Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

Oh damn, I should have thought of a different title, now I’ve got a Wiggles song stuck in my head.

But it’s getting to the silly season, so named I’m sure because it induces such panicy feelings that the only way to get through it is to indulge in a glass of sherry or brandy before 10am in the morning, making Mum’s all over the world silly before lunch time. I swear that’s the only way I’m going to get through this year.

As it approaches the magic two month mark til Christmas, I think about all I have to do and feel like running away with Bettina until everything blows over.

I know I have too much on my plate, compounded by the fact I have 34 days until I leave, rather than the 63 days until Christmas.

At least I don’t have 500 Christmas parties to go to.

Christmas at the Kin’s was certainly a subdude affair this year. Being closer to Kin’s extended family next year meant we were definitely enjoying a small Christmas with only 8 people (compared to the 21 who turned up to Kin’s parents Christmas on Sunday). Also the lack of travelling on Christmas day made for a very relaxed day.

Santa came in the early hours of Christmas morning, and even assembled the SuperFort in the shape of a cubby thing, but thankfully left the box with the instructions in it  Here is the amazing cubby he constructed on his brief visit:

Since then it has also been a rocket ship, an aeroplane, a house with a patio extension, a play house for the toys and a kennel for the dog. I think M&M may be an engineer in the making - she definitely has the 3-dimensional spatial awareness thing happening, that her mother never developed.

Santa also left a fair swag of presents under the tree:

You can kind of see in the background, the brightly coloured storage unit? Amazingly all the toys Santa left fit exactly into that unit, with some baskets to spare for the toys already in their bedroom. That Santa’s amazing!

Mummy did really well this year with her presents. She got a ring she had asked for from Hubby (and circled in the catalogue, and offered to put on layby), a jewellery box, a necklace and earring set, lots of smelly stuff, notebooks, a cookbook (expect some awesome, easy recipe’s from there soon too!) and photo frames (of which you can never have too many!!). By far the best present of the day came from the in-laws. Some cash for a night out, with babysitting included. My biggest challenge now is to decide where to go! Although there’s this French restaraunt nearby, that does a six-course meal I’ve been wanting to try again…

I also recieved a couple of days before Christmas my presents from Tupperware, but it’s taken me this long to sit down and figure out how to upload photos  but I think I’ve got it now.

We’re off to the Big City tomorrow to take the girls to see Enchanted and to pick up the rest of my presents. A matching set of 4 champagne glasses and white wine glasses. Very excited. I was a bit disappointed to have 6 adults here for dinner this Christmas, as I wasn’t able to use my new dinnerset  but on the plus side, it’s all still packed away and ready for transportation to the Big Smoke. Moving day is coming up rather fast (the removalists will be coming in 12 days!!) so after tomorrow, the focus shifts to that and we will start packing with gusto. Well, Hubby will be, I plan on lots of directing and supervising .

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and are enjoying spending time with your friends and family.

Y’all know I love my mother-in-law right? Plus, I know she’s reading now, so I have to say that! While they were visitng yesterday I thought (being a couple of days out from The Big Day) that we should clarify what we’re eating. I’ve put myself in charge of a delicious breakfast (even if I do say so - which I will share in a few minutes) and she put herself in charge of lunch.

 When asked yesterday what she needed me to do for lunch, I was told that she had brought a ham, but that’s as far as she got. Now, if there’s one thing y’all know about ME, it’s that I like organisation, and lists. Having worked in supermarket for 5 years, I’m off first thing tomorrow (Monday) morning for my last shop before the 28th at least. It kind of helps that it’s my regular shopping day anyway. I’m still trying to decide whether to do it with or without husband and kids. All that walking is getting a bit tough on me these days.

So it was suggested I focus on the things I do best. Like rum balls, apricot balls, and the like. I still have the makings of shortbread that I haven’t got around to making, so I thought I’d do that as well. And have a couple of salad type things in the wings.

Now, if you’re wondering why I do so well with rum balls and apricot balls, I can tell you that it’s because there’s no cooking required. This is also why I get put in charge of salads so often. And why I love my slow cooker so much. Can’t. Stuff. It. Up.

So far my Menu Plan for the festive days (Christmas Eve & Christmas Day) look like this:

Christmas Eve Dinner

Garlic prawns with rice

Christmas Day Breakfast

Pancakes with Cream Cheese and Cherries
Berry Custard Pastries
Strawberry Champagne

In the spirit of the season, I’m going to share Kins Christmas Chocolate Rum Ball recipe. Truly devine, and I promise, you won’t go back to any other rum ball after these (and not just because you’ll be knocked out on the floor from all the rum!)

