9 Moons Ago

I’ve no idea where I’m going with this entry, but we shall see. It’s just off the top of my head. Confessions may be made.

Such as it’s inching nearer to Christmas and we haven’t sent one Christmas card. We haven’t even got a pack of cards in the house, nor stamps. Oh, I intend on sending some, but doubt ye not, they’ll be late.

We do have the tree in the front room, but most of the light strands are burnt out. One dinky strand of 20 lights just ain’t cuttin’ it. Especially since the tree is taller than last year’s. I plugged in the lights anyway. It looks hilarious. But too pathetic to take a picture of…

Melissa gave me an Advent calender in November. Here in Australia, they have a small piece of chocolate behind each door. The temptation of having chocolate in the house became too great. Hence I ate it all. Before December.
In my defence, I shared it with Cam.

My family has two packages on the way to us. Did I mention we don’t even have cards in the house?

Last year I decorated the house, up to and including my desk. This year I’m thinking,”Yeah, I could put up a lot of decorations, but that’s a lot of decorations to take down in January, and at this rate I have a feeling they’d all be up till February or March” We have a few, and I think that’s gonna be this year’s theme: Minimalist.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not being a Scrooge. I love Christmas..it’s my favourite holiday. It just sort of snuck up on me…as did my chocolate craving. I bought some candy canes last night, we’ve been listening to the classic songs, there are some decorations in the window and stockings by the chimney, and we WILL be getting more lights..it’s just, how did the 14th of December get here already? I blame it on the hot weather. It throws me off. But, even if you’re not in the Southern Hemisphere, don’t feel bad for being unprepared. You’re in good company. :-) And, if you ARE prepared, we got your Christmas card this week. Thank you, it’s just lovely.

O.K., O.K., at the risk of totally embarrassing myself, but simply because I know it will make my sister laugh, I bring you the latest edition to my wardrobe:

There are no flattering angles to this ensemble, let me tell ya! Thanks, Stooge, for sending me an outfit that resembles something even our grandmother wouldn’t have had in her wardrobe. Although that 1970s red and white seersucker pantsuit WAS pretty bad! Anyway, though it was a little too late for Thanksgiving turkey basting, maybe I can don it at our Christmas lunch….um…yeah…RIGHT. Anyway, thanks for sending it. I shall treasure it always! Never in my life have I owned an outfit with…. ..such.. …puffy sleeves!

Had a good weekend…actually, it’s not even over yet..but, I digress.
Friday we drove over to lovely Eltham. The town is densly populated, but the buildings are almost all obscured by the numerous trees there. And it was a nice day for a drive. Our mechanic is over there, but it’s worth the half-hour drive for a trusty one, and we dropped off part of the payment for the previous repair work. Then, we headed over to Mum and Dad’s for a yummy meatloaf dinner and dropped Gus there to be “babysat” when we went over to Daniel’s place.

We didn’t see the Corpse Bride yet, as all the theaters stopped playing it around 7pm. Way too early! So instead we met Adrian over there to watch a DVD and have a chat over tea and coffee afterwards. We watched Team America, which was funny. The marionette faces were really well done and the humor was crude, but hilarious. Adrian brought champagne to share (Thanks, Adrian!), and Daniel generously gave Cameron and I chopsticks which he’d gotten in Vietnam. (Thanks, Daniel!):

Stayed at Daniel’s till after one, and I can tell I’m getting older because I nearly collapsed into bed when we got back to Mum and Dad’s. Of course, now that I think about it, there was the champagne!

Today we went to the annual Christmas pub lunch and had a nice time. I had a chicken caesar salad, which was quite good and very filling. Unlike last year when we stayed on till 9:30 pm talking to a few relatives, everyone headed home at an early hour. But it was good to see everyone and I’m still learning names and faces, but I remember a bit more than 4 years ago, anyway!

Stopped at the supermarket for a few things on the way home, and then played ball in the yard with the dogs. Watched a nature documentary with Cam and read a few websites. Now we’ll see what we’ll have for dinner. Seem’s we’re back to our tradition of late night summer dinners.

All in all a nice couple of days. Maybe tomorrow we’ll find our Christmas tree. Although the little ones are few and kind of sparse, living on a pine plantation does make it easy to get a tree in summer time! We saw a few stands selling trees today. It’s still strange to see the scouts in the tree lots by the roadside walking round in shorts and flip flops. The other night we got to see an extravagant display of lights on several houses in a neighborhood near us. That made it feel more like the season, even though it was a bit cheesy!

Mom, Dad and family, I’ll try calling soon! hope you are all doing well! Any snow lately?!

Well, I just haven’t been in the mood to post anything. But here is something to tide you over, before we head off to celebrate the weekend. (Dashing out the door after I post this!)
What Christmas looks like down here:

I promise something more interesting in a couple of days!! Hope everyone is having fun out there. We’re doing well! See ya!