I feel as though I have a stack of catching up to do on my blog right now. I guess with Christmas and my little trip away I’ve just been too consumed in other stuff to have kept this thing updated!

I have a bunch of 101 list updates to write, but before time gets away from me any further I wanted to write about those two little kids in the photo up there – cousin Trisha and I.

(I guess I always knew that one day I would end up posting topless pictures of myself on my blog, sorry for dragging you down with me T!)

I have no idea what’s going on in this picture…

My little cuz became a Mrs two weeks ago, and tonight I went through the photos for the first time. Here are a few cute shots of us getting ready, and her final few hours as a single lady!

Corinne, my co-bridesmaid, and her awesome lion mane!

Trisha was too busy laughing at us to strike a pose

The bridesmaids

My pretty ‘do

Bridey’s pretty hairstyle

It’s Chanel, dahling.

Schnitzel does his magic

During our vacation earlier this month I took Tim to Shelly Beach.  It’s a little spot in Caloundra, QLD, where I spent many happy hours as a kid.  My grandparents lived two streets away from this beach for 30 years and our extended family usually congregated there a few times each year, for Christmas and other occasions.

My grandparents sold their beautiful little house 6 or 7 years ago and moved to Brisbane.  The person who bought it rented it out to bogans who pulled out Grandpa’s roses and put a BBQ on the front porch.  Driving past the house 10 days ago was really sad, and I’m not sure I’ll ever do that again.

Today is Boxing Day, and one year since we lost Grandpa to cancer.

I don’t know how to write about my Grandpa without writing you a novel.  In his own quiet way, he taught me so much about the sort of person I want to be, and to be around.  He will forever be the standard by which I compare all other people in my life, and the loss that I feel today doesn’t feel any less than it did one year ago.

You’d have loved my Grandpa.

Ten days ago I took the time to sit on the volcanic rocks at Shelly Beach and remember him.  I looked around and pictured me and my cousins as kids, picking up hermit crabs and building sandcastles together.  I thought about how lucky we were to have such an amazing playground in which to make these memories together.

Music is “Silent Sea” by KT Tunstall. Forgive my shaky iphone video…

It felt good to show this place to Tim.

The world lost one of its treasures 12 months ago, and I miss him more than I can say.

Christmas was lovely at The Orphanage this year. The three of us spent the day together watching old Christmas movies, eating our body weight in seafood, and snuggling up on the couch.  The shortest member of our family discovered a variety of delicious treats in his stocking, and spent the day working through them one by one.

Our extended families were greatly missed, but it was good to catch up with everyone by phone during the day.  I wonder if we’ll ever have everybody together in the same hemisphere again, as we did for Christmas last year?

I hope your day was lovely, and that Santa delivered the goods!

Merry Christmas.

We’re home again, after one of my favourite holidays of all time!

Last week was filled with simple pleasures that truly recharged me after a huge year at work.  It was a special chance for Tim and I to spend some time together, and we had so much fun exploring the Sunshine Coast at our own speed.  It was especially great to share my childhood playground with him, and to rediscover it myself as an adult.

My Mum & Dad gave us this little trip away as an early Christmas present, following ma petite cousine’s wedding in Brisbane two Saturdays ago.  We feel very lucky!

It would have been great to spend Christmas itself in Brisbane with my family, but with the puppy in Melbourne it was hard to be away any longer than a week.  It feels strange that Christmas is only a few days away – such a contrast to our last one!  This time last year we had Tim’s parents out from the USA, and my family were almost due to arrive.  We hosted an enormous Christmas dinner at our place, our families met for the first time, and the house felt Christmasy through-and-through.

This year feels very different, perhaps because we haven’t had to plan it so far ahead of time.  I’m sure I will be in Christmas-mode by the 25th, but today I’m blasting carols from my office in the hope that it puts me in the mood ahead of time!

Spare a thought for my coworkers today.  I hope they are enjoying the Bob Dylan Christmas album!

Last night’s belated, antipodean Thanksgiving was heaps of fun. I was too busy enjoying the company and incredible food to take any other photos, so tonight I am forced to relive the memories in the form of leftover pumpkin and apple pie.

It’s a tough job, but I’m just trying to get through it without complaining. I hope nobody minds if I blog with a full mouth.

Tim took complete ownership of the food for yesterday’s event, cooking a red currant glazed turkey in the BBQ (sooooo good) and a bunch of “family recipe” side dishes that his mum sent him during the week. A trip to USA Foods last weekend sorted out some last minute ingredients, including fried onions for the green bean casserole and Reeces peanut butter chips for his amazing chocolate cookies. Our talented guests provided the pumpkin and apple pies, and the wine floooowed!

The SingStar fairy visited a couple of hours after dinner, and didn’t leave again until about 3am. I woke this morning to the smell of bacon & eggs, and the last of our guests headed home at about 1pm today!

Post-Thanksgiving depression set in at approximately 1.04pm, so I began pestering Tim to help me put up the Christmas tree. We agreed to give it a couple more days to get the turkey coma wear off before kicking off Christmas, so instead of my tree I thought I’d show you Naomi and Josh’s tree from last year!

(If you’re not already following the adventures of Naomi and Josh via their blog, you really should. It’s basically the happiest place on the Internet.)

Maybe Tim would have been more excited if I’d suggested a more contemporary tree this year?

Panty Tree by VSPink.com – thank you for the link, Dooce!

By Gun Show Comic

My Americano and I are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow night with a bunch of friends. I’ve never done Thanksgiving before (if you can’t figure out why, you might need a history refresher) and I’ve been learning a lot about the traditions of this holiday over the past couple of weeks.

Tim has taken total control of the cooking, which began last night with an incredible batch of peanut butter & chocolate cookies. Tomorrow night we’ll be eating red currant glazed turkey, green bean casserole, honey glazed carrots and garlic mashed potatoes. Our guests are providing pumpkin and apple pies.

So with all of that under control, I guess my job is to make the table look beautiful! I’ve spent some time googling pictures of Thanksgiving tables, but confess that I find most of them sort of ugly. And besides, most of the produce that features in traditional centrepieces is completely out of season in Australia.

Please share your amazing Thanksgiving table with me in the comments, or point me in the direction of your inspiration! I feel like such a rookie.

What a weekend!

Last Friday night I flew to Brisbane for my little cousin’s Hen’s Party (or Bachelorette, if you’re from the other part of the world!). Trisha’s other bridesmaid Corinne did an incredible job organising a beautiful High Tea at the Sofitel on the 30th floor.

The views were amazing…

The food incredible…

Great company in family and friends…

And… I got to wear my cute new blue dress!

Everybody seemed to have a terrific time, especially Bridey who flitted around the room like a tipsy social butterfly! It was lovely to meet the ladies from all the different parts of Trisha’s life, and to get to know some of them before the big day. It was especially great to hang out with Corinne and engage in a little Secret Bridesmaid Business, since we haven’t caught up in person in years.

Trisha couldn’t wipe the smile off her face all afternoon – unless she happened to notice that the camera was pointed in her direction…

We were gently kicked out about an hour after our function was supposed to end, and everybody went their separate ways. Trisha, Corinne and I decided to send the camera and the presents home with our mums and kick on. For another ten hours…

Between the time when this photo was taken, and 3am when my head hit the pillow, I think we managed to meet every other person out in Brisbane. Those hours were full of daiquiris, midori, crowns, sashes, karaoke and a guy we nicknamed Shirley Temple. Such good fun, and Bridey McBridebreath was in her element.

So Wedding Season has officially kicked off. All that’s left to do is to finish the dress, find me some shoes, and get myself back to Brissy in a few weeks time for the big party! I have a feeling that time will fly…

(I hope everybody has noted my dedication to NaBloPoMo, posting to my blog in the middle of this huge night out!)

Tim and I sang the modified monkey version of the birthday song to Jack tonight, over the phone, and got an earful of giggles in return. I’ll be seeing him in Brisbane next month for some much-needed tickles and Aunty Liz cuddles!

I’m finding it hard to believe that it was seven years ago that I met the little bubba in that photo. He was very little, and extremely displeased with his rude entry into the world. But just a few minutes later he snuggled up with his mum and decided things weren’t so bad on the outside after all.

That little red-faced monkey has grown into an incredible kid, whose sense of humour and mischief should be bottled. I’m sorry that not everybody gets to have a little Jack in their lives because he makes ours heaps of fun!

Happy birthday Jack! You’re a big wally, and we love you to bits.

We hope you have a fun year being 7! xxx

Part of my 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge.

Earlier this month, that gorgeous boy of mine turned thirty. It was a landmark occasion that he struggled to come to terms with, and the grieving process seemed to begin about 3 months in advance.

(At least he’s not the one dating a 30-year-old!)

I wanted it to be an extra-special occasion, in part because all of “his” people are on the other side of the world. So, starting in June I put together The Festival of Tim’s Birthday.

It was the best!

On the Thursday before his birthday we went out for breakfast, and I gave him a card. It announced the commencement of The Festival, and included some instructions for meeting me for dinner after work. I gave him a map and tram directions, and instructions to be on time.

When he arrived at our meeting point, he told me that he had it all figured out. He had correctly guessed that we were having dinner on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant…

… but hadn’t guessed the part about my parents and brother coming to visit for 10 days!

The tram restaurant was heaps of fun, and exceeded my expectations. I really didn’t have high hopes for the standard of the food, but was very pleasantly surprised. We all chose the steak, which came with a delicious mushroom sauce, followed by sticky date pudding or passionfruit mousse for dessert.

Our glasses were full all night, and we spent our time switching seats so that everybody had a chance to talk with the birthday boy. At times I completely forgot that we were on a tram, and due to the darkness outside we sometimes had to consult the GPS on our iphones to see where we were!

Towards the end of the night I handed Tim a pretty gift box with a big silver ribbon. An early present. Inside was a luggage tag, already printed with his name and address.

“You’re going to need this tomorrow”, I said.

To be continued…

I had a birthday!

Thalassotherapy, along with a pony, are among the many things that I did not get for my birthday. However, I did get three bouquets – one of them chocolate!

The gorgeous Crumpler camera bag that I’ve been lusting after for about 2 years, from Tim:

A shiny jewellery tree from Mum & Dad (plus some Pandora beads!):

And – from the “you know me so well” files…

A vintage book from Sally, re-bound with lots of blank pages to use as a journal or sketchbook. Every so often there’s an illustration or page from the original novel – it’s really beautiful. Created by Aunty Art Studios, check them out!

Thanks to everyone who got in touch on the day – turning 29 was pretty grand.