May your days be merry and bright

Christmas: tick.



Over and done with for another year, and in another day it will be 2011 and i will be shaking my head at how the year has flown. I do hope everyone had a great Christmas - we celebrated with friends and family as always, and it was a marvellous, boozy affair. Just as it should be.




But first, some of my Christmas cooking conquests. When it gets to this time of year, I'm always watching Christmas cooking specials. I don't know why. I get strangely addicted to them, and this in turn makes me want to bake. So i did! I made Christmas shortbread cookies, which i sadly burnt (they still tasted good i reckon, and so did Jo, who ate most of them). Here they are:







AND, i made Nigella's Cranberry, Orange and Almond pudding, which came out swimmingly, if i do say so myself. It felt very Christmassy indeed to pour a shitload of cranberries into saucepan and watch them pop....







And the end result looked BETTER than Nigella's, if you ask me. (I know. I too should be starring in my own cooking show. Petition coming soon.)







Our friends Kama and Tony hosted a Christmas booze-up (i mean party), which saw us exchanging hilarious Kris Kringle presents and drinking all manner of Christmas cocktails, my favourite of which was the Christmas in a Glass - prosecco and gingerbread liqueur. I mean you guys! It really IS Christmas in a glass!




She even made EGGNOG. EGGNOG people. Which by the way, actually has egg in it. (What? I was shocked.) Don't let that put you off though, its delicious. Or maybe i was just too "happy" (read: tipsy) to give a rats. Anythings possible. To top it off, they had a real tree - which pretty much crapped all over our fake plastic one.

Kama in all her Christmas glory

Jo and I

Me and my prosecco (and Tony.)

Getting home at 2am was possibly not the greatest idea the night before Christmas Eve, but what can you do. I pressed on and decided the best cure for a hangover was to continue the party. My team at work decided a long lunch was in order (who bloody well has to work on Christmas Eve anyway??), so we took ourselves off to Assiette, a VERY nice restaurant in Surry Hills, and proceeded to spend the next 4 hours drinking ourselves merrily into the afternoon. Back to work it was NOT, not after all those cosmopolitans, so i rushed back home to meet Jo and we headed off to my parents, where we camped ourselves for the next 2 days.

I knew we had to go to a big family Christmas Eve bash, but honestly, there was no way i was fit to go anywhere without having a nap first. Not if i was going to continue to abuse my body anyway, which was (naturally) the plan. Christmas Eve is traditionally celebrated with my Dad's side of the family - a rowdy bunch, and that's putting it mildly, so i knew that the food and drink would be flowing right through to midnight. Jo always says he has to mentally prepare for the event. It's usually at my parents place, but my cousin Frank hosted this year. I have no idea how i made it to midnight, but i did people, i did. Which means i basically endured 48 hours of eating and drinking nonstop. Which is pretty awesome, when you think about it.

The kids had fun with a snowman pinata - funny that when you give someone a stick and tell them to whack the crap out of something, their inner-caveman in unleashed. They actually went schizo. Wild look in their eyes, untamed bellowing...it was all there. When the poor snowman finally fell apart, they pounced on that chocolate like it was the last thing they were ever gonna do. And God help you if you tried to sneak a piece for yourself. I should know.

Max

Jack

Raffael, taking it all very seriously...

Chocolate madness

Christmas day dawned bright and clear and damn hot. Woot! Just the way i like it. We spent it with my mums side of the family at my parents place, and this year we had some old friends join us too, so that made it extra nice. I was well pleased with my loot (not that Christmas is about presents or anything. I totally know that.) Tom Ford sunnies from Jo, a fab Oroton bag from Maria, and cold hard cash from my parents.

Even my brother got me something. Normally his reaction to presents is an unintelligible grunt, followed by an "I forgot". What did you forget?? Christmas?? You forgot it was Christmas?? But this year he actually requested something specific from me, so he must have known there'd be no option but to return the favour.

Jo and my cousin Tony lounging with the dogs

A Christmas kiss from Reggie

My uncle tops the afternoon off with nap

We don't usually go with the traditional ham or turkey at our house for Christmas. Tradition for us is homemade gnocchi - the BEST you'll ever eat by the way, and literally the only time we make them is for Christmas and Easter. But this year we DID have a turkey, cause my uncle got it for free when he bought a new fridge. (*shrugs*. Don't ask me.)

