December action

Right. So the last 3 weeks have been a whirl wind of whipping out the camera, concerts, Christmas festivities and New years celebrations. Happy New Year by the way.

I do have some layouts to show you, but I'll do that in a couple of days, cause right now I want to throw at you our life in pictures from the last few weeks before I've totally moved on to the new year.

First up is a weird quick little painting that I did, the second last one before the school term ended. It's a beach. Hope you figured that out.

My very last painting of the year done the day after the one above was a bigger one (1.4m long) and it is an interpretation of the Sydney to Hobart Boxing Day yacht race. Painting is all done for the year. :(

Then, just to radically change subjects, we grew our very first strawberry from a planter basket on our verandah...

..and proceeded to eat it.  It was small, but sweet. Apparently.

It was then time to put up the old tree. Nice blurry action shots....

Eldest girl had her end of year ballet concert at NIDA which is the only time of the year that she is allowed to put makeup on and not wipe it all off before anybody sees her.

After the hair and makeup were done, her and little friend proceeded to play in NIDA's glass elevator and cause mischief in general. The actual dance pales in comparison of the fun of the rest of the day!

About 4 days after the ballet concert, it was Lucy's last day of her first year at school. I can't believe how quick that went, and I can't believe what a confident self assured Lucy we have got now. She had a brilliant first year, and loved every minute. Can't wait to scrap this photo and the story that goes along with her first year at school.

This was Lucy and Amelia's last day of school, but also their last day at the same school grounds, as Amelia moves up next year to the primary school located down the road. I took in this in their playground on their last morning together. They have been great pals this year at school, and I'm told they often spent their lunches playing together. Note: December also saw Lucy lose her two front teeth!

The day after this was the Year 6 farewell, which the year 5's are invited to. Amaris is in year 5, and this was her first dressed up school occasion. Her and her friends asked me to take some shots of them before they went, and they just love being on my blog asking me immediately after "can you put us on your blog???" So here you are girls, out there in internet/blogland.  Thrilling, huh? Also thrilling that my girl is actually wearing a dress. Miraculous, really. Mine's the middle girl below.

Then it was time for our annual gingerbread bake. We didn't do houses last year, but returned to them this year. I find it easier for them each to make their own individual houses and have total creative control over them, rather than argue about what lolly goes where on one big house. I feel like an engineer cutting the dough to size and making sure it will all 'construct' properly with overlapping eaves and all!

Next up was another annual tradition. We attended our church's Carols by Candlelight event. It poured all afternoon up until 6:30pm leaving everyone waiting at their front doors wondering whether to go or not, but then the skies suddenly cleared and thousands showed up, and we had a great and dry night. With faces painted and all!

One of our first days once school was out was filled at a local bay, and eldest daughter and friend enjoyed hanging out with the bubbler or 'drinking fountain', depending where you're from. Give kids a bit of water and they are totally amused. So many photos I have of my kids playing with spurting water!

Down at the bay's edge, we found a cool boatshed, and the girls decided it would be a good place for handstands. Is anywhere, in this whole world, NOT a good place for a handstand?? My kitchen apparently is a great place...(grr).

On December 23rd, we all went into the city to check out the decorations including the David Jones window displays and an amazing moving light show that was projected up on to the side of St Mary's Cathedral. It was done to music and it was a lovely relaxing way to spend the evening at dusk in the city! Definitely will go again next year.

On Christmas Eve, the girls grandparents visiting from USA took them to build-a-bear for their Christmas present, which the girls loved!

Then it was Christmas day! There was the ham....

There was me trying to get that shot that Di once got of herself in the reflection of the decoration. And hey, there should be at least ONE shot of me this Christmas, right? This is it! Lol!

And there was the cuddling of the seriously adored baby cousin, Olivia. 

Then there was the annual tradition of getting in the pool on Christmas Day cause it's hot!!!! The girls spent most of the day being tipped up in this little boat by their dad, and then getting (gracefully) back in the boat. That boat was the best $9.99 I ever spent at Christmas!

Hope you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Thanks for hanging out with me here a this blog in 2010. xxx