Boxing Day

 
Will's parents came for Boxing Day this year.  It was a mild, cool summer day so I was able to set a table outside the back patio for our lunch.  

I finally had a chance to use this huge platter my sister-in-law Iris gave us a few Christmas' ago (I did have to put the entire three dish meal on there to fill it- its HUGE!) and also a set of Christmas dishes.  FUN.  We rarely entertain, so it was a novelty.  I roasted pumpkin and potatoes all day in the crockpot (no hot oven steaming up the house!), grilled up some lamb cutlets and made a big green salad with a medley of tomatoes.  (The green speckled were my favourite...)

It was nice to have another morning off before getting back to work tomorrow...

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

CHRISTMAS 2012

 

So, this year I wanted to get this new cabinet desk sorted --so I could conquer my several year office problem - the problem being that I get buried under all the school, business, kid's school and assorted papers, never mind books I have read, am planning to read, mail I have kept, and then there is my scrapbooking paraphernalia (particularly sad as law school has halted my scrapbooking, but not the invasion of the paraphernalia!)  

Anyway, I bought this awesome solid wood cabinet desk on ebay for SO CHEAP to help me deal with the problem - and allow me to close the doors on the mess!  With a second super cool CHEAP one for the scrapbooking things...  Only the job of sorting and restoring everything is so immense, and so time consuming - and has to be done in one fell swoop - WELL, it just hasn't happened!  BUT, I needed to do the office so I could move the desk out of the front room so I could put up my tree in the front room... and I kept thinking I would get it done... 

BUT, in the end, I wrapped the gifts on Christmas Eve and stored them in the cabinet desk that is still in my front room...  That's right, it was the Christmas cabinet this year... 

Sad, but true...  Actually, it looked pretty in the end!

 The boys and the toys - this was a nerf Christmas.

 HOPE YOU ENJOYED A LOVELY HOLIDAY WITH THOSE YOU LOVED FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON!

THE JUST LOAF HOLIDAY DINNER

Christmas Dinner 2012

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

This year we had our holiday dinner at Augustine's in The Mansions at the Brisbane CBD.  Its a lovely spot, and other than a shock with the chocolate tart, it was a great night. 

However, it was also the night I found out I was allergic to the gorgeous new hair colour I got, so after dinner we went to the emergency room to confirm that the two softballs and slew of swollen lymphnodes on the back of my head were indeed from the recent change...

Maybe blondes really do have more fun.  Two days as a brunette and I am doped up on antihistamines and steroids!  Whoo hoo...

GRADUATION...

See that little angel?  
She just finished pre-prep! 
(At the same pre-prep that Justice attended!)

We were lucky enough to be able to see her end of year performance ~ I love living in a place where the school can do a Christmas program!  It was even more fun this time around, without that desperate to get a good photo and hoping your kid doesn't fall off the riser feeling...

It was also the last night with students for Mrs. Leahy, who is retiring.  Both kids have ben so lucky to have her as their first teacher.

And yes, that is a Big Bang Theory shirt.  I know, not child appropriate viewing.  

He loves it, and he ensures me he still doesn't get the "S-E-X" jokes, so its okay... It is, right?

I LOVE my new camera!

 So I just wanted to point out how 

AWESOME 

my birthday present camera is!!!

 

Justice has been drinking vegetable juice every day - spinach, celery & cucumber - look at those muscles!!!

 This is the smile I get if he knows I am taking a blog picture!

 Whereas this is his natural cuteness!

And do you see how clear and gorgeous these photos turned out, even in my underlit front room?!  
I LOVE THIS CAMERA! Its not a little point and shoot, so I will still have my purse camera for impromptu shots - but when planning ahead- I get to use this one!!!

NINE

BEAUTIFUL MORNING...

This beautiful morning came far too quickly...

 Today Justice ran around on deliveries with me, there was no school... AND it is his birthday!

FANTASTIC --- at 9!

This year the little pink Brisbane playhouse was putting on The Fantastic Mr Fox and Justice asked if that could be what we did for his birthday party...

SO, we did! 

 MR FOX gathered everyone together after the show to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY

We invited a list of friends, and loved the show!

Justice was able to open one gift afterwards (he had to save the rest until the actual birthday) - and look which ONE he picked!  LUCKY!

Falling Behind...

So, I couldn't find the nifty cable for camera to desktop... and really, who wants a photo free post?  It held me up, and then the semester started, and the next thing I knew I was months behind... so stay tuned, I am going to update via backdate... Really, we're two weeks away from school holidays, and I last posted right before our last school holidays...  An entire term behind!  (Then again, I WISH I were only a term behind in scrapbooking!)

