ago - and he's still using the same material lol).  He's a local icon and does a lot of fundraising for charities.

Before the magician could even finish, the heavens opened up, and everyone ran for shelter in the hall / church.  While the organisers and helpers were busy transferring all of the equipment inside and trying to get Plan B underway, we had a surprise visitor with lollies for the kids.

Finally the carols got underway - by this time though, their planned programme had been tossed away and they just did about half a dozen of the more popular kid's ones - Jingle Bells, Rudolph etc. 

And the weather finally cleared enough for their grand finale - a quite spectacular fireworks display.

It was a fun night.  I felt sorry for the organisers that their plans were destroyed but people still seemed to have a good time (if slightly damp lol).  I'm not sure if that qualifies as a proper 'carols by candlelight' for Billy - we'll have to try again next year!

Busy day

Yesterday was a busy day.  We had the family Xmas lunch with Pete's side of the family - lunch for 17 at our place!

Time for fossball

Lots of time for opening lots of presents!

A bit of backyard cricket.

After the Xmas lunch, we had out street Xmas party at a neighbours house (literally straight after - as I was waving family off, I was already heating the oven ready to take a plate of food to it!).  There's about 12 houses in our section of street that get together every year to celebrate Xmas.

Some of the kids went for a swim - it was a mild night, but not warm enough for the pool in my opinion!

Our street party has been going for about 16 years. 

Greyhound Gymkhana

On Sunday we went along to a greyhound gymkhana by invitation of my father-in-law.  Now to me, a gymkhana is for ponies and little girls showing what they can do on them, but apparently you can have a greyhound gymkhana as well.  Basically it involved lots of greyhound races but no betting (ie it wasn't an official greyhound meeting).

So we got to watch the dogs in the 'exercise' yard (every second photo I took seemed to have a dog relieving themselves - obviously they get nervous before a race!)

This was our favourite - I'm not a greyhound lover, but it was a beautiful looking dog.

Heading around to the boxes - it was a long walk for the trainers, the dogs seemed to handle it fine :)

And they're off and racing... 

(somewhere)

Unfortunately our favourite was just a pretty boy not a runner and came in last...

Catching them at the end of the race.

Since it was a fun event, there were also raffles & chocolate wheels, some fun running races for the kids and even a visit from the big man in the red suit handing out lollies and ice-blocks.

It was certainly an interesting day.  Billy really enjoyed it and wants to know when the next one is on!  (But then, that may have been the free lollies and ice-blocks!)

How to make a Xmas pudding

We went and helped my father-in-law make the annual Xmas puddings today.  He makes 2 each year - one to eat at our family Xmas lunch, and the other to divide between the families.  This was our 1st time at helping him.

He has two gigantic bowls that are the traditional pudding mixing bowls.

Cream butter and brown sugar, add eggs, brandy, breadcrumbs & mixed fruit.  Try really hard to stir it but hand over to Mum because its getting pretty stiff.

Add flour, bicarb soda and mixed spice.

Line a bowl with the boiled pudding cloth, and cling wrap.  Spoon in the mixture.

Tie tightly.

Boil in the copper for 6 - 7 hrs, turning every hour.  Then hang for a few more hours to drain.

While waiting, clean up the cooking utensils :)