The Greatest Gift

Looking at my tree and all the presents underneath it I realise that all these "things" are nice but the greatest gift of all is love and FAMILY...mine sometimes brings me great sorrow but thankfully also tremendous joy.

From my family to yours at Christmas and All through the year...Love, Peace and Happiness

My Babies

The photos I got today are sooooo much better than last years and there were so many other great ones that I could have got except the kids were cracking me up...I love my "babies"

My Boys

I must be either feeling hormonal or sentimental...or both...all these photos are making me feel teary today

There were sooo many great photos I could have taken but I was laughing toooo much....LOVE these pics of "my boys"

Early Christmas

Kris, Kate and Maddison dropped in for a couple of hours on Sunday so we had an early xmas with them and swapped some gifts.

This was the best gift I could have gotten to have all my family together, laughing and happy...is still bringing a tear to my eye now

Maddison's First Santa Letter

I simply can't Rave enough about the Reindeer Barn.... everyone who has gotten a letter from there has commented how lovely it is and Maddison's honestly brought tears to my eyes...I just sent Santa a thank you letter I think he and his helpers at the barn are angels....

here's Maddy's letter...

Dear Maddison,

Over the mantle in our cozy little living room, Mrs. Claus and I have photographs of all the little boys and girls who are celebrating a first Christmas. There are thousands every year, but every single one holds a special place in our hearts. You see, Maddison, you represent the future of Christmas!

You're so lucky to be almost a whole year old. It means that you're big enough to be awake and aware, crawling about, playing with ribbons and bows, watching the lights on the tree, jabbering along to Christmas carols, sampling cookies and icing, and knowing - with all the excitement - that something special must be happening...

Christmas will be different for all those who love you, too. Your aunties, your uncles, your mim and pop, and most of all your mummy and daddy will be that much happier this year every time you smile!

Here at the North Pole, we're as busy as can be. Mrs. Claus has baked so many cookies that the kitchen is filled to the brim! (We're going to have to start putting some in the barn.) The reindeer are using their teeth to tie holly berries and ribbons and bells to their harnesses. The elves are painting and polishing the finishing touches on toys for every good boy and girl around the world. And one special elf - Sweetsparkle - spent most of the day today making toys for a very special girl named Maddison.

It hardly seems like a year or two ago that I was bringing toys to your mummy and daddy, and not long before that, it was your pop and mim. They were always so excited to open their stockings Christmas morning! I'm so very glad to have known your family, and someday, I'll get letters from your little ones, too.

Have a very merry Christmas, Maddison. I can't wait to see you... and to start the tradition of coming to see you every year!


Love Santa xox

Tuesday Playvan Christmas Party

Tuesday was our Christmas Party for Playvan. Hard to believe another year has gone already. As I've said before Tori is REALLY loving Christmas this year and had a ball playing with her friends, doing some crafts and, of course, seeing Santa (and getting lollies from him!)

Ups and Downs

Well last weekend certainly had its up and downs.

The Ups was getting to see Maddison, Kris and Kate (even tho it was only for a couple of hours)..she started crawling since we saw her a couple of weeks ago :0)

And the Downs? Having to do a round trip to Mudgee and back in 7 hours! Why? to pick Kym up after he swerved to miss a wombat and smashed the Kia...just waiting to hear if it's a write-off or not!

Emailing Santa

Tori is getting right in to the Spirit of Christmas this year and is already at us to go driving and look at all the lights. Here she is getting ready to send off a letter to Santa with all her requests..which weren't that much actually....playdough and a new brabie (Ashlee broke the one she got for her birthday :0(..she also asked for beer for dad and chocolate for me and I must say I was soooooooooooooo impressed with the letter she received. If you haven't done so already, then check out http://www.thereindeerbarn.com/ I'm going to get one for Maddison ;0)



