Ruth(playworkeatrepeat), Author at PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

Friday Every Day!

Hi, friends I am officially on summer holiday since Wednesday !!! And now it feels like it’s Friday every day! I think my husband must be sick of me asking him what day of the week it is haha! But because preschool finished on Tuesday it felt like a Friday and then the rest of the week felt like the weekend. I’m totally confused and will probably remain like this until I go back to work. Thanks so much for reading along and letting me share with you some highlights of all my Fridays this week hehe! Meetings Then Cleaning And Organising The children all finished preschool the week before. But the staff had two pupil-free days on Monday and Tuesday. We had a super long staff meeting on Monday. Then the rest of the day we got stuck into some cleaning and organising. We didn’t have any meetings on Tuesday. Because Tuesday was all about getting a long list of chores done before 3.40 hit and we were out of there! Thankfully our preschool is pretty organised. All the staff do an amazing job of keeping the cupboards etc tidy during the year. We also keep on top of washing and disinfecting toys. But at the end of every year, we do a big clean up of the classrooms, storeroom, office, kitchen and shed. It’s a big job! We leave the whole preschool looking pretty bare. All ready for some new crafts and works of art that will be displayed next year. My co-worker and I gave the shed a good tidying. I forgot to take a before pic but here it is all neat and organised. It’s nice to have a clear floor! Before this, there was a whole lot of equipment that needed a home other than the floor. At the end of the day, we all wished each other a Merry Christmas with cuddles and plans to get together for lunch or something in the new year. I work with such a great bunch of ladies! A Fun Overnight Stay About a month ago we went to a really fun wedding and because it was a bit far from where we lived. We decided to stay overnight at the Parkroyal in Parramatta. It was such a lovely hotel so my husband booked us a night’s stay to celebrate the first day of my holidays on Wednesday. Parramatta is a vibrant city with lots of history and a large multicultural community. There are so many trendy bars and restaurants buzzing with so many people. And I was amazed by all the huge buildings and big commercial areas. It also has a lovely riverside cycle path. So many old buildings like these ones. As well as some super modern ones like these. I don’t think that you would really call Parramatta a holiday destination. But it was so fun staying in a lovely hotel and relaxing after such a busy last few weeks. And I am also a big fan of being a tourist in my own backyard (I don’t have to get on an aeroplane and that’s a big win for me!!) A Delicious Dinner Wednesday night before dinner, we had a couple of drinks in the hotel bar and shared a small appetiser. Yummy crab croquettes! Then we walked around looking for a place to eat and we found a really nice pub. There were heaps of restaurants everywhere but they were so busy and we hadn’t booked anywhere. So we were happy to find a nice quiet place that just so happened to serve the most amazing food! Steve ordered a steak and it came with mash AND veggies. We were both laughing about my experience a couple of weeks ago at a fancy restaurant with ridiculous prices. Where I had to make a tough choice between chips and salad because they didn’t serve both. I had the beef ragu pasta and it was so good. I love how they gave me lots of parmesan cheese on the side too. For dessert, we shared a brownie and ice cream. Buffet Breakfast The next morning we enjoyed a buffet breakfast. But I wasn’t very hungry after such a big meal the previous night and all I could fit in was one plate of breakfast. I normally like to work my way around a buffet and try a bit of everything!! It’s Nearly Christmas!! This morning I went to the shops nice and early before the crowds got too crazy. And I picked up a whole lot of things from the two dollar shops for our Christmas eve party games. I have also borrowed a small karaoke machine from preschool. We are all looking forward to a fun night at my sweet cousin’s house tomorrow. So I better sign off now and finish organising all the last-minute things. I am also cooking a fall-apart roast pork to take for dinner tomorrow night. If you are looking for a delicious, juicy and flavoursome roast pork recipe you can find it here. I love this recipe, it’s a huge winner every time I make it. It has just the right amount of seasoning and the meat comes out all tender. Oooooh so good!! Merry Christmas! I would also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. And say a huge thank you! Thank you so very much for stopping by to read my blog. I truly appreciate every single one of you. And I hope that you have a wonderful time with your loved ones this weekend as you celebrate together. Much love

