Day 9/365

Thursday 25 December 2008 - Christmas

Well, obviously today is Christmas.

We woke up really late compared to other years - 0730. I had to go and wake Will and Gus up, but Mum and Dad were already awake. We went out to open our presents. We opened the ones from Santa first, and then we swapped presents with each other. I got a new yellow dress, new shoes, new SingStar microphones, a new book, highlighters, a calendar, a beach towel and a trip to Sydney with Mum.

I gave Dad a book called How To Keep House: The Lost Art of Being A Man. He laughed. Me and Gus gave Mum some new gym clothes and a bag. We also shared a present for Will and got him FIFA 09 on PS2. For Gus I got a book - H.I.V.E. When I gave it to him, he wasn't very impressed, but I found out that was because he had just thought that Santa wasn't real and as really upset. 

I called Grandma and Grandad to say Merry Christmas, because they are spending some time in Melbourne, and I ended up speaking to Grandma, Grandad, Bonnie, Louis, Mietta and Aunty Helen. Once I was off the phone, we had croissants from Jean Claude.

Then we went down to the beach. It was only 20C, but is was really nice once you got in the water. We only stayed for a little while because Mum didn't go in the water and she got cold. When we got home, me and Mum got ready to go and visit Grandma. When we got there, Aunty Ann, Uncle Tom, Cahir and Lily were there. We gave Colleen a hamper to say thank you, and she started crying. 

We gave Grandma her present and a card, and talked to the others for a while. Then we went home. Will started making us some more breakfast, this time pancetta and egg on toast. While he was cooking, me and Mum played the SingStar ABBA will had gotten her. We were both really bad, but it was fun anyway.  When Will had finished cooking, we went up and ate. We also did crackers then as well, and we all told each other the really bad jokes from the crackers. 

After that we just chilled for a while and played with our presents. Then we had to start getting ready to go to Mel's for dinner. 

We left really late, but we were the first people there - besides Tony, Mel, Jack, Rose, Sam, Julian, Clea and Ella. After not very long, Aunty Ann, Uncle Tom and Lily arrived, but Julian, Clea and Ella had to go, so we gave Clea and Ella their presents. Then Uncle Sime, Aunty Mer, Em, Tom, Maggie and Finn arrived. Me and Em started to play SingStar, and then Maggie and Rosie came and started playing too. After we had been playing for a while, Maggie left to go play on the scooter Sam had gotten and I went for a swim with Will, Gus and Finn. When I got out, we had dinner and opened our presents. My present was from Tony and Mel, and they gave me SingStar ABBA, but we already have it, so they're going to swap it for something else. Then we went inside and me, Rosie and Maggie started doing SingStar again. We took in turns to sing, and while we waited for our turn, we dressed up in Em's high heels and pretended to be models. It was really fun. Then we went out for the dessert that Mum had made. There were tarts and also pavlova. We had the pavlova with cream, strawberries and chocolate on top. 

Then me and Rosie went in and did another song on SingStar, and then went out the back and jumped on the trampoline singing Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Then we went back inside and sang another song and went back out on the trampoline. After that, Rosie and Em kept playing, and I played dodge with the boys. After a while of playing dodge, I went back and watched Em and Rosie do SingStar. 

When it got really late, we had to go home. 

Day 8/365

Wednesday 24 December - Christmas Eve

This morning we all went to see Grandma because there was a Christmas Party at Brightwater for all the relatives. Everyone was there except for Tony, Mel, Jack, Rose and Sam. The girls played for a while, and then me and Maggie went off to play 44 Home with the boys and Lily and Em went to do some colouring-in. After a while we got bored of 44 Home, so we went to help Em and Lily with the colouring-in. Maggie started playing again though, so it was just the three of us. 

Em got a bit bored and started to draw on herself, only she had work that afternoon, so she had to draw where they wouldn't be able to see it, so she chose her feet. She wrote I Love Lily on one foot and I Love Grace on the other foot, and on Lily's feet she wrote I Love Em and I Love Grace. So I wrote on my feet. :)

When we got home, me, the boys and Dad went to Floreat to get our photo taken with Santa and to do the grocery shopping for tomorrow. After we had got everything from there, we went into Subi to see if the gym stuff we ordered for Mum had arrived, but it hadn't. So we bought the stuff with the marks on it, and the people there are going to call us when unmarked stuff arrives so Mum can swap it.

