'Twas the day (and night) before Christmas

Our Christmas eve was fairly busy..... cooking, cleaning and setting up. All the usual bits and pieces you need to get done before a big day of present opening and eating. Most of the day was spent setting up and cleaning, all while Anto went to work, followed by starting his 'festive 500km' bike challenge (in the hot). It didn't look like Nanna was going to make it out of hospital for Christmas so Astrid and I along with Granny and Gramps paid her a Christmas visit in hospital, just in case we didn't make it up the next day. Astrid was lucky enough to open her present of washable markers and proceeded to test them out by drawing all over the hospital, bed, floor and herself! Nan seemed to enjoy the visit and getting to give Astrid at least part of her present.
 

 As the afternoon wore on the cooking commenced. The stuffing was prepared. The 6kg turkey was delivered. The fresh cranberry sauce was made. The vegetarian roulade and it's assorted stuffings were made. The salted butter caramel icecream was completed (we can confirm that both Astrid and my dad thought this was a hit as they demolished the bowls). Anto got to work on his long and complicated gravy stock and all that was left was the raspberry, marscapone and white chocolate tart and the stollen. Every Christmas eve we make a cranberry stollen to eat that night and the next day. Astrid quite enjoyed helping to 'mix and knead' the stollen this year, even if she didn't understand why the uncooked dough was not as tasty as other things she had recently tried, like icecream! Once out of the oven the stollen was delicious with some fresh butter. Luckily it always makes up more than we can eat :) As we cooked and prepped we nibbled on stollen and mulled wine, feeling all festive.....

 

With the munchkin in bed we cooked away, with the idea of not leaving ourselves too much to do the next day. Crepes were made for the Christmas breakfast and the tart was coming along. Just as we were nearing completion for the night and the kitchen was all clean and sparkly waiting for the onslaught of the next day......... the chocolate tart case fell apart :( Not just a crack....... totally disintegrated. The pastry had never looked right the whole way through making it but I persevered having not used the recipe before and not knowing how it was 'supposed' to look. It turns out it was an American recipe and I had converted the butter measurement incorrectly. Our early night was in jeopardy as the pastry took quite a while to make, with rest times and blind baking. Rather than a last minute dash to Woolies before they shut we decided to have another go. This time with the correct butter measurement. Anto baked long into the night while I readied the room with the Christmas tree and all the presents. My there were a lot of presents and most of them seemed to be for Astrid! Her new trike had a ribbon added and we were right to go. Even the stockings were in place
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 How did the pastry go? Well sometime well after midnight Anto got it done, ready for the filling and raspberries the next day. Not perfect but it ended up looking and tasting pretty damn good!

When the hot stops the blogging.....

No I haven't forgotten about the blog......... I was working my way through the Christmas photos for a post, but the unprecedented run of hot weather we have had has resulted in our servers and internet connection being very unreliable.  However hot it is outside, it gets even hotter in the garage where our servers live. Even with a fan on them they get hot, really hot, and they don't seem to like to work when hot!

Our photo server died and has only just come back to life (thanks to Anto's hard work). Everything is backed up so we didn't lose anything but it's taken awhile to get everything back online. I'll work through the photos and get some new ones up this week.

Now back to the hot...... when we were in Europe it was mighty cold. People were mentioning 30+ days in only November. After a couple of 'mild' summers in a row a hot one was due but it's turned out to be hotter than we imagined.  The last couple of weeks in Sweden and Belgium, trudging through icy winds and snow the thought of a lovely hot day sounded wonderful.  Well I think I'm over it now!  Our first week back was pretty mild, mid to high 20's and a couple of days in the low 30s. Oh how the long days of sunshine and warmth were glorious. Not having to rug up every time you go outside. Wearing dresses, shorts and skirts. Getting up in the morning to sunshine and 20 degrees........ bliss!