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Easy Eggnog Recipe

5 Comments / Recipes

Today I am excited to share with you a super easy eggnog recipe. I enjoy drinking eggnog every year during the festive season. But I had never actually made it myself before. That is until this year when I added ‘making eggnog’ to my bucket list as one of the things that I wanted to do this December. For some reason, eggnog sounded complicated to make. So I was always happy to buy my eggnog from the supermarket. And it tasted fine to me because I had never ever tasted homemade eggnog before. But this easy eggnog recipe is so delicious. Once you try it, you really won’t want to go back to the supermarket variety. This easy eggnog recipe is simply divine! Every time that you take a sip you will smell all the delicious aromas of vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg. It’s like Christmas in a glass! Easy Eggnog Recipe Ingredients 1 1/2 cups of milk 1/2 cup cream 3 eggs, separated 2 cinnamon sticks 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 2 tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup white sugar 1/3 cup Brandy Instructions Combine milk, cream, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Once the mixture is boiling then remove it from the heat. Allow to infuse and cool down slightly. In a large bowl beat the egg yolks and sugar until it is a light yellow colour and smooth consistency. Remove the cinnamon sticks from the milk. Slowly whisk in the milk to the egg yolk and sugar mixture and continue to mix until well combined. Add the brandy and stir. Place in the fridge to chill for 3-4 hours Notes For this easy eggnog recipe, you can use either full-cream milk or low-fat milk. I wouldn’t recommend skim milk. You can easily adjust the sugar and alcohol to your own taste Other types of alcohol that you can use instead of brandy are dark rum, cognac or whiskey. This delicious easy eggnog will taste great chilled for 3-4 hours but it tastes even more amazing if you leave it in the fridge overnight. This will allow all the flavours to come together and infuse. Giving the eggnog a richer flavour. The eggnog will keep in the fridge for 3 days. This recipe is for 4 people but you can easily double it to make it for 8. If doubling the recipe then use 5 egg yolks instead of 3. If you are interested in other fun and easy-to-make Christmas drinks recipes. Then you can find them here. 😊 If you are interested in other fun Christmas drinks recipes you can find them here.

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It’s Monday

10 Comments / Hello Monday

Hi friends it’s Monday and the weekend sure went by way too fast!! Can you believe we are only days away from Christmas…DAYS!! Ok, I better stop saying that because I’m freaking myself out. I’m not as ready for Christmas as I would like to be and I still have a stack of things to do. Apart from this, I am so excited about this week because I finish work on Tuesday and then I’m officially on summer holidays! Woohoo!! Back To The City For More Christmas Shopping The weekend flew by but I was able to get some more Christmas shopping done which was great. I went into the city (again) this weekend and I was amazed by the size of the crowds. There were so many people everywhere!! I recently had covid so I think that I should be immune at least for a short while. But to make sure that I stayed safe I did wear my mask on the train and in the shops just in case. The city is so pretty at Christmas time. I especially love the Strand Arcade and so I took a couple of quick pics and then I kept ploughing through the crowds to get my shopping done. I really want to go back and see the big Christmas tree at Martin Place this week. It’s been two years since I have seen it and it’s on my December bucket list too! A Visit To Ikea I also made a quick trip to Ikea. There was nothing that I desperately needed to get but I love seeing their Christmas items. I did leave with a few things that I didn’t know I needed apart from the Christmas wrapping paper. It’s almost impossible to leave Ikea empty-handed. I bought this mulled fruit drink which is very sweet and delicious. The best part was that it was half-price. Normally they cost $7.00 a bottle so I only get one or two at the most. But this time I bought four bottles! I also bought this gingerbread house from Ikea and it was half price too! The Aldi gingerbread house kit that I usually buy was different this year. The house was already put together and ready to decorate. I didn’t think that this was much fun so I gave it a miss. I was happy to find this cute Ikea gingerbread house and I’m looking forward to putting it together and decorating it when I get a spare minute. (fingers crossed that I get a spare minute) Eggnog One of the things on my December bucket list is to make homemade eggnog. So this weekend I did just that and now I can tick this off my list as done. Friends, it was so delicious and super easy to make too. As much as I liked the supermarket one. This one is hands down so much better! I am going to share the recipe soon so stay tuned. Sam and I sipped our eggnog and watched ‘The Santa Clause’. It’s the first time that either of us had watched it and we both really enjoyed it! What’s Happened To Summer? And here it is….this week’s Sydney weather report. We are all seriously asking each other the same question. What has happened to summer???? It has been cloudy, rainy, and windy and the temps have only reached the low 20s during the day. At night it’s been even colder. We have had a handful of really beautiful days and that’s about it. But on the upside, I am still cooking comfort foods like this delicious and super easy lasagna. We have also been enjoying hot drinks like tea and hot chocolate. This just seems so crazy because December is typically a very hot month! Sunday Lunch After church, I went to my aunt and uncle’s house for lunch. I hadn’t seen them for a while and it was so great to catch up with them. I gave them a small gift of a poinsettia plant and a panettone. Panettones are originally from Italy but south Americans typically eat them during the Christmas season. I’m not a huge fan but I did like this particular brand that I tried last year for the first time. I remember that it also got a tick of approval from my mum who was a panettone connoisseur and a tough critic! hehe. Ok so that just about sums up my weekend. How was yours? I hope that it was a good one 😊 Thanks so much for being here today and I really hope that you have the best week. Happy Monday! Linking up with Holly and Sarah for today’s Hello Monday post

