Hi there.....Just a quick post to let you know that we had a great Christmas. Hope you all did too.

Cindy and Charli spent the night here Christmas Eve and Mum was here as well. Charli woke us all up at 6:06am so we opened our presents. I did very well in the present department I must admit.
At about 9ish we went to the street party that is held each christmas day by the residents of our street. It is a opportunity to catch up and see how everyone has made it through the year. Unfortunately one of our neighbours lost their 20 year old son in about October so it was not a happy time for them this Christmas.

Then we came home and had croissants for breakfast and a bit of a lazy sitting about with a glass of champagne or 2.

We packed a picnic lunch and headed over to Tusmore Park. It is a very large pretty park and has a wading pool in it. Charli put her bathers on and spent quite a bit of time in the pool while we had our lunch and a little more Champagne. It was absolutely beautiful there, the weather was perfect and just sitting in the sun with a nice drink, none of us wanted to leave but we were expecting visitors at Cindy's place at 2:30. Cindy sent them an sms and said we would not be there until 3:30 so we eventually had to move.

We spent the rest of the day until about 10:30pm at Cindy's place with friends and more food and drinks. A very pleasant and enjoyable day.

Mum and I have spent the last 3 days making and album to hold the photos I took at her 80th birthday party. I bought the directions from Kathy Orta on the internet and we started from scratch. It has taken us the full 3 days to make the album and it is still not finished. I think Mum is pretty happy with her's though and she plans on finishing it off during the heat wave that is due to hit Whyalla about Sunday for 3 or 4 days.

Mum flew home this afternoon and I have spent the night loading Photoshop CS6 onto my computer. It was my Christmas present from Cindy. So over the next week or so I will have a good look around it and see what is different than the previous version that I have been using.

Here are a few more photos from Mum's party
This one is Mum with her children

And this one is Mum with her grandchildren and great grandchildren

Any way I'm off to bed now.
Thanks for dropping by
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

So much has happened since my last post. I will have a go at catching you up with what has been happening in my part of the world.

We have been taking Charli to piano lessons on a Monday afternoon so that she can catch up to a class she will be joining when the new school year starts. She starts school in the new year and we will be picking her up from school each Tuesday and taking her to her piano lessons. At this stage she is still very interested in playing so while the interest is there we will keep taking her.

I had lunch with a scrapbooking friend one day. I had not seen her face to face for sometime so it was good to catch up with her.

We spent 5 days in Whyalla with Mum. She turns 80 on Christmas Eve but we gave her a party on the 15th December at my sisters house in Whyalla. All of her family made it except one grand-daughter and her 3 children so it was a great catch up time for all of us. There were also quite a few of mum's life-long friends there so I think there would have been between 60 - 80 people there. We all helped out and with the 7 of us all doing a bit there was not too much to do for one person although Traci would have had to do a lot more than the rest of us as it was held at her place.
The important thing is that Mum loved it and had a great time.

One of my sisters and her family gave Mum a ticket to see Jersey Boys and a airfare from Adelaide to Whyalla. As we were coming back on the Sunday she came back with us. My sister and family also gave me a ticket to see Jersey Boys for my birthday so in Sunday evening Mum and I went to the Festival Theatre and watched the show. It was great and Mum was absolutely wrapped. She spent the day with us on Monday and most of Tuesday, flying home at 4pm Tuesday.

On the Monday while she was here I had Laser Surgery on my eyes to correct my long vision. I still have to have glasses for reading but my long distance vision is perfect. I was a bit tentative about having the surgery done but in the end it worked out well. I have had no pain and my vision is excellent.

While we were in Whyalla I had a call from the doctor who had taken a biopsy of a growth on my nose to say that it was a carcinoma and that I would need to see a plastic surgeon about getting it removed. I go and see the surgeon on the 29th January so have got my fingers crossed that it has not gone too deep.

We went to Sue Heinrich's Christmas breakup that she had for her dance students on Tuesday night. We had a great night. The people who go to Sue's lessons are very nice and it is always a pleasant time when we all catch up.

We had Charli for half the day on Thursday. It is school holidays so there is no kindy for her. Cindy usually works half a day on Wednesdays but she worked a full day Wednesday and half a day on Thursday so we only had her until 2pm.

Yesterday I got all the photos from Mum's party printed. I got 2 sets, one for me and one for Mum. I also bought some instructions off the internet for making an "Occasions Folio". I went to Camelot and bought all of the required materials to make 2 of them. Mum is coming to spend Christmas with us and staying until the following Friday so I thought it would be a good project for both of us to make the Album and put the photos from the party in it while she is here.

Today I have made a batch of Laundry powder and a batch of Miracle Spray. I have started making my own because I want to try to avoid as many chemicals as I can and it feel like I am doing something good for the environment. I have been using the Laundry powder for about 6 months and really like it. This is the first batch of miracle Spray I have made. It is used for cleaning just about everything so I will see how it goes.

A few photos from the party

This one is of my cousin, my brother-in-law, me and Cindy

Me and Cindy

Another Brother-In-Law (well ex really) and Ray

The birthday girl blowing out the candles

One of my sisters decorated the cake. It was the first one she had ever done and she did a great job.

Well this has been a very long post.
Thanks for getting to the bottom
Till next time
Cheers
Julie

Christmas has arrived at our place.

I spent the day yesterday putting up the Christmas Tree

It took me an hour to get to this stage

Then four hours after that I had this

and with the lights turned on

Every year I say I am going to buy a new christmas tree that is easier to erect but once again I didn't

Last Sunday we went to the Uraidla Hot Rod Show. I am not really into cars but they had the Lincolns playing there and I really like this band so I was happy to go along and have a few dances.

A couple of the cars in a nice shady spot

The beautiful surrounds. What a great place to hold something like this. It was held at the Uraidla Oval. The cars were on the oval and spotted throughout the surrounding shady area.

Some of the guitars that Dave Gartland had on display. He makes these guitars. Fantastic workmanship

Well I got my christmas cards posted out today so I am on track with my Christmas tasks.

Till next time
Thanks for dropping by
Cheers
Julie