31

Well I made it to the end, hope you enjoyed my December Daily.

I did. I hope it all makes it into an album some day.

Can you believe we are just hours away from 2010?

I can remember all the buzz as we waited to welcome in the year 2000.

I must be getting old, I look at my girls and I wonder where the years have gone.

I guess there is only one thing left to say.........

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

image found here

From my little family to yours, best wishes for a healthy and happy new year.

Jodie

30

Orange Cake

This is Mr P's favourite cake. I made them into cupcakes recently and decided to do the same again today. The recipe is based on the clementine cake by Nigella Lawson in How to Eat, but obviously I use oranges. It is simple to make, but time consuming. Normally I would start the night before. Let's begin....

Simmer two oranges for several hours, ensure you don't boil the pan dry. If starting this the night before, I turn the pan off after several hours and continue again the next day.

once the oranges have cooled, or not in this case, chop them coarsely, skin and all and

blend or process to a pulp.

Add orange pulp to 6 eggs,

250g of almond meal,

225g of sugar,

and a heaped teaspoon full of baking powder

mix well.

Fill a muffin pan with the batter,

and bake in a 190C degrees oven.

The little ones took about 20mins,

and the larger ones just over 25 mins.

Now being the kind and caring wife and mother that I am, I thought it best to test one.

Just a little one.

It was delicious. mmmmmmmmm

Jodie

29

Oops!

Jodie

28

How clever are these kids?

If organising the SSCS international swap wasn't enough, the Chookster also organised a kids swap. I showed a sneak peak of what DD1 aka Miss Paradise made here.

Well now I can reveal the whole article. This is the needlecase she sent to Angel. This is the first thing she has ever sewn. The first time she has been near a sewing machine or ever made a yo-yo. I was very proud of her.

This is what she received from JessieGirl ........ These kids amaze me. The stitching is so neat and small and consistent. This is the front....

and the inside.

Thanks to all involved.

Jodie

27

How COOL is this??

I love stuff for the kitchen. Mr P and the girls got me an electric wok this year, and my Cousin got me an "Index of chopping Boards"!



blue is for fish,
red for raw meat,
white for cooked food, and
green for fruit and veg.

I LOVE IT!

Spent some time playing in the kitchen at lunch time. Salmon rice balls (onigiri),

and some big fat sushi.

It is raining here, but still so humid. We have hit 100% humidity this afternoon and also last night. According to the forecast there is no relief in sight.

Jodie

25

Christmas Day is always here at our house, celebrated with my Mum, Dad, Nan and Cousin Di.
From my perspective it is all about the food.

I plan it, shop for it and prepare it all. Because it is all about the food, I rarely take any photos on Christmas Day. Last year we had additional family visiting and it was quite a spectacular. I took photos of the finger food and main course and was totally over it come dessert time. This year I made it easy on myself. Our meal was traditionally non-traditional.

This year Mr Paradise snapped some food shots for me.

No finger food or nibbles this year (it spoils your appetite). We had Steamed Soy Chicken Lovely Legs, Roast Potatoes, Asian BBQ Pork and Ham on the bone with home made tomato chutney.

The side dishes were, Asian Rice Salad and, yep, you guessed it, THE pumpkin and feta salad with honey mustard dressing. Mmmmm.

For Dessert I usually make individual trifles with both green and red jelly. This year, thinking I was making life easier on myself I made one large trifle, with only red jelly. It tasted delicious (I am told), but it gave me grief like you wouldn't believe!

Then there was Chocolate Cup cakes for the little people, iced with white icing and decorated with mint leaves and red smarties. That was supposed to look like holly. In the heat, they kinda slid off a bit.

A fruit platter of seasonal green grapes and red cherries, and Rum Balls, made with sweet sherry!! :) They were gooooooood.

Hope you had a lovely day, however you celebrated.

Jodie

26

Gold Coast United 5, Brisbane Roar 1. Go the Coast!

Jodie PS, I do realise I haven't posted December 25. Working on it!