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End Of Year Favourites

8 Comments / Friday Favourites

Hi friends can you believe that we are only days away from Christmas!! It’s crazy how fast the days are flying by, isn’t it? I have so many fun end-of-year favourites for this week and as usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post. My Energy’s Back! I finally feel like I have my energy back after being sick with covid about a month ago. I can’t believe that it’s taken this long for me to start feeling like my old self again. My symptoms all went away after a couple of weeks (except for an annoying cough that I still have!). But I was really lacking energy and oomph. Now I finally feel like I have turned a corner and that is a huge favourite!! Preschool Favourites The last week of the preschool year is always so much fun. And if ever I needed to have my energy back. This was definitely the week! It has been such a busy week with concert rehearsals right up until the day before the actual big events. We always have two concerts and Christmas parties because we have different children attending preschool at either end of the week. So that’s a whole lot of rehearsals!! But the kids were amazing and they did such a great job. I was so proud of them and I’m sad to see many of them go off to primary school. Thankfully we still have quite a few children who will be returning next year. I always joke with my little friends who are leaving and I say to them ” I’m going to miss you guys!! Who am I going to play with next year?” they always giggle and I usually get a Ruuuuth….. you’re so funny! Setting Up For The Big Day Before the concerts, there is a whole lot of lifting and moving furniture to get the preschool ready. We always joke that if we ever lost our jobs at preschool then we could always go into the furniture removal business! 25 Years Of Service During Tuesday’s concert, I was so surprised to be recognised for 25 years of service at the preschool. Wow, that’s a long time!! And the scary thing is that those years have gone by in a flash! Our parent committee along with our Director presented me with a beautiful framed certificate. As well as a lovely bunch of flowers and a very generous amount of gift certificates! I honestly did not expect any of this and it was so just such a lovely gesture. Back Stage Shenanigans For the Tuesday concert, we had to help the children with a few quick props and costume changes. So my fun colleagues and I hung out behind the curtain ready for action. Thankfully we had practised enough and we didn’t fumble around trying to find things (like we had many times before). By Tuesday we were on point with the props and costume changes haha! Backstage the three of us were dancing around singing and doing all the actions to the songs as the children performed for their parents. It was fun doing our own little concert with no one watching. Party Food The parents generously brought a plate of food to share and there was so much. Everyone enjoyed all the yummy party food. And it was so great to see everyone mingling and having the best time after two long years of concerts and parties on hold. Presents As I have mentioned before I am always so touched by the kindness and generosity of our lovely preschool families. I received many lovely gifts and cards. These most gorgeous Christmas ornaments went straight onto my tree as soon as I put the date and the name of my little student on the back with a sharpie. Then reading special cards such as this one will always make me cry happy tears. And this one too. It’s so special how these lovely mums have written what their beautiful kids have said. A New Diary I mentioned to my lovely friend that this year I was NOT going to buy a diary from Kikki.K my favourite stationery shop. I know that this is going to sound ridiculous but buying another diary from them just felt wrong after this year was so yuck. Instead, I had plans to buy a cheap one from Kmart or not buy one at all. But my bestie surprised me with this beautiful diary and I love it so much. So I’m sure that 2023 is going to be a great year. Every week there is an inspirational quote. And I am so ready to be showered with bucketloads of inspiration that’s for sure!! The pictures are so cute too and I’m excited to start writing in it soon. It was a fun week full of end-of-year favourites. I am looking forward to the weekend as I have a bit more shopping and a catch-up with some family on Sunday. Then next week I only have to go to work on Monday and Tuesday for a meeting and a big end-of-year cleanup. Then that’s it for the year! I hope you all have the best weekend, Happy Friday!