HAVE YOUR CAKE...

In the morning, we celebrated a first birthday party for our friends' little lady.

 And afterwards, I took Justice to his friend Morgan's 10th birthday party...  LOTS of yummy treats!

INVITED

We were invited to a dinner event that one of our customers, Sustainable Catering, was holding.  Unfortunately Will had to work, but Justice and I got dolled up and headed into Brisbane on a school night to see them in action.

We arrived to a delicious display of lovely breads...

and a roasted feast table:

suckling pig, goose, angus beef, turkey and root vegetables.

These were all served "under the apple tree" 

I thought that the caramel apple tree was SPECTACULAR -
I can see (Tara) someone doing one of these at a birthday party - such an impression! 

As well as the feast table, there were several stations, one did winter mushroom broth,
one did a sand crab and popcorn shoot petite salad,
and the third was sweet potato ravioli with burnt sage butter sauce. 

Presentation was everything -

the portions and the plating were exceptional

- and everything was about how well they could do it - they even made the ravioli in front of us!

There were heaps of servers (some dressed like this monk chick) and so many canapes! 
They heralded each course of canapes... literally! 
SO COOL...

The church is stunning, and proved an impressive space for such an event! 

There was live music, and I missed the chance to catch a photo of my little man busting some moves on the dance floor!

The set up was deliberately atmospheric

The desserts (apple pie, warm donuts and these!) were lovely. 

And at the end we got a little take home gift, which was popcorn shoots, the sandcrab recipe and presentation boats and mini chopsticks... 

 I had a great time, definitely worth the late night. 

If only I could fix the red eye...

ROBOTS...

Robots are cool.  Legos are cool.  Lego robots are VERY cool!  I like the face on this robot Justice built... its some Star Wars thing.  STAR WARS LEGO ROBOT... its a bit overboard on the favourite things!

These school holidays...

Well, last school holidays began literally right after my car accident - as in the next day - so I think it might be no surprise that I just didn't seem to get in any sort of super fun.  Not a bit.  It was disappointing, particularly as one of the plans Justice and I had made was to get into Brisbane a few different mornings and walk around the city, checking out some of the many churches and taking pictures of them and the older cool buildings...  I think that we are going to have to do that next summer break.  Its such a great idea, and over the summer I have no school commitments, so that should make it easy to stick to.

Well, I think the lazy school holiday left me feeling guilty, because these school holidays (2 weeks long) I definitely over compensated!  Justice had two full days of soccer camp (June 25&26), which he loved.  He won recognition for PERSERVERANCE - and it came in the form of his choice of new training gear.  He picked Holland.  I don't think he was thinking of his Oma (my mother) at the time, but he liked when I pointed out that he had picked her team.

On the 27th, Justice did another Queensland Gifted and Talented Association Kid's Challenge Day.  He chose to do the Survivor Challenge.  It was teams of nine to eleven year-olds (and my eight-year-old!) doing hands on maths and puzzle challenges.  One of the coolest things!  They had to leave the room, look at a lego house, and then recreate it by memory, remembering design, colour and dimensions.  they had to build a structure that would protect an egg when dropped.  They had to ... well, I wasn't there, but those were the ones that I understood from the debrief in the car afterwards!

The following week he did five days of sports camp.  Will and I went and watched him do rock-climbing on Friday morning.  He was quick and agile and fearless up there!  We have done this same sports camp three other times, and each time we enrolled with a friend also on his team.  This time we just signed up and he was with all kids he didn't know.  I'm not sure if it's age, or interest or the group he had - but he was so excited about the whole thing this time, and genuinely seemed to have the best time!

'Do Over

REALLY?! Its 2012?! Are you SERIOUS?!  I'm HOW old?!  To celebrate the unbelievable passing of another lightning quick year, I got a new 'do.  What do you think?

FRIENDS FOREVER (Senior School Musical)

Justice's school musical this year is on Thursday, when Will is at work and I am going to be bombing my closed book Equity exam.  Fortunately, there was a matinee performance today and I was able to see the show.  Justice was in a small group of male dancers from his class who did a quick routine to "Hammer Time".  (They were hammerhead sharks)  Its bad quality, poor camerman (I didn't even realise I could zoom) because its just from the regular pocket digital - but Justice is the little shark on the left with the special moves...


Sharona came along with me, and we were surprised by how long it was (two hours) but very impressed with all the hard works the kids had put into it.  And the cute costumes...



(our little shark is the one with his knee up)