Hill Xmas & New Year Wrap Up Plus Mega Update

Us at The Eiger

I really should not have left it this long to blog cause my world famous memory is growing fuzzy ;-)

Knowing my world famous memory, I enlisted my niece Becca to do some of the work for me ;-)
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24th&25th- Xmas Lights, Sleepover and Trudy's
On Christmas Eve, Mari, Tony, Josie, Rach and I went on our annual Christmas Lights inspection, doing our usual Eastern Suburbs swoop. They did not disappoint this year, the display was spectacular and we even managed to catch some illegal firework action in one place.

The girls had an amazing time "ohhing" and "ahhing" at all the pretty bright lights. The one particular house we make a stop at every year, with the Luna Park display, was just as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately 2008 was their last year putting up the lights as it is an elderly couple who own the house and cant manage putting it up anymore. Josie particularly enjoys this house because she has been coming to see it every year for the last 4-5 years, and while she isn't so impressed by the lights anymore she still gets a kick out of the bubble machine and the ice cream truck parked out side of the house.

The girls managed to stay awake until around 10:30 before their eyelids wouldn't stay open any longer. Mari, Tony and I drove around for another hour before calling it quits and driving home.

Last year Mari and Tony had been going through a Tetris obsession phase and had even bought it on the Wii. Mari was set on getting me into it so she could play it over the Wii with me and made me stay up for another hour watching them play Tetris, even though I was asleep half the time, only being awoken by their random outbursts of "Silence, I kill you!".

The next morning I went with the Hills to Trudy's place for Xmas lunch, it was beautiful. The food was magnificent and I was very grateful to have been invited. After lunch, everybody opened gifts, one particular gift that stood out was Mat and Wendy's present to Mari: "Twilight: the complete and illustrated movie companion". I was very jealous as I had wanted this also but it was sold out, not just in every store but from the warehouse too! It is currently on my bedside table, where I am taking my time reading and enjoying it before I have to return it to Mari ;).

After the gifts, everyone played Singstar ABBA & Disney, which was a great hit! All in all Christmas 2008 was excellent.
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Thanks Becca for putting the time in to write this up.

Now to the rest of it.

On the 26th, we had our Boxing Day at Mat's with David, Jacqui, Philip, Trudy, Carol & Gloria. Lunch was magnificent as usual and Josie even got to make cookies with the awesome cookie making set that Mat & Wendy got her.

On the 27th we had our New Years get together at my parents place where we had the entire family over, 30+ people!! It was very crowded. Food was awesome as usual and it was good seeing the cousins who we never see much (Rach, Zac, Ian, Daniel *POKE*). Ian (being the oldest) played Santa and gave out all the presents to the kids. They had a ball and Josie got very spoilt.

On the 28th, we went and saw Madagascar 2 again. Tony hadn't seen it the first time and Josie loved it. I am keen on taking her to the movies a lot. She has this irrational fear of the movies and we really need to get her over that. We also saw Bolt a few days after that. Bolt was an awesome movie. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tony & Gloria at The Eiger

We also had a couple of cleaning days where Tony and I spent many hours cleaning out Josie's room and the living room. We managed to get together 6 garbage bags, yes SIX, of old toys, to give to charity. I felt so good afterwards! And her room suddenly looked so much neater!

On New Years Eve we went to Mat's. This has become kind of a tradition now. Mat cooks, we eat, Davo throws Josie around.. its tradition..

After we had dinner, Tony spent an hour trying to get his trial contacts into his eyes, then he gave up cause we had to go to Easties to watch the 9pm fireworks from the rooftop.

The fireworks were great, but too short! We came back to Mat's after only about 20 mins, and managed to enjoy the Coogee fireworks from Mat's window a whole lot more. Those went for almost 30 mins!