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Hosting Holiday Parties

5 Comments / Entertaining, Planning and Hosting Tips

Hosting Holiday Parties –Hey friends I can hardly believe that this is the last ‘Let’s Look’ link-up for the year. It’s been so fun to be a part of this monthly link-up where we have explored so many interesting topics. I always enjoy reading these posts and collecting some great ideas along the way. Today I am joining Erika and Shay to talk about how we host holiday parties. This is a perfect topic for December because we are in full celebration, get-together and party mode. I have put together a bunch of tips for hosting holiday parties. Many of these tips have evolved from years of trial and error. I remember being a young mum and trying so hard to make everything perfect only to find myself hiding in the kitchen paralysed with anxiety because I was just so overwhelmed. (yes, this is totally true!!) Hosting Holiday Parties Keep It Simple This would have to be my number one tip for hosting holiday parties. I have learnt that it is totally ok not to cook everything from scratch…….outsource instead!! I honestly think that friends and family are just happy to be invited. They won’t even notice if you choose to serve premade salads or anything else that isn’t homemade for that matter. For last year’s Christmas Eve dinner, I bought some salads from a local deli. I also ordered some really delicious appetisers from a gourmet catering company. And outsourcing these two simple things just made everything so much easier. Accept Help Accepting any offers to bring a dish for a party is such a game-changer. Back in the day when I thought that I could and should do everything myself. I would decline any offers of help (what a goose!!). Now I am more than happy to let guests contribute. I am a huge fan of tradition and food always evokes so many amazing memories. So letting loved ones contribute to the meal is just so special. My wonderful uncle Bill always used to cook the turkey for our Christmas Eve dinner. He sadly passed away nine years ago but his wife (my aunty) kindly cooks the turkey every Christmas now. And the tradition of his amazing turkey recipe passed down from my grandmother (with the most divine stuffing) lives on! Make A Self Service Bar I find that it is so much easier to mingle with my family when I set up a self-service bar. My trick is to make sure I have a designated spot just for drinks with everything people might need. Such as plastic cups, wine glasses and even paper straws (because they look cute and festive). Another thing that I really like to add to the self-service bar is a big bowl of punch. I still have my mum’s punch bowl from the 1970s and it looks amazing when it is full of colourful delicious punch. I have a few great Christmas punch recipes here that you might like to try. Believe me when I tell you that a nice holiday punch will make your holiday party a smashing success. I always like to offer alcohol and non-alcohol punch choices. And I make labels to avoid any confusion! Create A Playlist You need a great variety of music for a fantastic holiday party. There are so many options when it comes to Christmas music. I like to create a playlist that has a nice selection of holiday hits. From the more mellow classic tunes to the more upbeat hits like Crazy Frog Christmas! Games!! This year my lovely cousin is hosting Christmas Eve at her house and she has asked me to be in charge of games. A few years ago I introduced some hilarious minute-to-win-it-style games and we had a blast. Honestly, we were screaming so loud that I’m surprised the neighbours didn’t call the police. So this year we are doing this again and I am in the middle of organising some games that we haven’t done before. Along with some favourite requests too. Stick To A Timeline Married to a chef means that I have been really lucky when it comes to sticking to a timeline for serving the food. My husband has these amazing skills where he can get food on the table hot and ready in a flash. Sadly, I don’t have these skills at all. Now that he works evenings and I host family dinners and holiday parties on my own a lot. I have to make sure that I write down a schedule of what needs to go in the oven and when. Then I have to make sure to stick to the plan so that we don’t eat at midnight!! Make Space In Your Home I love my home but I do wish that we had a better area for entertaining. We don’t so I have to always make sure that I maximise my space so that my guests feel comfortable. I will often move furniture around or store some in the converted garage. I wrote a post on How To Entertain In A Small Space where you can find some tips if you have a small place like mine. Give Guests A Gift To Take Home I love giving my guests a small gift to take home. It is never anything expensive or big. It’s just a little something to remember the fun time we had together. And I like to add a nice touch by making a personalised gift tag. These are a few tips that I have found to be helpful when it comes to hosting holiday parties. And so now I guess it’s a wrap for ‘Let’s Look 2022’! I hope that you all have an amazing time at your next holiday party. And if you are hosting then I hope that these tips will come in handy.

