i live in australia. i love the autumn. i could eat lemon butter all day. my birthday is in the summertime. i am the mother of two kids with one more on the way.
this year we decided that we would embrace daylight saving with the kids & celebrate the christmas season during all hours of the day and night. so far we have watched the lighting of the christmas tree in martin place, sung carols on manly oval with my MG, attempted decorating our house, and had playgroup and kindy Christmas parties. the kids have had an absolute blast being out late at night, eating snacks all the way up to bedtime and generally just going crazy with each other & their friends ! they don’t like fireworks, or cannon balls and they are a little apprehensive when santa comes into view. but, despite all that they have survived & even blessed us with ‘sleep-ins’ (aka waking up at 7 am rather than 6 am … but hey! we’ll take whatever we can get!!). we have been spending time with friends from near & far & there is still so much more fun to be had ! we will be heading to the kiddie farm & carols at our local church, my brother is part of the band for carols under the bridge & we haven’t even made it to Christmas day! it is such a silly silly season & i think we all need it at this time of year.
here is the promo video for carols under the bridge which we just love going to each year …
christmas is truly here. we’ve had thanksgiving, the weather is unbearably hot on some days (here in Oz), the Christmas decorations are up all over town & we have ordered our ham for Christmas day lunch. i just love this season. it’s my favourite ! we are attempting to decorate our house, but we have virtually no decorations – so i will be doing a lot of collecting of decorations during january for next year. but we are so excited about getting a real Christmas tree this year ! i love the smell of pine in the house – i have so many good childhood memories of Christmas attached to that smell. we play sufjan stevens’ Christmas collection ‘Songs for Christmas’ on repeat for the entire advent (with a little of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ to break it up’) and holidays for mark begin – yippee ! it is promising to be a great festive season
here is a sneak peak into the newest Christmas album by sufjan stevens. it has a bit of an Age of Adz feel to it and is not as folky as he traditionally is … but man i love his music. enjoy !
this weekend mark & i hosted a christmas in july for my mother’s group. what a very special bunch of ladies. we ate ham, listened to sufjan stevens’ ‘songs for christmas’, drank mulled wine and let the kids run wild. it was perfect.
i was so busy having fun that i completely forgot to take photos. the ones you see were taken by others on the night or the next morning. oops ! i learnt my lesson.
this week mark had a work trip for two nights. i know it does not sound like a big deal … and honestly, it really isn’t … but for some reason the wheels fell off my wagon & i’ve been on struggle street ever since he left ! now, don’t hear me complaining, i just want to share this because the sequence of events is really quite funny & i know that come tonight we will have a really good laugh about it. this has been my week thus far:
Monday.
- turned up to an early morning dr appointment for the kids (which was hard to get to so early with the kids) only to be told it was booked for tuesday not monday ;
- we then decided to have a baby cino to feel better about ourselves, but as soon as we ordered, the little man had an accident (due to the shopping centre loos being so faaaaaarrrrrr away !!!!) – this never happens, so it meant we had to go straight home to get a change of clothes;
- we were then late for joey’s music lesson & only had half a lesson (we love music!);
- after music, the kids then locked themselves in the car & it took the NRMA 40 minutes to get them out. two positives: joey is a champ for pressing the ‘small button’ when the keys were finally handed to him; and, the Honda CRV is IMPOSSIBLE to break into … yippee.
Tuesday.
- went to the dr appointment (again) and discovered the kids are a lot sicker than i thought & we were referred to some specialist pediatricians – bummer;
- we played in the park with friends in the afternoon only to leave slightly too late & got held up in traffic right on dinner time – my bad.
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
- the baby decided not to sleep from 11 pm to 4 am. i had no control & honestly did not know what to do?!
Wednesday day.
- finally some good news, i took a load of rubbish to the tip (yes! i love that kind of stuff…) & had a baby cino / chai with my dad = relaxing.
Needless to say, i am on struggle street & i need to get off !
Overall, i am thankful for this experience – it’s times like these that you realise that you are surrounded by some pretty amazing people. seriously guys – you have been sooooooooo awesome. thank you for calling me, texting me, fb’ing me. i loved all my OS messages on fb at 4 am this morning – yes ! to globalisation & reaching friends in foreign lands when you feel alone & need them. thank you !
mark always plays this version of cornflake girl by tori amos for me … i have found great comfort blasting it through our stereo these last three days thinking of him & how he will come home and fix everything. come home mark !!
ever since my school days i have always been the last person to find out anything about anything. i don’t know why, but i’m just a bit behind the eight ball when it comes to being ‘in the know’. i don’t mind – it’s just me & i don’t expect it to change.
recently i asked my source of all good things music (joanna kate) what i should be listening to. she suggested alice russell. bam ! i have hit a winner. but seriously?!?!?!?!?!? why has it taken me so long to jump on this band wagon??!!!!!
here is a little number that i have been cranking up on our stereo whenever i can.
what have you been listening to lately ? any more recommendations for me ?
… i am really enjoying driving the car all on my own with the music really really really really loud. it makes me feel free. it happens rarely, but when it does it is a special treat. currently i am listening to paloma faith. the bass. the bass. the bass. love it.
Paloma Faith – Stone Cold Sober – Live from Abbey Road 2009
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