My Christmas
I figured since I hadn't posted in a while, I'd get a case of typing diarrhoea, and just sprout of meaningless nonsense for a while to make up for the absence :)
By the way, I've seen it mentioned that Christians can be offended by the term "Xmas".... because it's taking the Christ out of Christmas.... I'm just too lazy to keep typing the whole thing... so when I use "Xmas" it's not intended to offend anyone or done with any desire to not use Christ.....its just pure laziness.....(though I do actually figure that the celebration of family, food and commercialism with no religious content that people like me do is probably better described as "xmas" than "Christmas" - with the more religious celebrations being "Christmas" but anyway... I use them both depending on which keys my fingers happen to hit at the time) While we don't believe in Jesus (well I do, but not in the Christian way [it's complicated]), I acknowledge that it is "the reason for the season" for many people. So please don't be offended... :)
Firstly, I tried to go greener this year... I finally got around to working out how to do roll hemming on my overlocker (serger), and bought a ton of Xmas fabrics... cut some into squares and roll hemmed the edges in a lovely red-green thread I have, and made the rest into little bags with a ribbon sewn into the side seam. So with the exception of my 3 uncles (too hard to explain about the fabric wrap), and hubby's present (too big for fabric), everyone else got cloth wrappings. Some of it was returned for me to reuse, so that's great... some of it will be reused by the recipients. Lots of people thought the idea was good.
Not a scrap of paper under my tree!
(ok, so the tags were paper.... I didn't get time to make the felt embroidered tags I'd planned to do - next year!)
Had a great Xmas.... as usual .....spent with the family.... We do lunch with my FIL's side of the family and the immediate inlaws (MIL, FIL, BIL, SIL and partners) the weekend before Xmas, then Xmas day we do lunch or dinner with MIL's side of the family and the immediate inlaws.....and the other lunch/dinner with my immediate family and dad's side of the family. Usually we have lunch/dinner with mum's sister sometime after Xmas, and we don't see the other part of mum's family because they are interstate. Was talking with my best friend, who stays home every Xmas.... which I find odd, since we've never done that - ever..... the least we've done is only gone out to a family's house for lunch or dinner. But then she has a bit of a broken family, and doesn't get along with them and the inlaws well... so I can understand that. My other best friend is likewise - so the two of them had Xmas together and loved it.
The busiest Xmas we've had was breakfast with the immediate inlaws.... lunch with MIL's family and immediate inlaws, and a huge dinner with my immediate family, dad's family, and my sister's inlaws! Luckily we no longer have to do breakfast out.... it makes the day too long and tiring. But I do like seeing the family.... I don't think I could consider it to be Xmas if we didn't see the family... particularly since none of us are Christian (except BIL's wife, but she isn't practicing.. more that her family is), so for us Xmas is all about getting together with family, exchanging gifts and eating waaaaaaay too much food :) It is the only time of year we see some family members, which is what makes it special.
As with most years, I got angry at the inlaws for their stupid "present lists". We do a "Kris Kringle" for my FIL's family - which is where a group of people (family in this case) all just buy a gift for one person, instead of buying something for everyone. My family disagrees with this, preferring smaller gifts for each person... but the inlaws family does it. I don't really mind either way, and it certainly is cheaper than buying for all of them, and since we see them only once a year for lunch, it's really hard to buy for them.... which is why they do "present lists" - as do all my inlaws family.... Which my family thinks is horrible, but I actually think it's a good idea. Its a list of the things you want to get. Like DVD titles, a sandwich maker etc. Because it's harder to know what people want when you barely know them... I know my parents well, and I still have trouble thinking of something with would like and haven't already bought themselves. The problem I have with it though is that we end up getting a list with only a few things on it. Last year I got to choose from 2 crossword books for my person.... this year I had one of the boys, and I got to choose from an uno game or a cricket set.... To me the spirit of giving is to think about what sort of gift that person would like, and then get it for them - not to pick one of two things off a list and buy that.... I figure you may as well just give them the $20, as it's just about as much thought.... This year I got the boy a wooden boat puzzle (those 3d puzzle things).... not on his list, but I refuse to deal with lists that aren't long enough - I want to put some thought into it.
