Advent.

Little Possum waited patiently for the first Monday in December when we have our special FHE (family night) putting up Christmas decorations. This week the wait was finally over and LP went to work on the tree. 

There are some things I will never get used to about having an Aussie/southern hemisphere Christmas like the obvious lack of snow.... but, at the top of the list I will put the lack of a "proper" pine or spruce Christmas tree. We have a fake tree, but on a positive note at least it doesn't drop needles! I do miss the smell of pine though. Incidentally, for my first ever Christmas spent in a tropical climate (decades ago during my exchange student year in Thailand) my very thoughtful friend Andrea sent me a few sprigs of spruce wrapped in aluminium foil. I closed my eyes and sniffed deeply, drawing in the wonderful fresh scent that transported me thousands of miles home to Norway in my mind. These days I have to go to IKEA for my fix of pine smell... and then eat meatballs in the restaurant. It's not all bad.

What I love most about our Christmas tree is the random collection of ornaments. We add to the collection every year, the children get one ornament each that they will one day take away with them when they leave home. Then there are the ornaments that are made along with the ones we have inherited. 

Each ornament holds a memory like 'Edward' here. He and his friends Thomas, Percy, James and Gordon are all on the tree. They were bought when Doodlebug and Turtle were little and firm Thomas The Tank Engine fans. The train ornaments would disappear off the tree regularly to be played with.

One of my mother's ornaments (the 'nisse' girl) hangs next to my Scrabble ornament... made in The Year of Scrabble Ornaments a few years back (Gotta love Pinterest!). Every member of the extended family received an ornament with their name which doubled as a gift tag on their respective presents.... I loved how it looked.

There are several 'nisser' from Norway sent to me from dear friends who wanted to send me a little bit of Norwegian Christmas knowing how homesick I get every year. This one hangs next to the heart I made a couple of years ago from a microwavable kind of clay. (The Year of Clay Gift Tags/Ornaments)

The production was going really well until I forgot to put the required cup of water in the microwave with a clay decoration, and it overheated resulting in stinky smoke/toxic fumes. Hydrochloric acid I seem to remember.... 

Stank out the kitchen and made my lungs burn.

I laugh about it now. 

And, I really like my stamped heart.

diddle, diddle, dumpling...

Diddle diddle dumpling

My son John

Went to bed with his trousers on

One shoe off

and one shoe on

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

My son John

Little Possum had a belated birthday gathering yesterday, which involved 5 friends from school and church coming over for fun, frolic and a sleepover. 

Trampoline, "Just Dance" on the XBox, more trampoline, DVD, pizza, Max Brenner chocolate... and a truckload of lollies and chips. (I had also prepared platters of fresh fruit, so I consoled myself they had a balanced diet of sorts).

What there was not so much of was sleep.....

With all the girls piled into the living room on mattresses there was predictably a lot of giggling and chatting.

Suddenly the morning came around with more trampoline and pancakes for breakfast before the girls went home.

Little Possum wandered around the house for a little bit and then did what all nocturnal creatures do, she found a comfy spot and settled for a nap.

 Doodlebug, in a moment of BigBrotherlyKindness, made her a soft landing spot in case she should roll off.

Happy Grommet Day

We discovered in the holidays that Turtle wasn't just being selectively hard of hearing, but actually couldn't hear very well at all. We decided to investigate. Having the GP look in his ears and go "hmmm, I haven't actually ever seen anything like that before" was not reassuring and sent us hot-footing it to an ENT surgeon.

Thankfully it seems that having another set of grommets and possibly some adenoid-shaving might solve the problem.

Today was the day.

He was very well looked after by my colleagues - I must say it is useful to be on the receiving end sometimes!

Slightly apprehensive, watching "A Bug's Life" in the pre-op holding area.

Highlight: The blanket from the warming cabinet!

Slightly sleepy in recovery...

Highlight: the lemonade iceblock....

 

Sleeping it off on the Children's ward

Highlight: cannula removed

Finally some food.....! Although what he really, really wanted was a bacon sandwich.

(The minute we arrived home, Chef went to work on the sandwich)

..... And he's off....

Can't believe Turtle is off to high school already. But today is the day. He has been a little apprehensive, high school is a big step. But I have every confidence that Turtle will be just fine.

I am so very proud of him and the fine young man he is growing into. He has a strong moral compass and he is compassionate. He makes me laugh with his own special brand of humour. Last year at the yr 6 farewell the school chaplain described Turtle as the school's big brother, who with quiet leadership set an example to others. I'm sure those traits will help him in high school.

The Greatest Story - a school play

Every 2 years the school puts on a big production, and this year they did

"The Greatest Story"

The Nativity with a few bonus numbers

Turtle is a Roman soldier

Little Possum and her friends getting some last minute instructions before going back stage before their number. They performed "Money, money, money" by Abba as a special song and dance number.
Wondering how it fits in with The Greatest Story? I did too..... but the reference was to

Caesar and his greed, wanting to do a census to find everyone he could tax.

Caesar and his devoted servant....  Doodlebug

Meanwhile, in downtown Bethlehem, these 'men' were dancing to the Havah Nagilah

(Turtle having transformed from Roman soldier to Jewish man)

cleaning up for Christmas

With the last couple of days being very windy our gumtrees were dropping bark, leaves and twigs until there seemed to be more on the ground than on the trees.

So, a little cleaning up for Christmas was necessary!

Here's Little Possum hard at work with the broom

while Turtle used the leafblower

 But all work and no play makes for very dull boys, so.....

let's see what else this leafblower can do!

 blowdrying your hair

 stimulating the circulation to the skin....

 and demonstrating laws of physics ...



end of soccer

no more riding bikes to soccer matches

just as well....  riding bikes is much easier without studded boots

and we can play balancing games anytime :)

there's a whole lot of fun to be had down here on the other side of the pitch...  a bush track to explore, dirt and rocks..

The kids call the red mound Uluru. We will have to take them to see the real thing one day. It's a little bigger than this one.