new things

Christmas time is a time for new things.

  New presents.

New ball skills.

New water fights.

New jokes.  Actually not really new jokes.  Those jokes in the bon bons have been around since the manger was full and the wise men were following the bright light.

New baby cousins.  Awwww.  I got to have cuddles.  He was prised out of my arms to be fed.

New ham bones for Christmas lunch.

Naps on Christmas afternoon.

New hair for growing up girls.

New games for us all to play together.  I am raising my children to be FIERCE board game players.  Although they will possibly whip my butt soon.  Actually now.

We got a new games called DIXIT from the Healy Christmas - I thoroughly recommend it - thanks Al! 

Lots of 'new' at Christmas.  And we remember anew a child entering the world to save it.

Pine Forest

We took an afternoon walk through the Pine Forest near Armidale.  There were lots of bikes and kids and chatting and eating and laughing.  And some whinging.  The photos look like we had an idyllic walk through a lovely forest, skipping gladly through the flowers and discussing matters of the heart and philosophy (actually awesome friend Fiona and I did that part).  However, the real sound track to the walk consisted of a lot of whining, yelling, shrieking, shouting for no reason and declarations of hunger bordering on starvation.

The Pine Forest hosts some medieval re-enactments yearly, and some structures stay there all year.  We imagined this was a big meeting hall or a hut.  And I imagined being out here in the middle of an Armidale winter prentending I lived in the 13th century.  And then I was really glad people built houses with heating and cupboards full of hot chocolate and shortbread and the internet.

No, we could not figure out what this structure was either.  Gallows?  Quick! Get out of there Calab!!!!  Pine Forest ooggedy booggedy!

Clambering over the partially collapsed huts was fun.

 
I miss her!  Much silliness and chatting had to be squashed into a few days.  But lovely.  She has a farm to run in Gerringong (I learnt how to 'process' chickens...). Fiona is wearing a cool scarf overshirt combo.  Me - a muppets shirt.  Explains a lot.

 
Gab chose sun and safety protection at the same time on her head.  She makes me laugh.

 
The kids were mountain biking pros, especially second youngest nephew.

However, just after I took this photo oldest niece did a spectacular stack onto this bit of gravel road.  It was like it was happening in slow motion, and her chin took the brunt of her fall over the handle bars.  Ouch....she was so brave.  I would have cried and yelled a lot more.

So the day ended abruptly for the Pines in the Pine Forest.

Picnic at Yarrowyck. Only because it rhymed.

Challenged by a friend to make a limerick of our day trip yesterday I pulled together the following quickly:

Seven Pines in a Prado to Yarrowyck
Including a dog, went to bush picnic
We rock hopped and rock slipped
We broke bread rolls and dipped
And afterwards, beer, with a limerick

That pretty much summed up our lovely trip to Yarrowyck creek 30 minutes outside of Armidale with the cousins.  The weather was just right, we managed a little bit of 4WDing, the water was cool and refreshing, and the picnic food delicious - particularly the secret recipe Christmas cake.  It was only sad we didn't have the other cousins with us - it was raining every time we tried to do the trip when they were here.

 He leaps! In a single bound!  From one rock to another rock!

Scooter LOVED the water - she takes every opportunity to be completely wet.

What a lovely day for a Picnic at Yarrowyck.

Holiday puzzle

On most holidays I crack out a puzzle. I love puzzles, and according to my mother I have loved them since I have been born. Maybe it is the sense of creating order from chaos, or an sense of task completion that I enjoy. During a Pine holiday there is also competitive puzzle completion, where no-one dares to leave the puzzle table before it is finished, so we sit there parched, busting and eyes straining until the last piece is slotted in. Some children even hide the last piece so they can get the satisfaction of slotting it in.



So here are some life lessons I impart using sweeping generalizations about puzzles.

- those who do the edge first enjoy structure and orderliness/are control freaks
- those who start from the middle out are picture based idea focused/annoying
- if it doesn't fit smoothly and you have to use two fingers to smoosh it in, IT DOESN'T FIT
- sometimes you can't see the whole picture. A bit like life. Until you finish the puzzle, then you can see the whole picture. Then the analogy collapses.
- you start with the bright colors and end up with the blacks that all look the same. Not sure how that is significant, but it sounds deep. Think about it.


A completed puzzle is a joy. Particularly if you have finished it in the after lunch lull with a cup of tea and jazz music and a lack of small children around. Although the children all took part in putting this puzzle together, especially my highly spatially aware 3 year old nephew.

Love a holiday puzzle. Because at no other time of the year can you while away hours joining together cardboard for no reason.

The Christmas dinosaur

We are down in Armidale with the very cute nieces and nephews, and this Christmas dinosaur I found in the loungeroom. There is nothing like a three year old at Christmas.

There has been crack of dawn stocking opening, much food, carefully chosen presents and mucking around with family. My heart is warm as I think of the many many friends I have and the awesome family I am part of. I am thankful that God chose to enter our world in such a tiny fantastic big humble way.



Annika is enjoying her new top, earphones and book. I blinked and there was a teenager sitting there. When did that happen? Mothering - they are the LONGEST days and the shortest years. I let her get a purple streak in her hair yesterday. I think she feels inexpressively cool.



They had chocolate for breakfast. Maybe a vegetable will pass their lips today, maybe not. Gab loves her new board shorts - teamed with a bowler hat they make a snappy outfit that you can wear at anytime on Christmas Day.

Have a great Christmas Day, may it be full of dinosaurs.

GOMA love

Visiting the Gallery of Modern Art on a Friday afternoon is awesome.  No crowds.  Lots to do.  Much art to be admired.  It is good for the soul.  It is the Asia Pacific Triennial.

 I quite like these little glass giraffes.

And these other little glass creatures.  They speak to me.  Not literally.  Really.

The train track room was fabulous.  All the blue lines on the walls are train tracks.  I began working out how to do it in my house.  Then though that the artist who did this would have probably bought all the blue train tracks in Brisbane.  Maybe with wooden ones....hmmm.....

Some monkeys we found at the exhibition.

 Masked.

Emotions?  Appearance?

The mystery of masks.

GOMA love.

behold the Christmas stick

So normally we have a perpetual (like a perpetual trophy) Norfolk Pine in a pot for a Christmas tree.  But as I went to drag it in from the garden this week I noticed it was quite full of...well...dead branches. After snipping them off I figured it would be quite tricky to hang our decorations on a stump of a tree.  So w needed a new Christmas solution (after my bold suggestion we had NO tree was shouted down).

We chopped off a branch from the grevillea tree, stripped the leaves, spray painted it white and stuck it in a bucket of sand.  Behold the Christmas Stick.

This is a decoration from Harrods.  Whenever I unpack the Christmas decorations I regale the children with the story of these decorations.  We were given 12 beautiful glass Christmas baubles from Harrods one year from lovely friends.  Although we were in London backpacking - not an ideal way to carry glass decorations. We sent them home in a box nestled in bubble wrap. Five of them made it to Australia.  But we have had all five for the last 12 years. 

Our Christmas stick looks like someone got the decorations out of the box and sneezed them onto it.  And the children complained that I MAKE them listen to Handel's Messiah while we decorate the tree.  Although I happily noticed this year they were singing along.....

We are happy with our efforts.

We will see if the Norfolk Pine grows a few more branches for next year.