MiniObsi got one of the older cousins (grownup) who had asked for a recipe book to write her recipes in (and maybe something else? not sure).... which I thought was great because what I did was make a recipe folder. I got one of those plastic ring binders (like you'd have for school), and made a removable quilted (VERY basically, they were just plain squares) cover. I used kitcheny type fabrics (greens with teapots and floral designs), and I filled it with wadding so it's a bit thick... and I figure it can be washed if needed. Then I got dividers and blank paper and put those in, with a little pencil case thing that clips in... and I printed off all my favourite recipes and put them in the sections.... with more paper to add her own. And at the front I put a sheet of business card holder stuff (a full plastic page with 8 slots for business cards) that she can use to meal plan - I printed out little cards that she can write stuff like "lamb roast" on Monday's card and slot them into the business card holder, and plan her meals.... and I made paperclips with the days of the week stuck to them, so she can mark the recipes for the days in her folder :) I was worried she wouldn't like it, since they aren't really the handcrafted gift type people... but she loved it, and her sister said to me "I want you as my KK next year!" hehee
I was running late getting it done (was up until 2am the night before), and hubby wrapped it, so I didn't get time to take a picture. Which is a shame.
I like doing stuff like that.... For most of hubby's family we just bought them a book (they are all booky people).... which they will like, but I kinda feel bad that it's just walking in, picking up a book and wrapping it for them... not much effort or thought involved. Though all the women in the family got a knitted cotton dishcloth and a knitted metallic yarn scourer :) - very basic, coz I can barely knit... just plain knitting, but I used a white-green-red varigated cotton yarn for the cloths and double strand knitted the scourers from a red and green metallic scratchy stuff yarn (which we have purple scourer versions of and they work well for mild scrubbyness). My 2 nieces got a cupcake nighty I sewed - the same as the one MiniObsi has:
I also made them each an apron from some cupcake printed drill... which they LOVED. And since the nighties are see-thru (they live in a hot place, so I used muslin for the skirt bit), I made some pink gingham bloomers with lace trim to wear under them if modesty is an issue (MiniObsi wears hers with just her underpants, but I don't know what my sister is like, and they also live with my sister's partner's father and cousin, so not sure how they all go with things like that....) The bloomers were a hit with one niece in particular :) MiniObsi however didn't want a pair (but begged me for an apron)... they also got some felt hairclips I made, and some felt cookies and a felt egg :)
For Xmas I got hubby something unusual (for me).... photos of me :) 2 of my friends and I went off to have glamour photos done of ourselves.... and I'm normally camera-phobic, so I figured it would be something special. He LOVES them. They cost QUITE a bit (considering I'm a scrooge)... but I never like photos of me, and I really liked some of them, so I figured I'd go with the package that offered best value for money to give hubby several photos... so the package I got was 2 poster sized prints each with 4 large photos. They came as just the photo stuff, so because I didn't have time (they came in only 2 days before Xmas) I couldn't get them framed, so I bought 2 large pieces of posterboard, and used art gum rubber to stick them on....
They are a bit darker in the pics than in real life, but hubby thinks they are too dark, shadowing me too much. I agree with the bottom medieval one... I'm wearing a corset that you can't see... but I'm also glad my podgy tummy is disguised ;) (though thats why I was wearing the corset with the belly dancing outfit too)
It was funny when I had the belly dancing ones done I'd finished and my friend commented on the beads looking pretty, so I did a shimmy, and the photographer goes "hey, get back there and do that!"... so they took some pics of me doing a bit of a shimmy, and then we finished, and my friend said something again and I did a show off move, and the guy has gone again "hey - back you go and do that!" so they took more :) Unfortunately trying to look glamorous while dancing, in a corset isn't easy, so I didn't like any of the pics that came from that.... well there were some great looking bead flying pics, but I had double chins and stuff that I didn't like. They ended up taking about 60-70 pics, and I got to look through and see which ones I liked.
