Louisa's first day at school!

I'm not quite sure where the last 4 and a half years have gone, but here is my baby starting school yesterday. I apologise for the blurriness of the photos (mummy's hand was shaking a little), but I think the expression shows exactly how we were both feeling about her first day. Apprehensive, but mainly excited.

Her day seemed to have gone really well. The teacher has already established that Louisa likes to chat and isn't shy (no surprises there). And when talking about activites she did that day, I commented that it sounded like fun. Her response: "Everything was fun, Mum!'.

I must confess I'm happy that the Prep year here in Qeueensland is play based, and will be similar to the C & K kindy she attended last year. I had been quite casual and unconcerned about her starting because of this, but must admit to some quiet tears on the way back to the car. I'm only just realising that so many of the outings and adventures we've done together and that I've taken for granted will be consigned to school holidays and weekends. 'End of and era' is how one mums' group friend put it, and it sure is!

Happy New Year (yeah, yeah, I know the month's half over)

I've had a super relaxing few weeks, after all the drama of pre-Christmas excitement. I very much appreciated the chance to do not very much at all. Even the weather cooperated, with rain, rain and more drizzle, so that my action man husband also had to put any outdoors adventures on hold and just let us all relax.

My first try at hosting Christmas was a success, even the turkey was lovely. My family (Mum, Dad and two sisters) joined us from Gippsland, Victoria and Canberra, and even braved the early morning present opening. The girls were very spoiled by everyone. Here's the Christmas morning mess:

The bubble machine from big brother Jake was a huge hit:
I love the way Lizzie blows bubbles. Her whole body moves - so cute!
Jake joined us for part of the holidays, and was quite surprised the weather was cooler here than home in Melbourne. He still managed to get into the pool most days.We took a quick trip to Melbourne to catch up with Peter's parents. We managed to solve the mystery of the Farifield dog for Jake. For years he's been telling everyone the dog moves its tail, and noone would believe him. We now have video evidence for him.
We stayed at a friend's apartment in Port Melbourne. Boy has that area changed since we've been in Queensland!

Lizzie's Christmas dress

I've finally completed Lizzie's Christmas dress, although 'completed' might not be the exact word. The pattern also included an underskirt, and I had some red fabric sewn up and hemmed ready to go. But I had a last minute change of plans, for a few reasons. Firstly, it looked so lovely as it was when I tried it on Lizzie. Secondly, I'm anticipating a hot muggy day and the less layers of fabric, the better. And lastly, I must admit the thought of gathering another skirt if I didn't really need to wasn't that appealing.

Lizzie loves it and Louisa has been eying it of enviously and asking when she can have a dress like that! Please excuse her messy hair, she'd not long before woken up from a nap!

I'm also including here a sneak peak of our photos we had done for various Chrissie presents. I only picked them up a few minutes ago, so I'll go through the CD and pick out my favourites to share at a later time. We went with Moods Photography based in Woody Point.

6 more sleeps!

I'm starting to get excited about Christmas. One of my favourite things about Christmas is Christmas music. For at least part of the year, radio stations, stores, etc play music with melody and beautiful arrangements (Can you tell I'm not a fan of much modern music?). I was going through some of my favourite Christmas albums to put together a CD for my family to listen to in my car when they're up (they'll be driving my car around for the duration of their stay).

I'll start with an artist who feels like an old friend to me. He's always been on my CD/tape player for as long as I can remember, and I love this Christmas album of James Taylor's. My favourite tracks are Who Comes This Night and Some Children See Him, as they're not done to death the way a lot of Christmas songs are.

Next up, Michael Buble does that Christmas crooner thing really well and the absolute best track is Grown-Up Christmas Wish - quite often makes me teary when I hear it.

Josh Groban has a universal appeal. The oldies love him as well (even my father). The track I love on that album is Angels We Have Heard On High, I simply love hearing that song at Christmas time. His version of I'll Be Home For Christmas is pretty popular too.

We're fans of Sarah McLachlan in this house, and so her version of O Little Town of Bethlehem is on high rotation at the moment, as is the rest of her Wintersong album

I also can't not include come country music (quite the closet country fan, I admit). I love Vince Gill's Do You Hear What I Hear? - just ignore the mullet on the album cover.

For something different Trans Siberian Orchestra does a kind of 'rock/almost heavy metal' take on Christmas. I love their Joy/Angels We Have Heard on High track.

Okay, so that's completely nothing to do with sewing at all, but something to listen to while sewing, I guess.

December the 12th!

Today was an exciting day. Finally us EB sewing gals got to open our Christmas swap. I was lucky to get this bundle of goodies from Jacqui! Very thoughtful and useful gifts! Thanks Jacqui!!The felt Christmas decorations look wonderful on our tree:

The other excitemnt for the day was Louisa's kindy concert- a nativity play in which Louisa played a very lovely angel This was followed by a selection of Christmas songs (the highlights being Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Six White Boomers) and a feast!

Santa photo

Well, a much better result this year than last year - when I had to be in the Santa photo too! This year, both girls had a great chat to Santa. When he asked them what they'd like for Christmas, they were both speechless, so he offered to bring them a special surprise. A very lovely Santa.

We finished off by doing craft at the shopping centre, having a play in the playground and eating a yummy chocolate muffin each. What a great morning!

Oxfam Unwrapped

If anyone is struggling to find a gift for someone this Christmas, you may want to consider Oxfam's Sewing Training. I think it's quite appropriate for someone who loves to sew themselves, and would get a kick out of people affected by HIV/AIDS being taught this skill to help earn an income. It costs just $63.

Lots of other great gifts to consider at Oxfam Unwrapped or World Vision Smiles.