When we got home, we got everything ready for tomorrow - the sacks out, a chocolate and some milk for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. Once all that had been done, we went to look at the Christmas lights. We went to look at the big ones in Churchlands first, but there were so many people there that you had to park your car and walk. Mum was dressed in her daggy clothes, so we couldn't do that, so instead we went to some of the other close suburbs to look at lights. When we got home, we watched the Vicar of Dibley and the went to bed.

Day 7/365

Tuesday 23 December

Today I spent the day at Megan's. Before Dad dropped me there this morning though, he took me, Will and Tom Driscoll to buy Will an iPod Touch. I needed to go with them because they were on sale, only you needed a SmartRider to get the discount, and Will doesn't have a SmartRider, so he had to use mine. 

When Dad dropped me off, it was just me, Megan and her brother. Soon afterwards her brother got picked up though, so it was just us. We walked into Subi to get a Boost, and after we ordered them we started walking up to a bus stop so we wouldn't have to walk the whole way back. When the bus came, the driver wouldn't let us on because we were drinking, so we had to walk back. 

When we got back to her house, her Grandpa came over to make something for Christmas. After he had left, we watched Gossip Girl and some music channels on TV for a while and then we had lunch. After lunch we watched stuff on her computer and talked. Then Mum came and picked me up.

Lily was supposed to be staying over tonight, but she is sick, so she didn't come. I got my haircut and when we were leaving we saw Anna Malone and had a long chat to her. 

Then we got home, we had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed.

Day 6/365

Day 6 -  Monday 22 December

Well, as the photo suggests, it is Day 6. Almost one week finished out of 52. That's sad stuff.

This afternoon both the boys went to the Driscolls, and Tom and Dominic are staying tonight and tomorrow because John's Dad has just been diagnosed with cancer, so him and Joanne have to go down to Mandurah to get all the Christmas stuff from their house down there because that's where they were going to spend Christmas but now they can't.

Anyway, Finn left at noon, and Uncle Sime picked up Dad because they were having a boys Christmas lunch. Soon after, Will rode around to the Driscolls, and Mum dropped Gus over. Mum said if my room was tidy by the time she got home, she'd take me to get new bathers. 

So I, reluctantly, tidied my room, because my other bathers were waaay too small.

When Mum got home, she was impressed, so we went to the surf shop in Osborne Park and I got a really nice pair of bikinis.

Once I had them, we went to Supply West to get the school books I need for next year, but their weren't very many that I needed because I had a lot of stuff left over from this year and we went to the second-hand book sale. It was quite easy and a lot nicer than Officeworks or Wooldridges.

We then went to Brighton Road to get some little pastry tart things that Mum is going to use to make dessert for Christmas, but they didn't have them, so we went to the butcher instead and got some sausages. Then we went to City Beach to look for the tarts, and they did have them so we bought lots.

Then we went to the Boulevard because we needed to drop back some trays to Georges. While we were there, we got something to eat and I had a really nice raspberry and coconut slice. Then we finally went home and Alison and Craig cam over with Bailey and Cooper. Then Joanne came to drop all the boys off and she stayed for a little while too. Then Simone came, and she stayed the longest - until 8.30.

When everyone was gone, we started watching the Bourne Identity, and not long after we started, Dad came home. We kept watching the movie and eating the chocolates the Driscolls had bought for each of us.

Then everyone got tired, and started going to bed, so I followed, and here I am.

:)

Day 5/365

Day 5 - Sunday 21 December

This morning we (me, Mum and Gus) went to visit Grandma. On our way we called into Bakers Delight to buy some fruit mince pies for everyone there as an early Christmas present. When we got there, Grandma wasn't very talkative (as usual), so instead we talked to Florence and Colleen (the carer). 

After being at Grandma's for about an hour, we left and went to Supre to buy Clea's Christmas present. It took us a while to find it, but we eventually found a white singlet covered in sequins and we bought it. We got home to find that Patrick, Anna, Michael and Daniel were over, because they had to be out of the apartment by ten, but the plane didn't leave til 3. We had lunch with them and played backyard cricket.