I made mini bitesized cupcakes for Xmas day:
MiniObsi made me (with hubby's help) a scarecrow for my garden!!! I so love my family!!!
Note the cork earrings!
Since Diana posted about Christmas foods, here's what we do...
Normally we have lunch with the inlaws, who do big bowls of tiger prawns as a sort of appetiser....(which you shell yourself, so it's quite messy), then we have cold sliced meats (ham, turkey, chicken and beef) with salads...usually a garden salad with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber and often something "weirder" like mango, chicken, lettuce and snowpeas.... and potato salad. Sometimes there is a BBQ so there would be gourmet sausages (things like lamb and rosemary for example), rissoles and steaks. With thick slices of fresh bread. Then for dessert we have choices of lots of things, usually pavlova, icecream or icecream cake, plum pudding with cream or custard and fruit (normally berries, watermelon and stuff like that)
Then we normally have dinner at my parents place.... where it's either another cold sliced meats and salads (though you're more usual coleslaw, garden salad and potato salad since my family is a bit less fancy), or when I pester mum enough, a roast....Because mum is English and they always did a roast for Christmas, and my Dad's father is Scottish so they always had a roast, whenever we had Christmas dinner/lunch with family, it was always a roast, so I really do like to have a roast for Christmas... So my family does roast chicken and beef, sometimes ham and sometimes turkey (this year we had ham, no turkey), with roast potatoes, pumpkin and steamed carrot, peas, corn, broccoli and cauliflower. With gravy and mint sauce... and yorkshire pudding. My grandma and uncle brings dessert, and it's normally a bought pavlova (from "the cheesecake shop" - a well known a delicious cake chain here) and Grandma makes a steamed plum pudding and a weird looking cold version I've never been brave enough to try...
Apparently prawns and cherries (bowls of fresh cherries) are traditional Australian Christmas foods.. I imagine salads, cold meats or BBQs would be the usual Xmas day fare too...
By the way, I've seen it mentioned that Christians can be offended by the term "Xmas".... because it's taking the Christ out of Christmas.... I'm just too lazy to keep typing the whole thing... so when I use "Xmas" it's not intended to offend anyone or done with any desire to not use Christ.....its just pure laziness.....(though I do actually figure that the celebration of family, food and commercialism with no religious content that people like me do is probably better described as "xmas" than "Christmas" - with the more religious celebrations being "Christmas" but anyway... I use them both depending on which keys my fingers happen to hit at the time) While we don't believe in Jesus (well I do, but not in the Christian way [it's complicated]), I acknowledge that it is "the reason for the season" for many people. So please don't be offended... :)
Firstly, I tried to go greener this year... I finally got around to working out how to do roll hemming on my overlocker (serger), and bought a ton of Xmas fabrics... cut some into squares and roll hemmed the edges in a lovely red-green thread I have, and made the rest into little bags with a ribbon sewn into the side seam. So with the exception of my 3 uncles (too hard to explain about the fabric wrap), and hubby's present (too big for fabric), everyone else got cloth wrappings. Some of it was returned for me to reuse, so that's great... some of it will be reused by the recipients. Lots of people thought the idea was good.
Not a scrap of paper under my tree!
(ok, so the tags were paper.... I didn't get time to make the felt embroidered tags I'd planned to do - next year!)
Had a great Xmas.... as usual .....spent with the family.... We do lunch with my FIL's side of the family and the immediate inlaws (MIL, FIL, BIL, SIL and partners) the weekend before Xmas, then Xmas day we do lunch or dinner with MIL's side of the family and the immediate inlaws.....and the other lunch/dinner with my immediate family and dad's side of the family. Usually we have lunch/dinner with mum's sister sometime after Xmas, and we don't see the other part of mum's family because they are interstate. Was talking with my best friend, who stays home every Xmas.... which I find odd, since we've never done that - ever..... the least we've done is only gone out to a family's house for lunch or dinner. But then she has a bit of a broken family, and doesn't get along with them and the inlaws well... so I can understand that. My other best friend is likewise - so the two of them had Xmas together and loved it.