19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24!!!

Ok, so the wheels of posting (almost) everyday kinda fell off, but I have still been taking photos. Crazy busy here at the moment. Still complaining about the humidity, and we have had enough rain to make all the heat wet! But still tomorrow is Christmas Day and preparations are in hand.

So since my last post we have done more food shopping, lots of baking, chutney making, spent a day 'out in the country' driving in the rain, scrapbooked this years Santa photo, been to visit some friends who are camping just over the border, drank some champers, cleaned out Miss Paradise's (aka DD1) school bag and found a decoration for the tree she made at school, chilled out watching tellie, and the list goes on.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Christmas and I will be back with some updates in a few days.

Jodie

18

A decorated tree in one of our local parks.

Ahh, Fruits of the Season. We love Cherries, and Ferrero Rocher, freshly picked from the chocolate tree :)

Christmas food shopping has begun.

Jodie

17

It is the 17th of December!! Where has the time gone? I know I have been recording each day in pictures, BUT how is it now just a week until the man himself starts his sleigh ride?

It also means we only have one week left with Meteor. The pesky reindeer will be collected from under our tree next Thursday night when Santa makes his rounds!!

We cleaned out DD2 room today and her wardrobe and we have a huge bag to be donated and we have all her clean laundered clothes hung up. By the time that was done we were hot and bothered and my back was protesting.

Lunch, shower then over to my Mum and Dads. The next bit you will never guess!! I started knitting. My mum can knit, crochet, sew clothes, all the practical things. Me I am the creative one, you know the sort, can just manage to sew a button. I wanted to learn to crochet several years ago, so mum lent me a hook, some wool and a book. I took it all back, I couldn't follow it and mum couldn't/wouldn't teach me. She doesn't have that sort of patience. So fast forward to today. I remember how to knit (kinda) from when I was a kid. Mum remembers it too, she told me today. So well that she discouraged me then and offered to do it, and tried it again today. But I stuck to my guns and below is my mum''s 4 ply cotton, my mum's number 10 knitting needles and MY KNITTING ATTEMPT!!

I am very proud. Think I have already picked up some extra stitches. I would like this to be my first attempt at a washcloth. At worst I can undo it all and it will have been a practice piece.

The pattern I am doing is one row plain, next row knit 1, purl 1. My inspiration is here, although mine is looking nothing like Inga's! :)

Jodie

15 & 16

Finding it harder to keep up and find interesting things to photograph! Recharged my little camera this morning so I can take it with us more easily and not be so obvious when snapping away.

First up yesterday DD1 finished up her first sewing project for a kids swap organised by Chookyblue. She is feeling very proud of herself and just quietly so am I! Will show the whole project after Christmas.

Made a quick trip to the library yesterday because this was waiting for me on the holds shelf!

Our pesky little Reindeer, Meteor, is finding better and better places to hide and is harder to find in the mornings, but is spending more and more of the day sleeping off his night time adventures. Dolls cradle generously supplied by DD2.

This last shot appealed to me. We went to the beach today and someone who had already left had made these three castles, complete with foliage and a mote!

Hope your December days are treating you well.

Jodie

12, 13, 14

Playing catch up again!

It has been so hot and steamy here, for what feels like forever! This sunset is actually from Friday 11th but I like the effect. It was cool in the house from the air con, and steamy outside, so as soon as I walked out the lens fogged over. I cleared it, but the pics still seemed to have a eeriness to them.

So on Saturday the 12th, we had an inside arts and craft day. I finished writing out this years Christmas cards, so I gave last years to the girls to "do what they want with" Lots of cutting, glueing and messing. Kept them busy for hours!

The on the 13th this is where we found our pesky reindeer Meteor. He comes to life at night when the girls are asleep and then hides so they have to find him!

Sunday (13th) also involved defrosting the freezer. Such a fun job, not! So yesterday (14th) I made some banana muffins with the black bananas I had stashed in the freezer for just such a purpose. Two left this morning. They are good!

Jodie