Well, since then we have had way too many days over 30 degrees. Barely a day under 30 degrees in fact.  Since the start of the year it's been over 35 degrees the majority of the time and we hit 40 degrees a couple of times.  I don't mind the hot but the run of hot weather has been quite long. We normally get a week or so of 35ish weather every summer but it looks like all of January is going to be hot.  Our garden is needing a lot of water as along with the hot weather we've had hot winds and not a drop of rain. Every night and morning is spent watering just to keep everything alive.

The alpacas also hate the heat. Despite being shorn in October, they already have a reasonable fleece cover. We have quite a bit of shade for them so they spend the day moving from one shady spot to another. When it gets too warm for them we put a sprayer on a timer out the back so they can have hourly 'showers' to keep them cool....... not that they are spoilt or anything!

We have also had bushfires in the region and extreme bushfire danger on several days. Our house is built on block that was razed by the 2003 bushfires and we are in an area prone to fires. This summer is shaping up to be like 2003, but so far so good and no fires to close to our place. We are keeping an eye on nearby fires though as we know at some point in the future there will be another fire in our area.

Most areas of Australia have been hot, hot and hotter this summer, so we aren't alone. We've only hit 40 degrees, others have hit the high 40s.  The Bureau of meteorology has included new colours on their forecast maps to cope with the possibility of temperatures exceeding 50 degrees.  On the 7th of January Australia recorded the hottest national average day on record. Only for the record to be beaten on the 8th of January!  Apparently January 2013 has had 7 of the top 20 record temperatures recorded ever.  So yes it is very hot.....  Lets just hope for some cooler days and some rain in the next couple of weeks.

On the upside Astrid has had a ball playing in the her paddling pool in the shade of our umbrella in the afternoons.  Air con inside and playing with water outside is a toddlers dream.

Olivia's party

On Saturday the 22nd Astrid turned 18 months and she got to celebrate in style at Olivia's party! Olivia and Astrid are 1 day shy of 6 months apart in age and it amazing to think just 6 months ago our little one was turning one. Now it is Olivia's turn!

It was a hot summer day but we were looking forward to catching up with lots of friends we hadn't seen since before our trip.  The party started at lunch time, so no lunch time nap for Miss Astrid. She had a 10 minute power nap in the car on the way to the party and was not that impressed about being woken up. Some cuddles and some delicious party food changed her mind though.

Nat always has an excellent array of party food, and Olivia's party was no exception. Her theme was flowers and there was of course lots of lovely flower themed food.  Astrid didn't waste any time getting stuck into some sausages and fairy bread. She also checked out Keef's beer, but she is a little young to try one. We had to explain that 18 months is not 18 years!

 

 After some food it was time for pass the parcel, which Astrid managed to score several chocolates out of, which she immediately tucked into. She also won the main prize, some pencils, paper and a bubble gun. All have come in very handy! She was a happy little camper......

All full of chocolate Astrid decided that Warren and Swe could even have some cuddles. She seemed particularly impressed that Warren is so tall and she could be up really high!

 

 After some pinata (which she had a good go at whacking with dad's help) it was time for the yummy sweet stuff and lots of cake....... Apparently both chocolate crackles and strawberry icecream were hits!

 

Young Olivia was also spotted enjoying her party and particularly that icecream...... she did look very cute in the outfit made by Monica. You can't beat a little girl in a cute matching dress and hat........

 

 Despite it turning out to be a very hot afternoon we thoroughly enjoyed catching up with friends and celebrating Olivia's birthday. We were rather thankful that Keef finished his pergola before the party, so we got some much needed shade. We did also impose upon Keef for his photographic skills (he is seemingly the only one of our friends and family who can work our camera) so we could get a family shot.


On the way home Astrid has a very short refresher nap that was just enough to give her energy to play with her party bag. The flower lei and the bag were huge hits. The pencils have been carried around in her bag non-stop for the last week!

 

We are happy to report that Astrid did manage to sleep that night, despite ingesting half a kilo sausages, frankfurters, sauce and about 3kgs of sugar and food colouring. We hope Olivia enjoyed her birthday party as much as everyone else seemed to. Looking forward to next year!