Happy New Year 2008 !

So I guess I had better round off the last month or so ;-)

Lets start with Dec 1st. We went to the Eiger Swiss for Uncle Mat's birthday. He turned the big 4-0 so we had to celebrate in style at our favourite place to eat. We had a lovely time as usual, thoroughly enjoyed the food and then feasted on chocolate fondue for desert.

On the 2nd we went to Trudy's for lunch for Mat's and Jacqui's birthdays. Jacqui is now 19 years old, which I totally cannot believe. I feel so OLD!!!

The first week of December Josie had her end of year Concert and graduation. My baby is starting big school next year!! Waaa! The concert was magnificant. The kids sang and danced and it was just so SO good! And then they did the Graduations and all the kids came up one at a time to get their certificate. It was so cute! And Josie was so proud to have graduated too!

On the 8th we went to see Jay's Place. It was fabulous, Becca and I took Josie and Rachel. The girls behaved beautifully and enjoyed the show.

The next night, Vika, Becca and I went to see Abba Mania at Star City. It was a fun night, we had second row seats and it was amazing to see 6 year olds singing away to Abba!

On the 10th and 11th I was on an introductory course for MS Access in the city. I can't tell you how much I hate being in the city, but the course was great! And I caught public transport! All by myself! I haven't sat on a bus for years and years!

That Saturday we made some new friends. We met them through Michelle and Sam previously and so that night we had a get together at their place. They have a lovely house with great views and a jacuzzi. Unfortunately Josie had a staf infection at the time so she couldn't go in the spa, but she had a great time anyhow. Tony and Mandy have a 3 yr old called Gabi and Josie and Gabi hit it off really well. Josie has always been really good with the younger kids so she fell into the mothering role with Gabi very easily. We were there quite late and Josie and we had a wonderul time chatting with them.

On the 16th we had Rachel and Miriams birthday. They had Go Seek performing and the theme was Outer Space. All the kids had a great time!

On the 17th, school ended for the year and Josie had her last day at preschool. It was quite emotional, they could come in in the school uniform for next year so dressing Josie in school uniform that morning, I almost burst into tears. She was SO excited about wearing her uniform though, I imagine that won't last long once she starts big school though.

On that last day I had arranged to have a birthday cake for Josie since her birthday will fall in the holidays. They had a gorgeous little ceremony where all the kids stood in a circle and Josie was in the middle and all the kids gave her 'a present from the heart' which was in the form of a kiss, or hug or smile or special message. It was lovely. They then sang songs and danced and Josie was in her element (the centre of attention ;-). We then went outside and Josie blew out her candles and cut the cake. She had a great time.

And then preschool was over.

The first two days of her holidays, Josie was at a Shrek Camp at the school. She had a great time and got to hang out with Rachel and do arts and crafts and watch Shrek.

The next day she spent with Baba and then Daddy was on leave and she spent that Friday hanging out with Daddy.

On the 22nd we were going to go to the Domain for Carols. One of Tony's best friends, Kylie, is visiting from Scotland with her husband Andy. We were going to meet them at The Domain but the weather was a bit dodgy, raining hard one minute, sunshine the next, that we decided to bail. We watched some of it on TV, but instead we went to Vika's place and set up the Tivo that we gave to Becca for Xmas.

On the Sunday morning I had a lovely chat with Harri on Skype, which we need to do more often!! She is coming to visit in April for 4 weeks! We are just beside ourselves and cannot wait!!

After our chat we went to Coogee to have lunch with Kye and Andy. It was a gorgeous day and afterwards we went down to the beach where Miss Josie once again got herself drenched ;-)

And sandy. Blech.

And then it was Xmas Eve! We had lunch with Jacqui up at Balmoral Beach and then went for a walk on the beach. Well Jac and Josie did. Tony and I walked along the promenade. Cause, you know.. sand.. Blech..

Obviously my daughter cannot walk along a beach without getting herself drenched, so missy decided to take off her dress, which is great, but also her undies, so there she was running all over the beach stark nekkid. She had a ball, but Tony was told in no uncertain terms that the child was not entering my car with even a grain of sand on her. Well I got a few grains, but oh well.

So that night we went driving around the East looking at Xmas lights. Seriously, the Eastern Suburbs have the best Xmas lights ever! There is one house that has a full scale replica of the Luna Park face, the Harbour Bridge, Centrepoint and lights just everywhere! It is just amazing! And then around the corner from that is a street of mansions that are all lit up like nobody's business! Just truly amazing lights. We had Josie and Becca in the car and Jacqui was in another with Mat and Wendy and we drove around till almost 11pm. We dropped Becca home and then drove Jac home and Josie fell asleep around 1130pm! Needless to say we had a nice sleep in the next day.