The busiest Xmas we've had was breakfast with the immediate inlaws.... lunch with MIL's family and immediate inlaws, and a huge dinner with my immediate family, dad's family, and my sister's inlaws! Luckily we no longer have to do breakfast out.... it makes the day too long and tiring. But I do like seeing the family.... I don't think I could consider it to be Xmas if we didn't see the family... particularly since none of us are Christian (except BIL's wife, but she isn't practicing.. more that her family is), so for us Xmas is all about getting together with family, exchanging gifts and eating waaaaaaay too much food :) It is the only time of year we see some family members, which is what makes it special.
As with most years, I got angry at the inlaws for their stupid "present lists". We do a "Kris Kringle" for my FIL's family - which is where a group of people (family in this case) all just buy a gift for one person, instead of buying something for everyone. My family disagrees with this, preferring smaller gifts for each person... but the inlaws family does it. I don't really mind either way, and it certainly is cheaper than buying for all of them, and since we see them only once a year for lunch, it's really hard to buy for them.... which is why they do "present lists" - as do all my inlaws family.... Which my family thinks is horrible, but I actually think it's a good idea. Its a list of the things you want to get. Like DVD titles, a sandwich maker etc. Because it's harder to know what people want when you barely know them... I know my parents well, and I still have trouble thinking of something with would like and haven't already bought themselves. The problem I have with it though is that we end up getting a list with only a few things on it. Last year I got to choose from 2 crossword books for my person.... this year I had one of the boys, and I got to choose from an uno game or a cricket set.... To me the spirit of giving is to think about what sort of gift that person would like, and then get it for them - not to pick one of two things off a list and buy that.... I figure you may as well just give them the $20, as it's just about as much thought.... This year I got the boy a wooden boat puzzle (those 3d puzzle things).... not on his list, but I refuse to deal with lists that aren't long enough - I want to put some thought into it.
MiniObsi got one of the older cousins (grownup) who had asked for a recipe book to write her recipes in (and maybe something else? not sure).... which I thought was great because what I did was make a recipe folder. I got one of those plastic ring binders (like you'd have for school), and made a removable quilted (VERY basically, they were just plain squares) cover. I used kitcheny type fabrics (greens with teapots and floral designs), and I filled it with wadding so it's a bit thick... and I figure it can be washed if needed. Then I got dividers and blank paper and put those in, with a little pencil case thing that clips in... and I printed off all my favourite recipes and put them in the sections.... with more paper to add her own. And at the front I put a sheet of business card holder stuff (a full plastic page with 8 slots for business cards) that she can use to meal plan - I printed out little cards that she can write stuff like "lamb roast" on Monday's card and slot them into the business card holder, and plan her meals.... and I made paperclips with the days of the week stuck to them, so she can mark the recipes for the days in her folder :) I was worried she wouldn't like it, since they aren't really the handcrafted gift type people... but she loved it, and her sister said to me "I want you as my KK next year!" hehee
I was running late getting it done (was up until 2am the night before), and hubby wrapped it, so I didn't get time to take a picture. Which is a shame.