Since we don't usually have one, i can't say we're entirely familiar with how to cook it. My parents solution was to just sort of shove it in the oven and hope for the best. When it came out, they spent 30 minutes arguing about how best to carve it. And then, my Dad wanted to throw out the stuffing. Say it with me people - WHAT??? THROW OUT THE STUFFING?? Everyone knows the stuffing is the best part! My Dad's attitude to food is this - if he doesn't eat it, no one should. Luckily, i stepped in and gave him an earful about not being selfish on Christmas, thereby saving the holiday for ourselves and for all mankind.

And that, folks, was Christmas. A few card games and lots of beer later it was all over for another year. Thankfully i haven't had to go back to work this week, so I've spent lots of quality time with the TV - I've had a stack of books on my shelf which i told myself i would absolutely get to over the holidays, but lets face it - an MTV marathon of 16 and Pregnant totally beats reading.

New Years Eve is tomorrow, but i don't make resolutions. I know i won't stick to them. I change my mind about things all the time, alas. I DO know that 2011 will be a huge and exciting year - lots of change, and lots of adventures. And it all beings very soon, so I'm going to bed, or maybe to watch more 30 Rock re-runs. I hope everyone has a great start to the new year - as my brother would say, go hard or go home. See you all next year!

Good tidings

I know. My posts have been few and far between lately. But all the smart and beautiful people know that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Looking back over the past few weeks, i really could not even tell you what I've done - all i know is i can't remember the last time i was in bed before midnight, let alone home at all. But let's see what i can remember...




December started with a bang, as people across the nation celebrated my birthday. HA! Totally kidding. I was disappointed there were no fireworks in my honour though. I mean honestly. I expected more from the Labour Government.




We went to see the Chekhov play Uncle Vanya with our friend Kat, put on by the Sydney Theatre Company. Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Richard Roxburgh were stand-outs in an altogether marvellous ensemble cast, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.




My oldest friend and bridesmaid is back in town for a month, so we've had dress fittings and catch-ups galore - and I'm pleased to say her dress is almost finished and looking lovely. AND. My dress is really coming along! I've had more fittings this month than ever, and it's looking beeeeeeautiful! My mum saw it for the first time, and she was blown away. I say this because she is hardly ever blown away by anything, so it must be good. Other wedding ticks - we picked and ordered our wedding cake and cars, and have officially covered all our musical bases. That's a bang bang bang right there. Thank goodness too, cause the damn thing's less than three months away now. Last on the wedding front - our invitations arrived! And they're beautiful and heartfelt and everything we wanted them to be. They'll be in the mail in the next couple of weeks, so I'm super excited to hear what everyone thinks of them.




We went to see U2 in concert, and they were fab as usual. I've seen them before, but Jo got these tickets for free, and as you know - if it's free, its for me. What i like about U2 is that they always sing their back catalogue - the songs that everyone wants to hear. All the favorites were in there, and including two of my all time faves, Where Streets Have No Name and Sunday Bloody Sunday. The set-up was pretty flash too - very transformers....

Sweaty and sung-out after the concert. Delicious.

And then there's Christmas. The season to be jolly. I'm sorry to report that I've become more than a little addicted to Christmas cooking shows this year. Chief among them is Nigella, mainly because i love her and want to be her best friend. Plus, she uses ingredients that come out of cans and bottles like regular people.

We wasted no time putting the tree up. I like to maximise Christmas tree time, because lets face it - there's nothing like twinkling lights and tinsel to get your Yuletide on. See?

Maria and I rocked the house at our work Christmas party, which had a masquerade theme. Cheap champagne flowed freely, and the masks were ditched approximately 60 seconds after these pictures were taken...

...but the drinking, you'll be pleased to hear, did not stop all night. And that, folks, was my downfall. All liquid. No solid. A novice mistake, i know, and I've got no excuse. I thought that salt and vinegar chips would be enough to tide me over, AND i thought there'd be more food at the party. Alas, neither turned out to be true.

