Christmas Day, Gifts & RAIN!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day/Boxing Day and were able to enjoy some time spent with friends and loved ones. I thought I'd pop in to tell you ... and show you! ... about OUR Christmas day, but be warned, there's quite a few photos, so you might want to grab a cuppa and a bickie first ... oh ... and perhaps some galoshes or floaties, cos there's a LOT of water involved! Tee! Hee! Hee!

We headed off down the hill to Brisbane to spend Christmas Day with Scott's (AKA My Beloved Geek Boy!!) family. This was our view out the windscreen winding our way down the range ...

Wet and foggy. The strip of blue up the top of this pic is the anti-glare strip on the windscreen and the ONLY way we saw blue sky on Christmas Day was to look through this! :0) As we got closer to Brisbane, we found we weren't the only ones travelling on Christmas Day ... we ran into a traffic snarl where we discovered that 'Every man and his DOG' were travelling on Christmas day in fact ...

This doggy was getting wet and telling everyone about it ... he gave some very impressive demonstrations of barking and howling to show his displeasure ... or perhaps he was chatting to the dog that was in the ute in front of him! Tee! Hee! Hee! We weren't held up too long in the traffic and arrived to a full-house ... the Meares' Madhouse in full flight! :0) Eleven adults and Eleven kids aged from about seven months through to 16 years old ... the kids that is, we didn't like to mention ADULT ages! Tee! Hee! Hee! Here's some of the Meares' mob in Christmas mode ...

GB sat in the corner and helped some of the nieces and nephews open their gifties ...

You can see GB's gifty stash behind him! :0) And do you remember those project bags I made?

They were a hit! :0) Levi carried his around with him for most of the day and enjoyed drawing in the sketchbook that I popped into the bag. Someone else who enjoyed their gifty ...

 

GB's youngest brother, Benny, got a bag full of home-cooked Christmas goodies ... oh, and a packet of "Reindeer Poop". Tee! Hee! Hee! Saw this idea on Sarah's blog and a few of the older nephews, plus a couple of friends with warped senses of humour received them! It DID lead to some rather sad jokes from the nephews about 'pooping on the chair' when they spilled some!! GROAN!!! :0) Of course, there was the usual Christmas feast that we all enjoyed ... even the youngest member of the family ...

Here's GB playing "Uncle Scott" with his youngest niece, Summer. You can't see it so well in the photo cos it was taken on my phone, but she had bread roll crumbled up EVERYWHERE! Tee! Hee! Hee!

And while it isn't the most important part of Christmas, we all know that one of the fun parts of Christmas celebrations is ... GIFTIES!!! :0) So I thought I'd show you some of what was left under the Christmas tree for me. :0) Firstly ... I FINALLY got to open my SSCS gifty from Satu ... I was a very GOOD girl and didn't open it until 12:15am on Christmas Day! Tee! Hee! Hee! We were still up wrapping gifties at that point ... we keep promising ourselves that one year we'll be so organised that we'll sit back and relax with a cuppa to watch the carols on TV on Christmas Eve rather than being in the midst of a wrapping frenzy ... but it hasn't happened yet! :0) OK ... inside the beautifully wrapped gifty from Satu I found ...

Some WONDERFUL things!! A cute project bag with the SWEETEST cross-stitched bears on the pocket ... Satu tells me their names are "Popcorn" and "Blueberry". Inside the bag I found a butterfly mug rug made up in cheerful red fabrics; a couple of pieces of YUMMY floral fabric that were designed by a Finnish fabric designer ... which makes sense, since that's where Satu lives! :0) Satu suggested that since my kitchen is red and green, I might like to use the fabrics for new potholders. Hmmm ... good thinking!! I'll add it to the "To Do" list! Oops! Did you just hear my list shriek?!?! Tee! Hee! Hee!  And under the green fabric, you can see a packet of pretty napkins that match the big poppies on the fabrics. THANK YOU SATU!! I feel VERY spoilt!! And you can just see the snowflake ornaments on the tree in the background. A HUGE THANK YOU!! To the fabulously organised Chookyblue for once again running a wonderful Christmas swap to help us spread Christmas cheer throughout blogland ... not to mention making new friends! :0) And I can also now show you what I sent off to Laila in Norway, who was MY SSCS partner ...

