Wednesday, December 31, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!


Just wishing you all a very happy New Year and we hope you all have the best year ever for 2009! Take care and stay safe!
((((hugs))))) Maz & Bruce

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Santa Visits

Around the 18th December each year Bruce and I hold a dinner at our house for a couple of good friends, Bree, Mick and thee kids. Its strange how every time we hold this dinner we always end up with an extra guest at the end of the evening. It was the same again this year!!!
18th December:
Geordie, Lin and Zinnia, Drew, Bree, Chloe, Pheobe, Mick and Ashlee along with Bruce and myself all got together for dinner. We had a lovely meal, great conversation and lots of laughs. When dinner was over we all went out into the back garden so that the kids could have a run around and play with the dogs.
Maybe 10 minutes or so after we got outside we heard a loud HO! HO! HO! and a bell ringing at the front of the house. Chloe and Pheobe knew straight away who it was. They were so hilarious. Chloe was screaming 'Santa, its Santa' while running frantically on the spot. Pheobe was just plain screaming at the top of her lungs, its a miracle the neighbours didn't come running thinking the girls were being murdered. Ashie now knows who Santa is but didn't understand what all the fuss was about, but she took off after the girls anyway, straight to the back door, through the house to the front door to let Santa in.
Zinnia on the other hand isn't impressed at all by the jolly red fella. She watched the girls screaming, jumping up and down, and running off into the house, then toddled off round the other side of the house, where she got a full view of Santa standing on the front porch. She pointed and smiled and just had that knowing little look that nearly 2 year olds often have when they have just outwitted and outsmarted their older playmates.
Santa was brought into the house with very little ceremony this year. Of course he still had to have a go at Bree about some extra packaging as he was making his way to the couch.
Here is a photo of Santa just to prove he was here:

First up on Santa's lap was Pheobe. She was more than happy this year to chat away to Santa, telling him what she wanted for Christmas, and just taking it all in her stride that Santa was actually in Nanny's house again.


Ashlee had us in stitches. The look she had on her face was so comical. She wouldn't look Santa in the face and stayed totally rigid the whole time she was with him, but she was more than happy to take the present and run. She finds Santa rather curious, but understands the present part really well.


Here's Chloe. She has been a little bit (quite a bit) naughty for her mum over the last 12 months.
Santa asks her 'have you been a good girl?', she replies 'not really, but I've been trying'.
Nothing wrong with this girl! We thought this might be the last year Chloe would fall for this, but NO! She was as mesmerised as last year. We do wonder how much longer she will share in the magic though.......she's nearly 9 now.


Zinnia liked Santa OK from a distance, but DON'T SIT ME ON THE FAT MANS LAP!!!!
She cried and crawled onto her mums lap and wouldn't have anything to do with Santa......that is until Santa asked her if she wanted a present. She slowly came around to looking at him from the shelter of mums arms, shyly gave him a little wave hello, took her present, but was ready to scream if Santa came any closer (not bad when it was her much adored father under all that red material and white fluffy stuff! lol!)


Santa eventually had to leave, saying he had to go and visit a few more lucky children. Bree made comment on the fact that Santa wasn't wearing his big black belt.........something along the lines of maybe Santa had got too fat for the belt. Santa replied that his big elf had forgotten to pack the belt. Bree pushed the too fat for the belt line again.
Santa, always having to have the last word, made a quiet but snide comment about making sure there was a Jenny Craig gift voucher under the tree for Bree at Christmas....what a nasty Santa!!!!
Santa left the house, and we're sure we heard the reindeer stomping on the roof. By the time we got into the back gardenagain, Santa was nowhere to be seen.....gone for another year! THANK YOU SO MUCH GEORDIE!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas Lights

We took the girls out for a drive to look at the Christmas Lights before Christmas. We set off at about 8.30pm.....still light, and returned the girls at around 11pm after a fairly lengthy drive, and a stop off at Hungry Jacks for sundaes and Storms, YUM!!!!
Other than the lights being absolutely stunning, the thing that amazed me the most was the generosity of the people who had set up these wonderful displays for others to share.
The first house we visited, the children came out with a bag of candy canes and gave one to every child visiting, how generous is that?
At another house the owner was dressed as Santa, his grandchildren as Santa's elves. They were giving all the children chocolates or balloons. They also had a HUGE projector TV set up in the garden with the WIGGLES DVD playing, so the kids could sing along too. Amazing!
Yet another house, the owners invited the girls onto the verandah to have a look at their very special angel teddy bear, which played Christmas carols and changed colour....just beautiful.
We let the girls get out of the car at most of the houses and the look of wonder and awe on their faces really made the night for us. They would often find hidden treasures in the gardens that you couldn't see from the car, and their excitement was catching.
After a wonderful night where our senses eventually went into overload, we took 2 very tired little girls home to their mum.
Here are a few of the pics we took that night:



Sunday, December 28, 2008

My Very First Blog Post

Well, here it is, my very first blog post. I have had the blog site named and waiting to go since June, but being totally blog challenged, I didn't know how to set it all up. Anyway, after a visit from Bree today, and an hour or so of tutoring, we had the banner, the pic, and the blog list set up, and I was well tutored in how to go about setting everything else up.
So here I am finally with my very own blog.........nearly set up, but not quite finished yet. I will be adding more stuff over the next week or so, so that it is all finished by the time I go back to work on the 5th.
I will be using this blog to post my photo's and digtal scrapbook layouts, to keep a sort of journal of what is happening in my life, and as a way to communicate with family and friends overseas and in other parts of Australia.