I was, that Friday night, an instigator. So was Maria. It was excellent team work - we started congo lines and zorba circles, screamed at the top of our lungs to Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams, ensured all glasses were permanently filled with cheap booze and kept our co-workers abreast with all the relevant (and irrelevant) office gossip. If there's something to know, we'll sniff it out before anyone else, guaranteed. We're smart like that. And it didn't end there. When the official party ended, we rounded up the troops and headed off to the Retro for more drinking and dancing. Things went downhill pretty quickly after that i'm afraid. Champagne was ditched for vodka, and we found ourselves once more in the murky depths of the cheapest bar in town. Within half an hour, our friend Turnsie was booted from the joint. Things get hazy after that, but around the time my shoes started to literally burn my feet, i had my last clear memory, which was: "Must. Get. Cab." So i did.

The next day, tired and hungover, was not a happy one for Nell, so let's gloss over that quickly and move straight onto Christmas shopping, which is 90% complete only because most of the weekend just gone was spent in a shopping frenzy. The shops are adorned in festive glory....

...so it's nice to be out and about in all the merriment, except for the part where you want to kill everyone in sight. The toy section is particularly challenging, and again, I've erased the experience from my memory, so let's move on. I only want to say one thing, and that is that the number one rule of Christmas shopping is DON'T TAKE YOUR CHILDREN CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!! I mean DUH. DUH. It's madness!!! Bonkers!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE??? Get your Santa photo and get the hell out of my sight, and take your snotty kid with you for godsake, before they touch every teddy bear in the vicinity with their dirty, grubby hands. That is all.

On Friday night, we went to St. Mary's Cathedral for their annual Christmas carols, which was very traditional and quite lovely. You'll be pleased to know that I sang my little heart out, Silent Night's and all. The Cathedral itself has been dressed up for the season - come 8pm, it lights up in all manner of ways, looking very merry indeed - if you get the chance - go see it.

Here she is during the day....

...and here's some of what you'll see at night...

And now here we are, a few days away from Christmas and the end of another year. Time flies when you're having fun and all that. (It really does fly. WAH!) This mammoth post should have me caught up now, and there'll be more Christmassy goodness to report before the weeks out I'm sure.

Another cup of....?

Right. I'm way behind in my blogging, i know, but life has been terribly busy as it always is at this time of year. Still, here i am, raring to tell you all about my kitchen tea (that happened over two weeks ago. I'm nothing if not fashionably late.)

We spend the whole weekend before cooking up a storm, so everyone could enjoy stuffing their faces with all manner of delicious things, as per below:

Speaking of guests, they came from far and wide for the event - some as far as New Zealand, like my mother in law (who provided the bunting for us to hang. If you don't know what bunting is, look it up.)








Maria and I were in a decorating frenzy. Garden party perfection was the goal. I will say right now that she's the worse perfectionist of them all - the kind that has you running around looking for mini-pencils your whole lunch break, but that's another story. In this case, her perfectionist ways paid off (even if i was left with that slightly dazed, just got hit over the head with a jackhammer look on my face).

There was, as you can see, food-a-plenty. Mini everything - strawberry tarts, scones, cannoli, pies, quiches...believe me when i tell you i was eating red velvet cupcakes for days afterwards.

Obviously you can't have a kitchen tea without games, but we decided against such classics as "make a wedding dress out of toilet paper", and stuck with easy things like a quiz about ME (and Jo, but who cares about him). And we had a lucky door prize - everyone got a piece of 1950s housewife advice when they arrived (which included such pearlers as "Don't greet him with problems or complaints - count these are minor compared to what he may have gone through that day." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and later in the day i read out a piece of advice and whoever had the same one was the winner of the prize!

I know. Are we genius's or what?

Here's a few snapshots of my peeps:

Susie, Sylvana and Max in his wife beater.

The gals, Linda, Krisha, Kama, moi, Melissa and Sonali

Me (in my fab apron which i guarantee i will never wear in the kitchen, ever - thank Mel!) and Mum

Mel and I. That glass of pink champagne was full mere moments earlier.

Me, Rom, pukes and thats baby number TWO in her belly.

Ladies, including one of my awesome bridesmaids Christina and Aunty Margaret, both of whom came from Adelaide for the affair (thanks guys!)