When they had left, all five of us went to Supre to swap Clea's shirt because we found out it was dirty and then we went to Floreat Forum to get our photo taken with Santa, but when we got there he had left. Instead we walked around and bought a doughnut and looked in the petshop. In the petshop, we looked at the birds, and Mum said we could get another weero like Ollie. At Woolies I saw Catherine. Then we went home.

We had just walked in the door when Finn arrived because he is staying the night. He and Gus mucked around for a little bit, and then Dad, Finn, Gus, Will and I went to the beach. It was a bit cold and choppy, but still fun.

Five days down, only three hundred and sixty to go :)

Day 4/365

Day 4 - Saturday 20 December 2008

Today we actually did stuff. Not much, but enough to make it a reasonably exciting day. I went with Mum and Dad to pick up Dad's car (he had a work party yesterday and got dropped home) and Dad and I quickly went into the office to grab some stuff while Mum went home. While we were there, we noticed a big package on Dad's desk. We opened it, and discovered that the Christmas presents we had ordered Mum, Grandma and Aunty Helen (from www.whateverittakes.org - it's a good site) had finally arrived. Feeling very excited, we went home (via Subi to pick up a wireless thing for the computer and some wrapping paper).

By the time we got home it was noon-ish, so Mum went to bed for a nap, the boys played PlayStation, Dad did some gardening and I had a lot of presents to wrap - Lily, Jack and Uncle Tony's birthday presents and Grandma, Aunty Helen and Mum's Christmas present. 

With all the presents wrapped and under the tree, I went and got ready to go to Lily's 4th birthday party.

We got there about 5 minutes early, so we helped Aunty Ann ice the cakes (they looked pretty good, if we get any photos then I'll upload them), gave Lily her present (a rashie to match the togs Aunty Ann and Uncle Tom had gotten her and jumped in the pool.

Soon after, Aunty Mer, Em, Tom, Maggie and Finn all arrived, and all the kids got in the pool (except for Em, who's somewhere in between a kid and adult). We were playing Marco Polo, and Tom was it, and me and Maggie were sort of watching Lily to make sure she didn't drown, but mostly playing the game. Tom called Marco, and heard someone reply Polo near where Lily happened to be, so he did a massive dive in that general area, and landed right on her. 

Considering she was probably a bit traumatised after having a very tall 14-year-old jump on her, me and Maggie took her out of the pool and the boys soon followed suit. A little while after getting out, Mel, Julian, Clea and Ella came, followed closely by Uncle Tony, Jack and Rose (Sam is sick). We just mucked around after that - watched some Power Rangers, threw some stuff at each other, ate cake, etc., etc. The photo is of most of the girls leaving Lily's room with her because she scraped her knee - she's a bit of a princess, but an adorable princess.

Unfortunately, we had to leave early, because we thought Patrick, Anna, Michael and Daniel were coming over for dinner, but it turns out they didn't because Michael was asleep.

So now we're home and just watching a movie on TV (Back To The Future 3).

:)

Day 3/365

Friday 19 December 2008

Well, today we did absolutely nothing. And I am not exaggerating. Watched some TV, did the chores, mucked around with Pivot.

But people are coming over soon, so I should be tidying up instead of doing this...

Anyway, the picture is of some gingerbread angels I made for our neighbours. What I didn't realise when I made it, is that it actually makes four rings instead of the one I needed. Oh well.

Because I have nothing to write about, here is the recipe for the gingerbread:

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened

4tbsp brown sugar

8tbsp treacle

3 cups plain flour

3tsp ground ginger

1tsp ground allspice

1tsp ground cinnamon

Pinch salt

6tbsp milk

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar, then add the treacle.

2. Stir in sifted flour, spices and salt, followed by the milk.

3. Knead the dough on a lightly floured bench.

4. Cover, and place in the fridge for a couple of hours.

5. Preheat oven to 180C. Cut the dough into 4 and roll out to a thickness of 5mm.

6. Cut your gingerbread men (I used angels because we didn't have the men cutter) and lay eight or nine in circle on a baking paper covered tray, with their feet and hands overlapping.

7. Dab water on their hands and feet to make them stick.

8. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool and decorate.

:)