In danger of supporting another commercial marketing invention …. I invited some friends from Sydney down for CHRISTMAS IN JULY!!!  BUT…. really, is there anything wrong with hauling out the beautiful Christmas decorations that generally only get to see daylight one month in the year…. letting them hang over a REAL fire and drinking warmed gluvine around them whilst rugged up and eating HOT pork crackling and stuffed turkey? It’s the closest I’ll get to one of those heavy with snow Christmas cards whilst still here in Oz.

The weekend was glorious – warm sunny weather during the day for the kids to clamber about in the tree house and make decorations to hang in their outdoor Christmas tree (freshly cut from the garden!). Mountains of yummy food (minus the parmesan potatoes that I managed in incinerate in the oven!)… and presents of course! BUT… special presents.. homemade presents, and nothing that would cost more than $10 to create! Well… it’s amazing the talents that pop up when pushed…. the haul included recycled timber boxes, shadow puppets, embroidered aprons, jam, patchwork skirts, pickled people (no, not real people… the old stocking and stick on eye variety!!), bag tags etc…. but Steve took the award for most inventive (and probably most time consuming) gift… I actually find it hard to describe, essentially it was just a book that needed to be opened….. but to do so was something ‘The Da Vinci Code’ would have been proud of!