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Celebrations

9 Comments / Hello Monday

Hi friends, this weekend sure went by fast!! Wow, I had a very busy one with a couple of fun end-of-the-year celebrations. And it would have been so nice to have a day off from work to recover. But no such luck as I was back today and going at a hundred miles with all the end-of-year preschool stuff! Anyway, I’m on the countdown now as I only have six more days left before we finish up. Then it’s goodbye preschool 2022 and hello Summer holidays!! As usual, I am linking up with Holly and Sarah for today’s Hello Monday post. Thanks so much for being here today and letting me share with you a snapshot of what my weekend looked like. Staff Christmas Lunch On Saturday we had our highly anticipated staff Christmas lunch in the city and it was such a gloriously sunny day!! We went to a restaurant called 6 Head in The Rocks Sydney. This is the view from the restaurant and it was magnificent! We had such a fun time eating, talking and laughing. It was just so great to relax and enjoy the day!! I am so lucky to work with such a brilliant team who are like a second family to me. The menu was very pricey and I can’t say that the food blew me away. But the view, location and atmosphere are what it was mainly all about. I had a huge belly laugh when I made a goose of myself with the waitress. I ordered the steak and I thought I heard her say “with chips and salad” so I said “yes” with a big smile. Because every other restaurant I have been to always offers steak with either chips and salad or mashed potato and veggies. Makes sense right? She gave me a funny look and repeated herself and this time I heard her loud and clear. “Would you like your steak with chips OR salad? I went with the chips. After lunch, some of us kicked on and we went to an Irish pub where we had some drinks and then ended up enjoying a live band. It really was such a great day celebrating the end of another preschool year with such a fun bunch of ladies. Sunday On Sunday it was my husband’s swim club Christmas lunch. Talk about a weekend of celebrations!! I watched the swimming races and then afterwards it was time for some more Christmas fare!! It’s so funny how we are in summer over here and the other side of the world is all rugged up and cozy in chilly winter. I always think that it would be way more fun to have Christmas in the wintertime. Cold Christmas food for a warm day. Steve had to leave before the celebrations finished because he had to go to work. I had arranged to go Christmas shopping with my lovely bestie. She helped me pick out a few presents that I needed and now I’m nearly all done! I always have the best time with my lovely friend who is really more like a sister to me. I can chat with her about anything and everything. In between shops, we stopped off at a Japanese sushi place for a bite to eat. We had some sushi rolls and crispy crab things ( I can’t remember the name) but it was all delicious. I also had this green tea latte and I can honestly not stop thinking about it!! It was so sweet and refreshing. I want to go back for more!! When I Christmas shop I find it so hard not to get distracted looking for things that I want. Especially when I go to one of my favourite shops Muji. I got home around 8 pm and I was so tired from all the weekend fun. After I had a shower I plonked myself on the lounge and started watching the Netflix series “Harry and Meghan”. Is anyone else watching? I really enjoyed the first episode. But I had to force myself to turn it off and go to bed as it was getting so late. This week I will have to be better about going to bed at a decent time because we have so much happening at preschool. We have two Christmas parties and two concerts. Different children attend preschool at different ends of the week. So I will have to be on my A game and remember what I need to do as the concerts are not the same. I am so grateful that I finally feel like I have my energy back after being hit with covid a few weeks ago. I’m starting to feel like myself again which is great because I was so sick of dragging myself around in a funk. Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are ready for a brand-new week. Eeeeks only 13 more days until Christmas. I can hardly believe it!! Let’s not panic!! Happy Monday friends!!