Double trouble my arse. These boozeheads were trouble to the power of three.

Me and the lady that made it ALLLLLLL happen, my other awesome bridesmaid Maria

Z remained unimpressed by the days events

And then it was over! Just like that. All the planning and stressing and cooking and hoping for good weather....over in a flash. Which is exactly what the wedding is going to be like - all over before we know it, so i suppose i better enjoy the drama while i can. Once everyone left, we cracked into the serious alcohol - cosmopolitans all round, several times over - while i opened all of my gifts - THANK YOU anyone reading this who came, though i am, i promise, getting around to contacting you all personally. So generous, and my kitchen is now very well stocked.

Here we are drinking our first cocktail of the evening....(don't worry, there were other, non-drinking adults there to supervise the devil *cough* i mean Jack)....

Aaaaaaaaand here we are after the tenth. Eleventh. Whatever.

I really have to shout out to Maria who, despite her slave-driving ways, totally made the whole day happen. It was perfect and i loved it and i couldn't have done it without you. AND, to Christina, who flew in from Adelaide and spend the next three days doing what i told her to and not complaining once. She even put a table together. Cause Lord knows Maria and I can't even look at a screwdriver without breaking something.

More of a roundup on the last couple of weeks soon, as long as Christmas doesn't get in the way.

Happy birthday to moi ploise

So it was my birthday yesterday. (I know. Hold your applause.) I feel a quick post in honour of my birth would be appropriate, even though i predict the pest will steal the show as usual.



Alas, i had to work, but my workmates and friends made it a nice day nonetheless (thanks for the long lunch and cake peeps!), and i had not one but TWO deliveries of flowers - beautiful roses from Jo and lovely lilies and champers from my BFF over in L.A. My good friend Turnsie arranged my annual birthday present treasure hunt, always a good way to start the day, and i got a necklace and earrings AND the Grease DVD from Jo too. Now he'll have no excuse for not watching it with me, HAHA sucker. David and Mel got me a ticket to Fame, which we went to see last week, and my brother supposedly got me something which he conveniently "left at work" yesterday, so we'll see when that makes an appearance. My in laws spoilt me with cards and scarfs and all sorts of lovely things, and Leah sent over a hilarious card and ring from the UK. Which all proves that there's nothing like a birthday to make you feel loved.




Dinner at my parents last night, and my uncle made homemade pasta for dinner, my favourite thing, and obviously Jack's too - as you can see, he enjoyed his share.











Afterwards it was all about the cake - and he went to great lengths to discover its whereabouts. "Where is the cake. Where is the cake. Where is the cake." I mean really kid. Look in the fridge. Out it came, in all its chocolate glory, and when he was told he wasn't going to get any, he threw his hands in the air in frustration and proclaimed "But i was a good boy! I ate all my pasta!"




For once he was telling the truth. My lone candle was lit, and happy birthdays were sung TWICE so Jack could blow out my candle TWICE. Then my dad breaks out the whisky (what? it was an important occasion.), and i decide to have some fun and tell Jack it's apple juice. The kid loves apple juice. So i say "hey Jack, want some apple juice?" and give him the glass. He takes a whiff and thinks why not - goes in for a slug before i snatch it off him with a jolly "just joking! Haha!" Then all hell breaks loose, and there's tears and screams and general patheticness about wanting juice. "OK, OK", i say, "i'll get you some real juice." "NO!" he wails, "I want THAT juice!!" Maria's looking at me like i'm getting what i deserve, which i probably am, but i drag him into the kitchen and get him some red cranberry juice in a tom and jerry glass, which seems to do the trick, so i'm the winner after all. It was a nice little break in all the fun.

I know. Cuters.



The great happy birthday sing-a-thon. PS, there were other people at my party, but who cares about them.

Sharing the cutting duties, as any great couple would

My lilies (thank Y!)

Aaaaaand my roses, in peach in white cause the boy knows i don't do red.

So, it's all over for another year. By this time NEXT year i will be a Mrs! Me, a wife? *sniggers* feeling sorry for Jo already.

PS - check out some of Jo's photography here! I reckon he's getting pretty good :)