3 Days at the Coast

On Monday we drove to the coast and booked into an apartment in Broadbeach for a 2 night stay. We decided to stay an extra night but couldn't book the same room so moved 100 metres up the road to another place for the third night. Meg came with us and we met up with Drew who was already down there. Now we're home again with still a week and a bit off work; well, the kind of work where we go to the office at least.  We've got plenty planned on the farm to get through in the next 10 days or so.

At the coast we did a bit of shopping (I'm revamping the doona/pillow case/sheet decor for all 3 bedrooms), a bit of eating, a bit of drinking, a bit of poker, a bit of surfing and a lot of nothing at all! I can't say I'm feeling rejuvenated and relaxed and ready to leap into 2016 but it's been good to have a few days away.

The surf was very rough this morning. I stood watching Drew swim, just like I did when he was a little boy! I was the only person wearing jeans on the beach.

Colour Run 2015

I worked Boxing Day then we drove to Toowoomba for a two day stay with G's family. The second annual water bomb fight and colour run was held; I was official photographer.

Handy Little Gadget

Drew got an ollo clip for christmas. It's a nifty little lens that clips onto an iPhone and adds another dimension to photos - wide angle, macro etc. He took it up the paddock and played around with it and produced these great pics!

Hampers 2015

In September we made the hamper list - recipients and ingredients. As in every other year we vowed and declared that we'd start early and be super organised by the time Christmas came so that there was no stress at the end. As in every other year, we failed on that count. We were still cooking/making/baking Christmas Eve afternoon (the power outage didn't help). I had to remake the strawberry jam because 2 of the bottles, made weeks before, went mouldy so I threw the lot out and started again. When we started the hamper idea a few years ago we thought it sounded easy but there's an awful lot of work goes into producing them! Meg went the extra mile this year and printed out labels for everything! They looked lovely.

There was feta cheese.

Our own version of rocky road.

Gingerbread.

Drowning in icing sugar.

 A parsley plant.

Lemon Butter.

Washing liquid.

Tomato chutney.

Strawberry jam.

Basil pesto.

And a tea towel!

Christmas Cooking by Generation

Every year my Mum comes out for a couple of days; on Christmas Eve, we cook. This year we were a bit behind the eight ball as there'd been a fierce and violent storm in the district (it was even called a mini tornado) the night before that caused a lot of damage and dropped power lines. We weren't hit with any damage but were affected by the power outage. We had been in Toowoomba and came back through about 20 minutes after the storm; it took us an extra hour to get home as we had to constantly stop to remove fallen trees and branches. Gibbo was in front of us in his car; we followed him and we had another car behind us.

It was a hellish trip home in the dark; we were very relieved to turn left onto the road to home where the damage wasn't so bad but we came across this!

Power wasn't restored until after 1 o'clock; it was then a mad rush to get everything cooked and prepped!

Mum did the pork; she did the whole butter/salt/oil thing that I remember from my childhood/growing up. It's so long since I've seen her do it like this - I had actually forgotten her method. For a long time I've just used oil and salt but when I saw her do this it took me back….and honestly, it was the best crackling ever!

Also this year, for the first time in many, I deviated from the usual two roast chickens from the supermarket and bought two boned out chickens from the butcher (an idea my hairdresser gave me). We used my grandmother's/Mum's stuffing recipe - Mum made it - and the 3 of us (Mum, Meg and I) rolled the bodies and jammed them into the string sleeves. Plenty of laughs in that process. Verdict - best chickens in a long time; we'll do it again next year! I enjoyed the fact that the smell/taste/memory reminded me of a time so long ago. I liked that it was 3 generations in the kitchen sharing recipes and methods from my childhood. The memory of my grandmother was heavy in the air too, especially strong when Meg made the filling for the stuffed eggs on Christmas morning. It's all a lot of work but it's tradition and I like that.

Gibbo was hard at work with his little friend keeping him company. She's never too far from his side.

Christmas 2015

We had another lovely Christmas. We always do. I don't get excited and I don't give it too much thought until about 3 weeks before when I think I'd better start or it won't happen! I always get there in the end.

This year we went very minimalist with the tree. We had some new IT gear delivered and I snavelled this pallet.

I talked to our work colleague, Jude, and gave him a vague idea of what I wanted and he took it off to the workshop. Within an hour he was back - with this!! Perfect! Exactly what I wanted.

This year Drew wasn't with us on Christmas Day but he came home for a few days just before. We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts.

As an extra present Meg hit him in the nose, accidentally. We think. She looks sorry. Kind of.

 On Christmas Day Coco found that last year's outfit didn't quite fit this year.

We had our usual Christmas fare with a couple of old favourites making a comeback (those details to come in another post).  Our menu of roast pork, roast chicken, ham, stuffed eggs, beetroot & onion, chicken wings, pasta salad, potato salad, special salad dressing and wombok salad followed by a deviation in dessert this year with the usual sticky date pudding being replaced by mini pavlovas with cream, fresh fruit and mango ice-cream ensured we all left the table suitably satisfied.

A little bit of everything on my plate.

My big brother, my little brother, my mother, my father, my husband and my daughter!

I'm not a Star Wars fan but I'm a definite Yoda fan. He reminds me of a time long ago. In a galaxy….no, no, just joking!

Grand-daughter, Grand-dad. The only one he's got.

Andrew is 4 years younger than me.

Meg got 3 paintings; the same but different.

The kids gave us a large canvas of a favourite photo; Drew from his trip to Indonesia and Meg from hers to Egypt.

Twenty-one years ago we started a small brangus stud. During that time I had a property sign made one year for Christmas. It said 'Gentech Brangus'. We eventually got out of that breed and traded cattle for a few years so the sign sat alone and forgotten in the shed. This year Gibbo had it remodelled, with new words, by our colleague Jude (the man of the pallet christmas tree) and it looks fantastic. I was thrilled when I saw it. (We may need to get Jude to shave the hump off the bull but that's ok)!

We all had a little rest in the afternoon and talked about what a lovely day it was. Just like it always is!