Xmas day we went to Trudy's for lunch and as always it was fabulous. And then Boxing day we went to Mat's for lunch and that was also fabulous. Too much fooooood!!!

Josie scored in presents. She got a bunch of board games and some computer games and some toy sets and books and clothes and she was just a happy camper.

The best present of all was a HUGE, and I mean HUGE, box. Yes, box. It was the box from the 100 metre Sony Bravia TV that David bought. They had made a door in it and Josie spent Xmas day running in and out of her new cubby house ;-) It now resides in the spare room temporarily.

The next day was a not so fun day. Well for me and Tony anyway. Well it wasnt that bad. Josie went to Granny's place and Tony and I spent the day cleaning her room. We got rid of two garbage bags of old toys and clear some space in her room. It was great. We had hoped to work on the living room and spare room as well but we never got there. Another time.

That night we went out to Doyles for dinner with Kye and Andy. We hadn't been to Doyles in ages. It was nice to be back there.

The next day was lunch at Baba's and Dyeda's place. As always the food was magnificent and Josie got spoilt once again with presents and ran around playing with Jayden.

Saturday went went to Tony & Mandy's for a BBQ and Spa. Their Spa is amazing, with all the bells and whistles (radio, jets in all the right places, coloured lights!) and we had a great time lazing around in the spa.

On Sunday we were babysitting Jayden so Becca, Josie, Jayden and I went to see The Bee Movie, while Daddy put together Uncle Mat's new bike, and then after the movie we all went to the park to ride bikes/scooters or sit around on benches ;-)

The Bee Movie was a great success. As usual Josie was scared of going (I have a wierdo kid who is scared of going to the movies), but once we got there and the movie started she loved it. After the movie I took a short side trip to the phone shop. After Coogee beach the previous weekend, I had accidentally left my mobile in my pocket while my pants got washed, so it drowned. I wanted to see what I could do cause I still had about 6 months left on my contract. Luckily they cut my payout figure by half so I got a new Nokia 6500 slide phone.

So once that was all organised, we met Tony at the park and he went off riding and scootering with the kids while Vika and I played with our phones and read a magazine ;-) It was nice and relaxing ;-)

So NYE was great. We went to Mat's for dinner with them and Wendy's family. At almost 9pm Tony and I and Josie went off to Easties carpark to watch the fireworks, which were good, but quite far away and we couldn't see the bridge, but at least we watched them. When we got back we were lucky enough to catch the beginning of the Coogee fireworks which we could see just perfectly from Mat's living room window. They were spectacular.

Tony put Josie to bed and then Mat, Wendy, Tony and I sat down to play a new board game, The Order of the Stick. It was a great game but it took about 4 nights to finish it! And we left Mat's around 3am!

On New Years Day we slept in and then went to Balmoral Beach again with Jacqui, except this time we were prepared with swimming costumes and towels. We all went swimming, even me! And we all know how I feel about beaches and sand!

I dont know what it is about beaches and sand. I just hate, hate the feeling of sand on the skin, and I just loathe the feeling of sand on wet skin. Blergh.

I managed to live through the whole beach experience without losing my mind though, and even got tanned, and dare I say it, burnt.

Josie, however, loves the beach.. and sand.. she had a fabulous time in the water with Daddy and Jacqui.

After the beach we came home and changed and then went to Mat's again to, firstly, finish the game (which we didn't, but Jacqui and Philip joined in), and also to take a walk down to the Maroubra cliffs and around to Luraline Bay. It was a lovely walk, around an hour and a half. I got some great photos (up on Flickr) of the insane waves and hostile ocean that evening.

January 2nd was a 'easing out of holidays mode' day. Tony went back to work, Josie went to Granny's for a few hours in the morning and I went and did grocery shopping. It was nice to be able to just lose myself in grocery shopping again. I am find it relaxing to just wander through Coles ;-)

When daddy came home from work we once again went to Mat's to 'work' on the boardgame we had started on NYE. It was progressing, but we were still not finished.

January 3rd was cooking day. Josie helped me make veges for her dinners, helped me make cookies and cupcakes. She had a great time and I really loved the time with her. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before I took her to spend the night at Baba's place while Tony and I went out for dinner.