I sent Laila two of my Christmas tree ornaments and her main gift was the patchwork bag to the right of the photo, which featured one of my fave Bronwyn Hayes stitcheries on the pocket. It's a pretty large bag, perfect to go Christmas shopping NEXT year ... or perhaps to store some favourite Christmas ornaments to keep them safe. Of course, I couldn't send an EMPTY bag, so I filled it up with all sorts of "Australiana" bits and bobs ... a pot mitt and glove with the Aussie flag; a handy notebook with kangaroos on it, a pretty gumnut cross-stitch kit, some pencils with Aussie flag and the boxing kangaroo and lastly, a sweet treat with an Aussie twist ... furry friends chocolates that have Aussie native animals on the wrappers. Hope you enjoy your Aussie Christmas treats, Laila!!

What else was under the Christmas tree for me ...

A patchwork pattern complete with special square ruler from my mate Deb - Thanks Deb! Uh oh! Did you just here my "To Do" list scream again!! Tee! Hee! Hee! And from my brother and his wife ...

A matching pair of Christmas mugs and a pack of lavender tea. Woo! Hoo! That will keep me sipping for a while! :0) Thanks Paul and Ella!! Oh ... and have you noticed my countdown Santa in the background?? Especially for Lynda, I've updated the countdown til NEXT Christmas so it's accurate! Tee! Hee! Hee! Of course... in the next few days, I will be popping Santa back into his hidey hole and promptly forgetting about counting down to Christmas ... especially since I'm still getting over THIS year's! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Hmmm ... what else did Santa bring me ... My Mum and Dad have paid for my ticket to go and see the stage musical, "Wicked" in February - I'm going with my bestest-buddy-since-we-were-nine Lynette, so that should be lots of fun. A new Enya CD from my in-laws, some new baking bits from one SIL, a couple of gorgeous cast iron-look candle sconces from another SIL (I guess I should include the BIL's in there too, but it's usually the gals that organise the gifties, right?!) and a lovely assortment of giftcards for GB and I to share. Oh ... what was that I heard you ask?? What did GB put under the tree for me ??? Well ... it was something that didn't quite FIT under out little tree! Tee! Hee! Hee!

A white cast iron scroll-y table that is part of a set I've been eyeing off for quite a while!! Woo! Hoo! He tells me the chairs are on layby for my birthday, too. Isn't he WONDERFUL!!! :0) This little set will be going in my sewing room ... once it's had it's HUGE clean up-throw out session. We're intending to take out some of the built-in cupboards that are not at all usefully designed, rearrange a bit, take a couple of book cases out, paint ... and then there will be room for this sweet set to sit under one of the windows so I can have a friend in for a cuppa while I'm stitching, or I can just sit and enjoy a cup of lavender tea as I flick through the latest craft mag ... it's also a nice height to sit at to sketch and trace - PERFECT! :0) I promise to show pics when we get around to the renovations/rearrangement of my sewing room.

But at the moment ... none of those sort of jobs happening around the Meares' Madhouse ... it's too darn WET!!! It's rained solidly for the last three days, with no more than the occasional five minute break between downpours. This is my view off the front verandah into our side yard ...

You can see the rain pounding on the surface of the pond and to the right of the garden, there are some puddles starting to form in the yard cos everything is so darn SOGGY that it just can't soak up any more rain!! I know we've been in drought for about seven years and really needed some rain ... but I think we're making up for it all at once!!! SIGH! So really, there's only one thing to do ...

Curl up with my long-neglected Gardener's Journal blocks in front of the cricket and stitch the day away! :0) Cricket is the only sport I really enjoy watching on TV, so GB's set up in one corner of the lounge room with his laptop and I'm in another stitching ... not a bad way to spend some quiet time, actually! :0) Though a sunny day soon would be nice. Oh ... and the rain is all throughout eastern Queensland, which has lifted all of the river levels in the Burnett region where Mum and Dad live. In fact, they're experiencing flood heights in rivers that are higher than have been seen in about 30 years! The town of Mundubbera itself is fine ... and Mum and Dad live on a good size hill, so they're in no danger of being flooded. The biggest problem is that a lot of roads have been cut, so Mum, Dad and Tiffy couldn't come down for their visit as planned. SIGH!!! Still, at least they are safely at home and didn't get stuck half way or something. We'll just have to delay out Christmas get-together for a while.

Hope you've all had a fabulous Christmas, whether you're dealing with snow, rain, floods or summer heat (I wish!!). And may the spirit of Christmas stay alive in all our hearts throughout the next 12 months! But I DO promise to hide my countdown Santa so we don't alarm ourselves! Tee! Hee! The kettle is calling my name, so til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS