Hello at last!
This blog is a bit late as we spent longer than usual in Denmark with the family over Christmas, New Year and this time Emil's 18th birthday! Consequently we didn't get home until Wednesday 8th and since then we've been catching up on household things and also I had loads of photos to sort through to pick out the ones to put up on the blog!
Anyway, this blog will mostly be photos with captions or very short descriptions as the photos mostly tell the story themselves, chuckle!
I'l start with some pre Christmas ones, which are Mike at the weir on one of our walks, my Christmas cake and the decorated stove.
We had a good drive down to Denmark as we left early and arrived at John's about 2.15pm. Preparations for Christmas were in full swing.
We spent the next couple of days to-ing and fro-ing between John's and Jo's and also managed to get a couple of walks in round the river and our coffee and raisin toast afterwards at a local cafe.
On Christmas Eve we were all at John and Silvia's for the big feast. As usual the hosts excelled themselves and there were loads of lovely goodies!
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| Christmas cookies |
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| The Christmas tree |
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| Maisie |
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| Maisie and Benjamin |
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| Our hosts - John and Silvia |
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| Jo |
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| Christmas Eve dinner |
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| John carving the turkey..... |
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| Emil serving his bacon/savoury stuffings |
After the main meal and before dessert, as we were so full up, Emil and Maya on violins and Benjamin on cello played for us. It was really wonderful to hear them all play together and it struck a chord in our hearts (no pun intended, chuckle!)
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| The family trio |
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| The Christmas pudding with the Brandy well alight! |
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| Real candles were li for the story |
While John read a Christmas story the real candles on the tree were lit!! I might add that a fire extinguisher and water were at hand close by! After the story the Christmas presents were handed out, then about 11pm we had the Christmas pudding, mince pies, cream and custard. Full up and happy we finally went to bed.
On Christmas Day, after we watched the kids opening their 'Santa' presents, we went for a walk and back to John's for coffee as Jo had brought her coffee machine up as naturally there were no cafes open on Christmas Day. About 4pm we went to Ocean Beach with John, Maya and Benjamin with their boards. John went in for a swim too, but we were content to sit and watch.
On Boxing Day John and Silvia had invited a lot of their friends to come along about 3.30pm for the usual Boxing Day silly garden games, food (supplied by everyone) and later the annual ad lib pantomime. This year there were two!!
Jo went to Mount Barker to pick up Alex and Lizzie from the coach from Perth, as they were to be staying with her for a few days. After unpacking, they were also in time for the games and pantos!
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| Lizzie and Alex doing the bottle race |
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| Jo, Lizzie and Alex on Boxing Day |
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| John - compere of Cinderalla |
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| The cast of Cinderella |
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| John-compere of Snow White |
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| Jo as the looking glass! |
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| Cast of Snow White. Liz far left as the hunter, Alex with sword back right as the Prince! |
The day after Boxing Day was Alex's birthday, so there were more celebrations. We went to Jo’s where we had coffee then a walk round the river. We had lunch back at Jo's.
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| Alex, the birthday girl! |
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| Jo and the girls photographing pelicans at the inlet |
In the evening John and Silvia and the family had previously been invited to the wedding of one of Emil’s teachers, but the rest of us went to the Pepper and Salt restaurant for Alex’s birthday, where we had a lovely meal.
Next day, making the birthday last longer, we had the evening meal at John and Silvia's and Silvia made mini Pavlovas, with a candle on one for Alex to blow out!
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| Blowing out the candle on Silvia's mini Pavlovas |
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| The mini Pavlovas |
Maya was making curtains for her bedroom, using Silvia's sewing machine, so as we wouldn't still be in Denmark for her birthday on 18th of January, we decided to give her our present early - as it might be of some use, chuckle!
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| Maya opening her 'early' birthday present..... |
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| .......What a surprise...... |
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| a sewing machine! |
The next celebration was New Year's Eve. Emil was playing in 2 gigs in Albany, John, Silvia, Maya and Benjamin went to a 'Trash Glam' party, and Jo went out with friends to celebrate at a restaurant. Me and Mike had decided that, as we were really tired after all the fun and celebrations, we would stay home at John's and watch some episodes of 'Open all Hours' until we couldn't stay awake anymore, but ended up still being awake when they all got home!
As you can see the costumes were truly 'Trash Glam'!!!!
On New year's Day we all took it easy and me and Mike changed houses and went to stay with Jo for a week, as Lizzie and Alex had gone back to Perth the day before New Year's Eve. One morning we had a another lovely walk around the river.......
......and Mike took a photograph of this flower which, when touched lightly under its petal, then stamen would very quickly pop up from underneath!
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| A plant with a strange stamen action. |
John came round one morning to put Jo's TV antenna up on her roof and Mike was there to assist when needed. She had bought the antenna at the Tip Shop, but it worked perfectly when it was fitted up!
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| Men at work! |
The final celebration, on the day before we came back home, was Emil's 18th party! He wanted a very low key one, and it was very nice with just immediate family, his girl friend Chenoa and his best friends Ike, Luka and Toby.
We went up to John's with Jo for an early birthday breakfast and the opening of the presents. Many of them were things he might need when living in Perth while doing his degree in Jazz Violin at WAAPA (= Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. He did very well to get a place there)
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Emil, the birthday boy! with one of the many presents from
John and Silvia |
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More useful things from Jo and John and Silvia
and the family |
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| Benjamin made this lovely card. |
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John made this card with photos of
every birthday through the years! |
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| Opening our present |
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| Proud Mum and Dad with Emil |
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| Still opening presents! |
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| Another lovely card made by Maya |
Here's some photos taken in the evening. (Emil's friends Luka and Toby couldn't get there until later unfortunately)
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| A ballon game before the meal..... |
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| ...ditto.... |
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| Emil, John, Silvia, Maya, Benjamin, Jo and me.... |
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| Ike, Chenoa, Emil and John. |
Well, that's it and that's all folks! There will be no more blogs now until the end of February!
It has taken me about 3 days to make this one, so I'm going on strike for a while!
Enjoy!