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Christmas favourites

5 Comments / Christmas

Hi friends it’s lovely to be back today linking up with Andrea and Erika. I thought that it would be fun to chat about a few of this week’s Christmas favourites. This is always such a fun time of the year! But if you guys have been reading along. You will probably know that I’ve really struggled to get into the Christmas spirit this year. But I ploughed on and this week I put up my tree, decorated the house (a bit), listened to Christmas music and watched a couple of old favourite movies and shows. And I think that this helped me enormously. Christmas Tree On Wednesday night when the three of us were home. We all pitched in and put up the tree. Well nearly all three of us pitched in. Sam mainly lay on the lounge! But it was really nice to be all together. I ended up finding more of the cute gingerbread men decorations at another Bed Bath N’ Table store in the city on the weekend. This time I didn’t hesitate and I snapped them up. I think they look cute on the tree. I bought these nice non-blinking white string lights years ago from Ikea and they are my favourite. My Favourite Christmas Show While we decorated the tree on Wednesday night. We watched The Vicar Of Dibley-Christmas Lunch Incident on Amazon Prime. I know that I went on and on about this last year. But I can’t help it. It’s my absolute favourite episode. The funny thing is. I haven’t ever really watched many of the other Vicar Of Dibley episodes. But watching this Christmas episode is a must in our family. Beautiful Ornaments As I was decorating I took a trip down memory lane. Looking at some of the beautiful ornaments that the children from preschool have given me as presents over the years. I like to date them and write the name of my little student on the back with a permanent marker. Here is an ornament that Sam made for me when he was at preschool……..sigh! This gorgeous handmade angel was given to me by a little girl called Amy. Amy is now in her early 20s and I was lucky enough to catch up with her and her lovely mum earlier this year! Egg Nog Another of this week’s Christmas favourites is this delicious egg nog. I’m determined to make my own this year because it’s on my December bucket list!! But this egg nog was very good and we all enjoyed a nice glass with some Walkers shortbread biscuits after we finished decorating the tree. Christmas Treats! I am always so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of our lovely preschool parents. Earlier this week we received a huge box of decorated doughnuts. Another lovely parent also gave us some Christmas biscuits. We also received some chocolates, a box of cannolis and another box of pastries. I forgot to take any pics of these because I was too busy eating! A Lindt Chocolate Advent Calender I usually buy a simple Aldi advent calendar. But this year I splurged on a Lindt Chocolate Advent calendar (because it was half-price). I have banned Sam from eating them all in one day!! Community Christmas Events I’m sure that I took for granted all these fun Christmas community events in the past. But after two years of everything being cancelled, it’s so great that now they’re back! So last Saturday some friends and I went to the Carss Bush Park Magic Of Christmas Event. We had some food from the food trucks. Then we just hung around on a picnic blanket and had fun chatting and catching up. I was really happy to be with my lovely friends but sad that poor Steve missed out because he was at work. Christmas Candles I have loved burning lovely Christmas-scented candles like this one. It has honestly been so cold (here I go again with the weather report). I can’t remember summer ever being this cold and we are still wearing jumpers and jackets!! On the upside, it’s been really nice and cozy to have candles burning at this time of the year. Normally we are all sweltering in the unbearable Australian summer heat. So there we have it, eight Christmas favourites for this week! I’m excited that it’s the weekend because we have our staff Christmas lunch tomorrow. Then on Sunday, it’s Steve’s swim club Christmas BBQ. And Sunday afternoon I’m going Christmas shopping with my bestie. Another busy weekend and I’m totally up for it! I hope that you guys have the best weekend. We are really on a countdown now aren’t we!! Thanks so much for reading along. I’ll be back here on Monday. Take care friends and happy Friday!