Kin’s Christmas Chocolate Rum Balls

Ingredients:
250g plain chocolate biscuits (for Aussies the only one’s I can find are the Scallywags)
1 cup desicated coconut
2 tbsp coco powder
395g tin of sweetened condensed milk*
rum to taste
desicated coconut to coat

1. Crush biscuits finely, and combine with desicated coconut and coco powder
2. Mix in condensed milk and add rum to taste
3. Roll mixture into balls and coat in desicated coconut

Enjoy! And if you haven’t yet, please share your Christmas menu!

At Kin’s Home! The trees (finally!) went up last night,, with a lot of help from the kids. This is the “main” tree in the lounge room, complete with presents underneath, than’s to my parents and sister-in-law who sent me home with a pile of presents from our holiday.

This is our “second” tree (yes Kelley, I only have 2) in the dining room.

That’s all I have today, I’m off to the Big Smoke today to deliver some Tupperware and go shopping with my mother-in-law. Course I have a tonne of stuff to do before I go, which means I should probably get up and do it….

As organised people all over the blogosphere start to deck the halls and play Christmas carols (ok I don’t know that they’re going that far), my attention has been turned to my decided lack of planning this year. Because our house is going on the market in 3 weeks (eek!) I have no idea where we’ll be spending Christmas.

Hubby’s family are notorious for their lack of planning. Which, as a result, makes me look like an over organised Martha Stewart. Ok, maybe not that bad, but I’m sure that’s what they think of me.

So, what are we doing for Christmas? Traditionally we would head down to my family in the weeks preceeding Christmas, and then make a mad dash home between the family Christmas down there, and Kiki’s birthday on the 22nd of December. Several things this year look to be preventing it: 1. The family Christmas looks to be actually ON Kiki’s birthday, 2. Hubby has next to no holidays left after our trip to the UK and 3. We could possibly be, I don’t know, MOVING in the weeks immediately prior to Christmas. Spread Joy and Laughter to your fellow man. Or something.

Whilst it is sad that I probably won’t be seeing my family this Christmas, I can’t help but feel relieved that all I have to think about is moving, and arranging something moderately festive for food. In fact, that’s probably the easiest part of the whole deal. Traditions are wonderful at times.

Kin’s family’s traditional Christmas foods:

Christmas Eve
Traditional Christmas Eve fare was started one Christmas when the dear in-laws were visiting, and Hubby and Father-in-Law headed off to the fish & chip shop on Christmas eve, arriving home bearing a couple of kilo’s of prawns. When searching through the freezer for something nice to have for dessert, I came across some Mango Weis Bars. Thus a tradition was born: Prawns & Mango Wies Bars

Christmas Morning
The Christmas morning tradition has been refined over the years, starting with a full cooked breakfast, then pancakes, and now onto our favourite: Blueberry & Cream Cheese Crepes I cannot describe how delicious these are. Sweet, sour, bitter, savoury. I dunno, but damn they’re good.

Christmas Dinner
Christmas dinner depends a lot on who/where we eat. When it is hosted by us it consists of cold ham, cold turkey and cold chicken, served with cold salads like coleslaw, potato salad and a green/italian salad. Other incarnations have seen seafood platters, BBQ’s or even Aunty Jenny’s awesome entertaining skills on display. Complete with $300 bottle of champagne. Ah yes, Aunty Jenny’s Christmas lunches are by far the most extravagent of my family. I only wish I could convince her to cook for me more often.

Over the coming weeks I hope to share some of our other family Christmas Traditions, if for no other reason than I probably won’t get to experience them myself this year, due to the move.