We went to dinner at The Wharf restaurant overlooking Sydney Harbour and the bridge. The atmosphere and the views were magnificent. We got to see the bridge up close and watched the Hourglass they put up for the NYE fireworks working and turning as time passed. The food was great but scarily overpriced, and we even saw Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban dining there (she had the muscles, and is apparently confirmed to be pregnant, although we swore on the night that she had absolutely no bump!). We had a great time with a big group of friends and chatted the night away. The dinner was in honour of our friend Kylie and her husband Andy visiting from Scotland, and it was great seeing them again.

Friday was a very long day! In the morning I picked up Becka, then picked up Josie from Baba's and then we all went to Darling Harbour to check out Sydney Wildlife World. It was fabulous! We caught the mini train across Darling Harbour to get there and Josie loved that. She has been bugging me about riding those things for ages. SWW was amazing, and certainly bigger than it looks from the outside. It went on and on and on inside. After the initial hundred of 'ewww' 's as we walked through the spiders and bugs exhibits (stick insects just freak me out!) we managed to catch the koalas, wombats and wallabies.. and the girls even walked through a butterfly enclosure.

After getting out, and having some lunch, we caught the mini train back across to the car and we, thoroughly exhausted, headed home.

I dropped off Josie with Granny for the night, Becka at home, went home, changed and then was off to pick up Tony from work for the concert we were seeing that night - Natalie Gauci with Matt Corby.

You may poo poo Australian Idol, but this year they scored. Gauci was awesome. Absolutely awsome. She has a voice that can do anything. She sounded like Tina Arena, Christina Aguilera, Monica Trapaga, Sinead O'Conner.. all at different times.. all perfectly sung. It was an awesome concert.

The next day turned into a bit of a sleep in. I believe we slept in till about 1130am! Josie was at Granny's so we got some sleeeeep!

We had our first "drop-off" party that day. A drop-off party is one where the parents leave the kids at the party and pick them up after. Needless to say, we were a little nervous. It was a Tennis Party for her 'boyfriend' Tyler. After dropping her off, we popped down to Coogee Beach for some lunch (we had about an hour before we had to come back for her). After eating (and stopping ourselves from just going to the party, we went down to the beach, which was closed due to dangerous surf conditions. The sky was bright grey, it was amazing. There were still people on the sand, and even surfers in the water but the lifeguards were patrolling quite vigorously.

We got back to the party and found that Josie had been hit in the eye by a tennis ball and had sand in her eye. Her first drop-off!! LOL. By a wierd stroke of luck, one of the dads there was an optometrist, so he washed her eye out with saline as much as he could and then she sat with the adults till we got there. They said she was very well behaved but she was still complaining about her eye being sore so we took her to Sydney Children's Hospital. They checked out her eye, pronounced her good to go and we went home, got some night gear for Josie and went to Mat's to finish the board game we had started the previous weekend.

And we finally did it! We finished the game! The girls all beat the boys, and we eagerly put the game away.

Sunday we were meant to go to the beach with friends Roman and Helen and their daughter Stacey but with Josie's eye still being sore we postponed to this coming weekend cause we didnt want to put her anywhere near more sand ;-) So instead we went to Trudy's for breakfast, and then afterwards took Jacqui and Philip and sneaked into Vika's place to play with Becka's new Wii. Well I did get permission first ;-)

It was great fun actually, and Josie was brilliant with it. She bowled like a pro and beat everyone except Philip. She also played Tennis and golf. I tried them all too, and they are really active games. Got a good workout with boxing. Obviously now Tony is on my back to get a Wii ;-) Which we are NOT going to do BTW.

And then Monday I was back to work and Josie was at Granny's. We actually had a pretty shocking night on Sundday. Josie woke up several times complaining of an ear ache so Granny took her to see the Dr who diagnose an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics and ear drops. Its better now but she has been an absolute nightmare to get the drops into.

So every day since they left I have been going to feed Vika's cat. Its actually been really nice cause they have an airconditioner so I have been able to cool down after the hot days we have been having.

We have also started taking down the Xmas lights and decorations. Its taking a while cause we cant be bothered ;-)

And that pretty much brings us up to date I think. I have been enjoying being back at work but I am stressing out that in about 3 weeks my baby will start big school and we will have to get her there by 815am and how is she going to cope etc etc etc.. I know she will be fine but I am still freaking out.

Oh and I have a new mobile phone after my old one went for a swim in the washing machine with my pants ;-)

This blog has now taken me about 4 days to write. And I still need to add photos. Actually no, I am going to just upload the photos to Flickr and you can click the link and go see them.

Just a reminder that I have made my new photos private, so if you aren't listed as a contact in Flickr, you wont be able to see them. If you would like to be added, let me know.

And here endeth the epic..