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Currently In December

10 Comments / Christmas

Hi, friends it’s great to be back today and linking up with Jennifer to talk about what we are currently loving, gifting, wrapping, hoping and attending in December. Currently In December Loving Currently, I have really been loving reading all the fun blogs about all things Christmas. And seeing everyone’s beautifully decorated homes! This year I have been struggling to get into the Christmas spirit as it has been one heck of a rough year. But as I have been reading so many inspiring blogs full of Christmas cheer. I am starting to feel a shift in my mood. Usually, by now our home would be completely decorated. And my lights would all be set up in the front garden. And I would most definitely be well and truly on top of my Christmas shopping. This year things are a whole lot different and I am so behind. But that’s ok, I’m learning to be kind to myself and let some things go. I won’t be setting up my lights in the front garden this year but I will set up our tree (soon). I may not decorate the house from top to bottom like I usually do. But I will do the best I can. So I guess I really want to take the opportunity to say thank you to everyone who has shared their lovely decorated homes, recipes, gift ideas and list of Christmas movies. I also want to thank everyone who takes the time to read my blog! And a huge thank you to everyone who kindly comments….gosh, you guys encourage me like there’s no tomorrow!! I have really loved reading the fun Christmas posts and I am so grateful to this most wonderful supportive blogging community. You guys have helped me enormously. I think that otherwise I would have been really tempted to just hide this Christmas. Yep, it’s been a rough year. Gifting To be honest I haven’t really started gifting anything yet. We are having our staff Christmas lunch this Saturday and I will be gifting then. But please don’t ask me what I’m gifting because I have no clue!! Sigh……I’m all over the place this Christmas time…ugh!! Anyway, we have a budget of $25.00 for our staff’s Kris Kringle gift and I haven’t bought anything yet. HELP!! Wrapping Again, if I was on top of things like a champ then I would be wrapping presents by now. I did go shopping on the weekend and I took advantage of David Jones’s free Christmas wrapping service. I was so stressed about being so behind. So I thought that if I could at least have a few presents ready to go then I would feel better. My lovely friend has said that she can come shopping with me this Sunday and this has lifted my spirits and given me a big dose of motivation!! So hopefully next week I will pull out all my ninja wrapping skills and get back on track with wrapping my presents while I watch Carols In The Domain. Hoping I am hoping that I can focus on the joy of being surrounded by my beautiful family this Christmas. Aaaaarghhhh!!! Grief is so hard all the time! But at Christmas time it is just ….what’s the word…..I can’t even think of a word! Unbearable, awful, blah! It just sucks!! Attending I am looking forward to attending our staff Christmas lunch this Saturday. We are going to a lovely fancy restaurant in the city. And I am very excited to be spending time with my lovely work colleagues in a grown-up environment and getting all dressed up. We spend the whole year up to our eyeballs in messy play, paint, glue, sandpit, waterplay and playdough. So our staff Christmas party is a huge highlight for us! I am also excited to hopefully attend my church’s Christmas eve carol service. It’s been a couple of years since we had a carol service because of covid. So I am really hoping to be able to attend this year. Carols really speak to my heart and I often find myself all choked up with emotion when I sing. As a family with South American roots, we always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. So I know that I will be cutting it fine trying to get to the carol service and be on time for my family event. But where there’s a will……there is always a South American family who thankfully doesn’t always run on time haha!!! Well lovely friends that wraps up this month’s edition of Currently! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read. I truly hope that you have the best day and I look forward to being back here on Friday.

