My Family Knows Me Well

My little family make me teary each year with the lovely gifts they choose for me. This year was no exception. Some books (including The Love You Book and a new permaculture book); some of my special soap and scent, Marshmallow by Mor (including a candle in a beautiful teacup which I intend to light up instead of leaving it to melt); a Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall DVD; some lovely chook place mats and coasters and some other thoughtful gifts made this year as special as the last. An interesting (!) wine stopper (which is a little too risque to publish a photo of) and a little snowman keyring whose eyes pop right out of his head when you squeeze him brought a laugh - except tonight when I looked a bit thunderous (momentarily of course), the kids mimicked my eyes popping out of my head!! Surely not!! (That's him below in the yellow lemon squeezer that I got - now that I grow my own lemons).
I got this for my garden gate.
Drew sometimes thinks that Meg doesn't help as much as she could (or as much as he thinks she should) so he took a photo of her helping to unpack the big shop. Both the fruit & veg shop and Foodworks were open. I had held off doing the rellies shop just in case they didn't make it through the waters.
This is how we greet our guests around here - we actually walk half way down the front road to meet them. Well not really. Gibbo was out for a walk (yes, in the pouring rain-in gum boots) and along came one of the rellies then I came along from Peter's. I had already passed Chris and Nathan - they were out running! In this weather. Keen hey. Gibbo had already walked this morning but thought that because he didn't hold back at Christmas lunch yesterday he should take himself for an extra walk. With a brolly......BFF's.

It was the Gibbo's turn on roster for the first meal. Some 1824 beef (one of the beast slabs of meat I've had in a long time, ate the whole lot) on a burger with onion, coleslaw and bbq sauce followed by these little pavs that Meg and Chris made. Twenty of them, all gone in a flash; they were delicious. Gibbo had one with yoghurt, not cream. An extra walk tomorrow again probably.

I watched a very heavy dark grey cloud make its' way across the plain to dump itself right on top of us just as the last caravan pulled up. It is sooo wet. Luckily we have an extra wide verandah on one side of the house which has pull down canvas blinds. It can rain as much as it likes and we won't get wet. Damp maybe, but not wet. That's where we eat and tend to congregate. With 25 people due (including toddlers and the two week old baby) and 18 dogs (including the 7 boarders and the 9 newborn pups-although thankfully they're in a dry cage over at G's chooks) you need somewhere to sit and eat and play cards and for the kids to ride their bikes and trikes. Yikes.