here's the letter she got back :0)
Dear Tori,
How are you, Tori? I was just talking to Mrs. Claus to see if she thought you would write this year. She said that you would of course, and she was right! I know you really must be very busy having started Kindygym AND becoming an Aunt to Maddison. That's all very hard work. Being a sister is hard work too. I'm very impressed with how you are growing up. Time is moving so fast for me that it just seems like yesterday you were a little bitty girl baby. Now, you are 4 years old. I suppose you'll start school soon.
I just looked on my Good Girl List and there was your name right near the top, under the C's! I'm very proud of you, you know. You do try to be really good. Let me see what presents you have asked for. Hmmmmm. A Barbie and some playdough. Do you know that you can mix some of the playdough colours together to make another different colour? I mashed up some red with blue and got purple. That was amazing! The only problem is that you can't unmix them. Once they're together that's what it will be so don't mix them all up or you'll have a really icky mess. I know! HO HO HO!!!
I love that you have asked for some lovely presents for daddy and mummy. Beer and chocolate. Quite a combination. I love chocolate too but I don't think I'd like it with beer. Maybe your daddy didn't think that he'd like to nibble on the chocolate. You'll have to ask him what he thinks about chocolate beer. How does that sound?
Rudolph and the other reindeer wanted me to thank you in advance for the food you said you might leave out for them. They do like a little bite after the long flight from here at the North Pole to the great land of Australia. I'd appreciate a sip of water too. It's thirsty work delivering all the presents. We go soooo fast that it blows the water right out of my eyes.
Well Tori, my dear, I have to go help the elves with the doll production now. One of the dolls came out of the dollmaker with three ears. We can't have that now, can we? I think someone was playing a joke. HO! HO! HO! I'll have to remind them how many ears we are supposed to have. Please tell Kris, Ashlee, Brent and Brooke (and Maddison) that I love them all and you too, of course!
Love Santa xox

Brent's Final Parade 2008

Brent had his final cadet parade for the year on Saturday and as always, was a wonderful day (proud mumma alert..lol)

Kindergym Christmas

Tori had her end of year presentation for Kindergym and had lots of fun getting her face painted and playing on the jumping castles and, of course, seeing Santa :0)

She was also extremely pleased that she got a "gold medal" and had to sleep with it and wear it constantly for the next few days :0)

Hard Drive Update

the external hd is COMPLETELY stuffed...paid $160 to recover files from my laptop and ended up being just photos that are in "my photos"...complained went back and had a "deeper recovery" done and have spent the last coupla days trawling thru all the bits of cyber crap that go onto your machine while "surfing" (I didn't  realiise how much bits of files go onto your hard drive...and how many HUNDREDS of DUPLICATES of the same crap!!!... it's going to take me FOREVER to search thru these files) So after going back to the shop 5 times in 6 days !!!! (doesn't that make for interesting journal in my December Daily Album!!! NOTTTT lol) I have found a few more photos than before but have realised i didnt ask to recover the videos...grrrr....

Hopefully now I have my laptop back I can update my blog though it's not our week (hubby smashed our car on the weekend...now THAT was a HARD DRIVE...lame joke)...Yes he's fine but it looks like the car might be a write off...and the wombat he swerved to avoid is doing fine too!!!!

Tho I did get to see Maddison again when I had to drive to Mudgee to pick him up..and she crawling....what a difference two weeks can make!! Thanks Kris and Kate for coming to the rescue, picking up Dad and "looking after him" for the nite...Love you guys :0) xoxo

Now Im Pissed

I have been without my laptop and desktop for 3 days because they told me my harddrive was totally dead and unrecoverable but they would be able to retrieve 90% of my deleted photos from my laptop as it was what I originally downloaded the photos on to (well post my destructive restore in May) before transferring to my harddrive. Well... I got it back yesterday afternoon and spent hours last night going through the files and weeding out all the bits and pieces of photo crap that you get online, just to realise that all the photos they have "recovered" and put on disk are the ones that are still in folders on my laptop NOT ones that have been deleted....grrrrrrr


What a waste of 3 days and ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY DOLLARS (and to think they made me think I was getting a bargain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)