I like doing stuff like that.... For most of hubby's family we just bought them a book (they are all booky people).... which they will like, but I kinda feel bad that it's just walking in, picking up a book and wrapping it for them... not much effort or thought involved. Though all the women in the family got a knitted cotton dishcloth and a knitted metallic yarn scourer :) - very basic, coz I can barely knit... just plain knitting, but I used a white-green-red varigated cotton yarn for the cloths and double strand knitted the scourers from a red and green metallic scratchy stuff yarn (which we have purple scourer versions of and they work well for mild scrubbyness). My 2 nieces got a cupcake nighty I sewed - the same as the one MiniObsi has:
I also made them each an apron from some cupcake printed drill... which they LOVED. And since the nighties are see-thru (they live in a hot place, so I used muslin for the skirt bit), I made some pink gingham bloomers with lace trim to wear under them if modesty is an issue (MiniObsi wears hers with just her underpants, but I don't know what my sister is like, and they also live with my sister's partner's father and cousin, so not sure how they all go with things like that....) The bloomers were a hit with one niece in particular :) MiniObsi however didn't want a pair (but begged me for an apron)... they also got some felt hairclips I made, and some felt cookies and a felt egg :)
For Xmas I got hubby something unusual (for me).... photos of me :) 2 of my friends and I went off to have glamour photos done of ourselves.... and I'm normally camera-phobic, so I figured it would be something special. He LOVES them. They cost QUITE a bit (considering I'm a scrooge)... but I never like photos of me, and I really liked some of them, so I figured I'd go with the package that offered best value for money to give hubby several photos... so the package I got was 2 poster sized prints each with 4 large photos. They came as just the photo stuff, so because I didn't have time (they came in only 2 days before Xmas) I couldn't get them framed, so I bought 2 large pieces of posterboard, and used art gum rubber to stick them on....
They are a bit darker in the pics than in real life, but hubby thinks they are too dark, shadowing me too much. I agree with the bottom medieval one... I'm wearing a corset that you can't see... but I'm also glad my podgy tummy is disguised ;) (though thats why I was wearing the corset with the belly dancing outfit too)
It was funny when I had the belly dancing ones done I'd finished and my friend commented on the beads looking pretty, so I did a shimmy, and the photographer goes "hey, get back there and do that!"... so they took some pics of me doing a bit of a shimmy, and then we finished, and my friend said something again and I did a show off move, and the guy has gone again "hey - back you go and do that!" so they took more :) Unfortunately trying to look glamorous while dancing, in a corset isn't easy, so I didn't like any of the pics that came from that.... well there were some great looking bead flying pics, but I had double chins and stuff that I didn't like. They ended up taking about 60-70 pics, and I got to look through and see which ones I liked.
I made mini bitesized cupcakes for Xmas day:
MiniObsi made me (with hubby's help) a scarecrow for my garden!!! I so love my family!!!
Note the cork earrings!
Since Diana posted about Christmas foods, here's what we do...
Normally we have lunch with the inlaws, who do big bowls of tiger prawns as a sort of appetiser....(which you shell yourself, so it's quite messy), then we have cold sliced meats (ham, turkey, chicken and beef) with salads...usually a garden salad with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado and cucumber and often something "weirder" like mango, chicken, lettuce and snowpeas.... and potato salad. Sometimes there is a BBQ so there would be gourmet sausages (things like lamb and rosemary for example), rissoles and steaks. With thick slices of fresh bread. Then for dessert we have choices of lots of things, usually pavlova, icecream or icecream cake, plum pudding with cream or custard and fruit (normally berries, watermelon and stuff like that)
Then we normally have dinner at my parents place.... where it's either another cold sliced meats and salads (though you're more usual coleslaw, garden salad and potato salad since my family is a bit less fancy), or when I pester mum enough, a roast....Because mum is English and they always did a roast for Christmas, and my Dad's father is Scottish so they always had a roast, whenever we had Christmas dinner/lunch with family, it was always a roast, so I really do like to have a roast for Christmas... So my family does roast chicken and beef, sometimes ham and sometimes turkey (this year we had ham, no turkey), with roast potatoes, pumpkin and steamed carrot, peas, corn, broccoli and cauliflower. With gravy and mint sauce... and yorkshire pudding. My grandma and uncle brings dessert, and it's normally a bought pavlova (from "the cheesecake shop" - a well known a delicious cake chain here) and Grandma makes a steamed plum pudding and a weird looking cold version I've never been brave enough to try...
Apparently prawns and cherries (bowls of fresh cherries) are traditional Australian Christmas foods.. I imagine salads, cold meats or BBQs would be the usual Xmas day fare too...