Merry Christmas!

Wow, another Christmas been and gone. Thanks to everybody for their Christmas wishes - it was great to hear from you all (even telephone calls at 4:50am in the morning)!

Thanks to Meg I found bon bons which came with the usual paper hats and bad jokes such as:

Q. What do you get when you cross a radio with a refrigerator?
A. Cool Music.

I successfully cooked my first roast dinner which we finished off with apple pie and ice-cream since we couldn't find a Christmas pudding anywhere.

Brad was pretty happy since there was basketball and football on tv that afternoon, though I managed to drag him away for an hour or so while we went for a drive up into the foothills (no snow to be seen anywhere). Even though we were so far from home we still had a great day. I think the Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas that I bought Brad topped it off and gave it that Australian feel!

I am back at work today (no boxing day holiday) though the office is extremely quiet, hence the reason for this post. Brad is off until the 3rd of January though he has work to do at home and will be in and out of uni during the week. I think he is enjoying the fact that he gets to sleep in while I have to get up early!

I have been a bit of a knitting machine over the weekend. I managed to finish my misty garden scarf, a beanie and my first sock. I have also started this cardigan, though I am not going to put the bobbles on the sleeves.

I did a lot of this knitting while we watched some dvd's - Mr. and Mrs. Smith which was great (8/10) and The Fantastic 4 which wasn't so great (5/10). The only downside to Christmas - too much food. I am off to the gym tonight to try and work off all those Caramello Koalas!

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like Christmas

Good news - we survived our Christmas shopping on the weekend and I’m pleased to say we’re almost finished. At least we know what we’re getting for the remaining people so it shouldn’t be too difficult. I also bought our Christmas roast lamb last night, now the only problem is cooking it!

We’re going to try and have a traditional Christmas even though we’re not at home, though there are a couple of things missing. We can’t seem to find plum pudding or bon bons anywhere. What are we going to do without our paper hats and bad jokes?

It was a great weekend for movies on tv. Saturday night was "The Sound of Music" and Sunday night was "The Wizard of Oz". I can hear you all groaning but there was nothing better than snuggling up in front of the heater watching two of my all time favourites. It was also a excuse to get lots of knitting done. I've almost finished Misty Garden and have made some good progress on my socks.

There were also plenty of phone calls back home this weekend. I got to hear baby Charlotte on the phone for the first time. I think she was pleased to hear from us, I just can't wait to meet her. We also spoke to Simone and Tim who are planning to visit next year - YAY!!!

Happy Birthday Babe!

My gorgeous husband turns 28 today! Happy Birthday babe, I hope you have a fantastic day. Although, I'm sure he will have to spend part of the day looking for a dentist after breaking a tooth last night. Ouch!

Speaking of last night, we went down to the Botanical Gardens to see the "River of Lights" display. It was an impressive display, actually much better than we had expected. There were quite a lot of people there despite the cold weather. We had our first snowfall for this winter on Sunday night. We woke up to find our yard covered in snow. It looked beautiful, though it had melted by the time we got home from work that day.

I can't believe it's only a week and a bit until Christmas. We have done some of our Christmas shopping but plan to head out to do some more this weekend. Brave, aren't we? I'm sure the shops will be crazy, but at least we're not under so much pressure to have all our presents by the 25th. We are planning to take most of them back with us to Oz next year in an attempt to save on postage.

On the knitting front, I managed to turn the heel of my sock on Tuesday night (thanks to the help of Jeannie). It's actually starting to look like a sock now, though I haven't done any more work on it since I started my misty garden scarf (Christmas present). The scarf is looking great, I think I might be knitting a few more as presents!

Welcome Charlotte Lilly!

Yay, we have a new niece! Jo and Steve are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. Charlotte Lilly arrived on December 9, 2005 at 11:27am (I think). From all reports she is doing very well while mum is taking a bit longer to recover - Get well soon Jo! I soooo wish I could be there now. I'd better start knitting some pink baby clothes now that we know it is a girl. Speaking of knitting, I've finally downloaded some photos. The first is my knitting place (since I was tagged by Jenny) - the comfy couch next to the heater (out of sight on the left). Now I know it looks pretty clean - I cheated and took the photo after I cleaned up on Friday afternoon. And I love the fact that I was able to get our Christmas tree in the background.

The only knitting project on display is my sock that was progressing well until I reached the heel! All my other projects are stuffed into the cabinet on the right. So.... A photo of the sock in question.

This is a photo of the scarf I knitted for Kyan's fiance who arrives from Brazil in January. I was asked to knit a pink fluffy scarf and I think this fits the description quite well.

Finally, here are the mittens I knitted for little Ava during our trip to Tucson.

While, were going nuts with the photos, here are some from our trip to Tucson for Thanksgiving!

In other Albuquerque news, I had my work Christmas party last night. It was a great night that actually didn't end until the early hours of the morning - we're such party animals! It was held at a collegues house and we got to experience our first "White Elephant" game. It is similar to Kris Kringle but rather than having a specific person to buy for you get to choose a present from a pile of gifts bought by the other guests. But wait.... there's more. If you want someone elses gift you can just steal it from them but watch out, it can also be stolen from you so it's good not to get too attached! It can become quite intense to say the least, but a whole lot of fun. I ended up with a great set of pasta/salad bowls. I also got to experience my first Mexican Tequila (100% blue agave cactus) - boy it has quite a bite!

Well, we're off to watch the finale of "Survivor". What can I say - I'm still a sucker for reality tv!

One Year Ago....

Wow, it's been a while.... and I know there's still no photos. As you probably guessed work has been quite busy lately hence no emails or blogging. Seriously though, it's great to be busy at work without having to make myself look busy or bug people for extra work to do.

Brad and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday (I can't believe it's been a year already). We went to our favourite Chinese restaurant P.F. Chang's for dinner and are planning on going to see "The Lion King" when we return to Melbourne next year.

We had a pretty busy weekend. Brad is still working continuously on his grant so spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon in at the university. I went to check out the Saturday afternoon knitting group which was great. Much better than sitting at home, knitting on my own. Speaking of knitting, I have started my first pair of socks. They are actually not as hard as I had anticipated. I am using some yarn I bought at the Taos Wool Festival back in October. I promise photos will come shortly.

Saturday night we went to the movies and saw "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". I think it was definitely the best movie so far even though the third book was my favourite. There are several movies coming out over the next couple of months that we would like to see including King Kong, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Producers and Munich. Not sure if I will get Brad to all of them but I'm sure that should keep us out of trouble for a while.

We bought and decorated our Christmas tree on Sunday. It is starting to look very Christmasy both in our house and around Albuquerque. Many houses have started decorating with lights and luminarias though none compare with the Christmas house in Hoppers Crossing.

We also have good news on the house front. Looks like we won't be moving afterall. It turns out that our landlord will keep both houses and can therefore stay in the current one - YAY!