Goodness, adding up the dockets took my breath away momentarily. Just a moment. There, I’m back. Drumroll please… The grand total of toys I have on layby is…. $475. Ouch! So, here comes the part where I justify the expenses:

Soon to be 4 year old’s birthday gifts:
Dora Pj’s $18
Dora computer game $10
Dora Hopper $10
Dora House $30
TOTAL $68

Soon to be 3 year old’s birthday gifts:
Dora Pj’s $18
Dora Hopper $10
Tricycle $30
TOTAL $58

Christmas Gifts
For nephew (6 years) Magnetix set $15
For neice (4 years) Disney Princess $5
For friends daughter (9 years) Jenga $15
For friends son (1 year) Fire Engine $20 (thought the tag said $10 - I’ll quiery that)
For other neice (4 years) Disney Princes $5
For daughters friend (4 years) Disney Princess $5
For nephew (2 weeks at xmas) Giggle Duck $15
TOTAL $80

For two kids (combined gifts):
Cranium Superfort (from us) $70
Wiggles toy organiser (from Santa) $60
Encyclopedia of Animals $18
Cash register $15
Mr Potato Head $20
Wiggles Guitar (x2 - one each) $30 (for both)
TOTAL $213

In the past my budgets have been $10 for other kids, $50 for birthdays, and $100 for xmas, due to the larger gift size, and buying some from Santa, some from us (ie the wiggles guitars will probably also be from Santa). I don’t think that’s too bad. You may notice that doesn’t quite add up to $475. I’ve found a couple of discrepencies I’ll go back in and quiery this week. As the time gets closer I will also put aside some new summer clothes for the girls to give to them for Christmas, and I try and buy them each one nice dress a year to be the “party dress” for the year.

Apart from that, the bulk of my Christmas shopping is now completed. Stockings here are generally filled with some useful items like pencils, hair ties, toothbrushes etc (with the odd treat thrown in). I’ll start collecting for those once Miss Nearly 4’s birthday is over and done with. Rumour has it she wants a mermaid party this year *sigh*. And here I was hoping she’d go for a pirate party so I could justify spending money on Pirates of the Carribean merchandise. Maybe next year….

Ah, the annual parents tradition. Frantically scour the catalogues as the arrive, circle, list, plan, debate. Check opening times, organise babysitters, get up at a rediculous time of night. The things we do for our children.

Living in a rather small country area, we are limited in our toy selection at the best of times, and with one major department store, and one “country” brand of another, toy sales represent the best time to have a decent variety of toys available.

So there I was, having conducted my pre-toy-sale activities (including making hubby take an hour off work to come with me and push the trolley), sitting outside the store at 10 minutes to opening time. With one other mother. Apparently, those of us living in the country move at the same pace regardless if the product is full price or 50% off. Admittedly the store was opening half an hour earlier than usual (they just chose not to advertise the fact), so by 8:30 the place was buzzing. But that first half hour - bliss. Just the two of us, scouring the store with our lists of birthdays between now and Christmas, and kids we’re buying Christmas presents for (5 and 10 in case you were wondering). And about 30 staff. I kid you not. Each of us had a couple of young fellows following us around the store, finding things in odd places, taking rainchecks, getting extra stock from the back dock. It was like having my own personal shopper.

I did quite well with my list. Grabbed a couple of extra things for backup gifts. Still not got a good 6 year old boy present (transformer? I dunno) but apart from that, my toy related birthday and Christmas shopping until December? DONE! The no-deposit layby helps, and I separated it into birthday and christmas layby’s so I can collect the birthday ones as needed, and leave the Christmas ones there until, well, Christmas, and save storing them at home.

There were a couple of things I wanted that haven’t arrived yet, but they will be put aside for me when they do come in. I had layby’d and was gone by 8:35, had a quiet coffee with hubby and had him at work by 9am.

Now if only every shopping expidition were that simple.

It’s probably about time I started thinking about this really. After the in-laws birthdays last week, the birthday season begins in earnest. Hubby’s this Friday, mine in three weeks, one kid in October and one in December. In between are countless friends and extended family (two nieces, one nephew, one grandfather, two aunts and one uncle).

In addition to all these birthdays coming up (not to mention Christmas), and the imminent toy sales at Target, Big W, K-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us, I figure I should really start at least a list, followed by some ideas.

Christmas for the most part is easy, all adult family will be recieving chickens or goats from Oxfam There are (not including my own) 6 kids to buy for, ranging in age from 2 weeks (well, they will be born by Christmas) to nearly 9, and 4 friends. I will probably make shortbread wrapped in cellophane for people like day carers, and hubby’s workmates.

In the meantime, a list of ideas for the kids (and budgets), and the birthdays between now and then should probably be done. I have absolutely no idea what to get my husband for his birthday ON FRIDAY. I have a couple of ideas, but can’t say too much in case he decides to read.

And speaking of birthday’s, my friend Lightening is celebrating her birthday today, and wants to get her ticker over 1000 visits. If you can help her out I’m sure she’d appreciate it. Happy Birthday!