At some point during the night, Mat put on this wierd asian cooking show where they showed this competition where these people had to speed cook this huge fish so that it's body was cooked but it's head was still breathing. It was SO wrong. I have NEVER seen anything like it. They stuck the poor fish's tail into the boiling oil up to its neck. They then quickly pulled it out and plopped it on a platter, and the body was all deep friend and the head was still moving as it opened its mouth to breathe in and out. It was awful! They did the same thing with a snake. The chopped it up and cooked it so fast that when they put it on the plate, the chopped up parts were still slithering!! *SHUDDER*

Jan 4th, we had dinner at Vika's and Vika made a mountain of BBQ Octopus and a HUGE pot of crabs. OMG it was good. We sat there for HOURS fiddling with the crab. HOURS. MMmmmmm!!!!

Vika & Becca at The Eiger

I went back to work on the 5th, and to be honest, it was a relief. It was good to get my mind working again, and the air conditioning was niiiice. Have I mentioned yet how hot it has been? No? I'll get to it..

The next few weeks consisted of us ferrying Josie from one Grandmother to the other. She slept over one night each week at one, then the other grandmother's, and the rest of the days stayed with Baba or Granny or Becca, as well as one day of vacation camp per week. She wasn't really impressed with the Vacation Camp.. mainly I think cause Rachel wasnt there and she didnt know anyone but we encouraged her to make new friends.. she would have to do that anyway once she started school there.

Josie, Dyeda & Baba at the Eiger

On Jan 20th, we celebrated Josie's 6th birthday by going over to Baba's for dinner. She got spoilt once again, but on the plus side, it marked the day when a big change took effect. She was no longer to have big girl sleeps (where daddy or I sat in the room while she fell asleep). She would be going to sleep by herself every night now (which she has done successfully). We have had some whinging, calling and constant excuses to get up, but we're getting there ;-)

On Australia Day we went over to Vika's for another Octopus & Crab dinner. Once again it was DELISH!

On the 26th, we went to Trudy's to celebrate Philip's 16th and Josie's 6th. Again, the food was awesome and the kids had a great time.

This brings us to the start of school. On the 28th, Tony & I both took Josie for her first day at her new school. She was nervous. We were nervous-er. She took it much better than we I did. They put into classes, sitting on the ground, but of course Josie didn't have a class so one of the teachers took her hand and led her over to her class. Josie sat down and listened to the Principal give a little speech and then they all got up and got led away to their classroom. Josie looked a bit forlorn but bravely went off.

I had a bit of a cry.

That Sunday was a busy one. We had Stacey's birthday party in the morning, which was heaps of fun. And the weather wasn't too hot, so that was a bonus.

Afterwards we had lunch at Coogee with Mirna & Rob, Granny, and Kylie who is visiting from Scotland. It was hot hot hot! Lunch was lovely, and catching up with Kye was great! Afterwards we went for a walk along the beach where Josie just *HAD* to get into the sand, much to my horror.
This brings us to February. Dinner at Mums on the 6th for Vika's birthday was nice. Great food as always, and air conditioning. It just can't be bad ;-)

Which brings us to this weekend's horror bushfires in Victoria. You will have heard, and if you haven't, you have been living under a rock, like my husband!

I remember the 2001 fires in Helensburgh, and they were not as bad as this. 131 dead so far.. its just so heartbreaking. If you can, go donate some blood. I wish I could, but I only donated for the first time ever about 2 weeks ago and you can only do it every 3 months or so. Otherwise I would be right there.

So on Sunday we had lunch at The Eiger Swiss Restaurant. As usual the food was divine.

Swiss Barley Soup

Chicken Schnitzel with Spaetzele & Roesti

Grand Manier Ice Cream with cream

Chocolate Fondue

And the after effects of the Chocolate Fondue.. This is Chocolate Fondue Art by Becca.

Mat & Kaylee at the Eiger

Which brings us to today. Today was my first day as Team Leader at work. My team consists of 5 people, and I have to say, today was not much different from last week ;-) But I am very excited to have this opportunity and I am *STILL*, after 2 years, loving my job.

On a completely different note.. this is a Dragonfruit. My first one. It was delish, and oh so pretty!

And thats about it folks. I have uploaded a heap of photos lately at Flickr, so do check them out. And I have finally succumbed to the dark side that is Twitter (find me as charis1974). I tried it out in 2007, but got bored very quickly. I am hoping its better now..


Till next time!