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A Fun Weekend

4 Comments / Hello Monday, Home

Hi friends I hope that you all had a great weekend and are all ready to jump into a brand new week. It was so good to have the sun shining all weekend long. Bright sunny days and blue skies always lift my mood and make me feel motivated. The wind had a bit of a bite to it and it still didn’t feel quite like Summer. It kind of felt more like the beginning of spring or late autumn. Ha, I always seem to bring you a Sydney weather report every time! Anyway, it really was a fun weekend and I’m about to photo-bomb you with all of the Sydney sights I enjoyed. A Fun Weekend Friday Night But first up Friday night was our regular monthly ‘cousin connect’ as we call it. Our family meets up for dinner once a month either on Friday night or Saturday the first week of every month. We started this tradition in February this year and I am so grateful that we did. The weeks and months just roll by so fast and it’s so easy to forget to catch up with family. This had happened to us over the years. Our family all live pretty close by. But over the years we had let months slip by before we caught up with each other. Then when my mum became sick earlier in the year we were all so saddened and shocked. And truly rattled to our very core. We realised how disconnected we had become. And so we came up with the idea of monthly dinners and my little cousin gave our catch-ups the name ‘cousin connect’. So out of such a great loss, we have now started a wonderful family tradition. It was my cousin’s turn to host and she spoiled us with a most delicious dinner! We had ribs, wings, mac and cheese and salad. Very American! My cousin’s husband is from Ohio and I love hearing his accent. Their kids also have such a cute Australian/American accent. For dessert, we had a huge chocolate cake. It’s two of my cousin’s birthdays in December so we sang them a happy birthday. Their cute dog Amelia came up to me to say hello while we were eating. She probably fancied a treat. Saturday I spent the day with my lovely bestie in the city. We started off by browsing through the shops and admiring the lovely Christmas decorations. There were so many people shopping in the city. I think that everyone is just so happy to be out and about without any covid restrictions. But in saying this, my friend and I played it safe and wore our masks on the train and whenever we were around too many people. We stopped to look at the David Jones Christmas window display. But it was a bit underwhelming this year. It’s hard to see in the photos because of the reflection in the window. But it was just a whole lot of mechanical things and it reminded me of something out of Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. We were feeling a bit hungry so we stopped for brunch. I had the bruschetta with a poached egg. My friend had smashed avocado with lots of rocket. Visiting The Art Galley Of NSW Afterwards, we walked over to see the opening of the new art gallery building. Here’s the original building. And next door is a very modern-looking building. The view from the back of the building was pretty spectacular. See that long grey building. That’s where Russell Crowe lives. I didn’t catch a glimpse of him though hehe. I thought that this big flower sculpture was bright and pretty. It was very spacious inside the new building and all the artworks were contemporary. This pic looks blurry but it’s not. The art was meant to be blurry! I think that this was the most interesting piece. It looks like a big skyscraper. But it’s just a whole lot of mirrors. I felt a bit dizzy looking down though. And then my friend noticed that all those colourful things on the levels were actually body parts. Hmmm………I’m not sure how I feel about contemporary art. It always leaves me feeling baffled and I’m not really a big fan. I felt the same way when we visited the MCA back in September. I did like these colourful windows. Then we got a chance to create some art for an exhibit. The instructions we were given were to roll out balls about the size of our palms. Then the best ones would be added to the middle of that huge table and that was the art! Look at our spectacular clay balls. Who knows? We may be commissioned to produce these amazing pieces of art!! It was therapeutic rolling our clay and we both agreed that we felt like we were at preschool (I’m lucky enough to work at preschool with my lovely friend). The Rocks Markets After the gallery visit, we walked over to the Rock’s “Christmas markets”. None of the stalls had anything Christmassy for sale which was a bit disappointing. We had a brief look and then stopped for a drink in an outdoor cafe. Saturday was such a fun day. I love getting out and about with my sweet friend and I’m excited to plan more outings for our summer holidays. Sunday I had a mini panic when I realised that I had not yet bought a single present for anybody. So I made a dash back into the city on Sunday afternoon. And I was on a mission to tick off some presents from my list. Luckily I found a few things and I even got the presents gift-wrapped for free. That’s one of the big perks of shopping at DJs. I feel a whole lot better now that I have started my shopping. I had every intention of doing this in November but November flew by in a flash

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gingerbread man decoration for December post

The First Weekend In December

6 Comments / Friday Favourites

Hey friends it’s so great to be back for this week’s Friday Favourites. Wow, so it’s the first weekend in December. Can you believe it? I know that I can’t! This week has flown past in a flash and I’m sure that the next few weeks will be exactly the same. Because December is just such a busy month! I don’t mind December being so busy because it is just such a fun month of planning, prepping and catching up with friends and family. Yes, it really is my favourite month of the year! As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika today. Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me share with you a few of my favourites from this week. #1 I mentioned last week that I bought some new make-up for a wedding that I went to. I tried to do a smokey-eye look but I’m not sure how successful I was. I’m always very conservative when it comes to using makeup. But anyway I was happy with how my makeup turned out. And I’m sure that if I applied more than what I normally wear for special occasions then I just wouldn’t have felt comfortable anyway. I bought this lovely NARS eyeshadow palette from our local Mecca store. It has all of the earthy brown colours that make my heart sing! The bottom row of colours also had some nice shimmer. I was happy with all of the colours and how soft they were to blend together. I hadn’t bought any makeup for myself in ages. Because my mum used to love using Estee Lauder products. And she would always stock up on her face creams etc when they had gift pack offers. Then she would give me the gift packs which came with eyeshadows, lipstick, mascara and even sample-sized jars of eye and face cream. #2 I also bought an Hourglass eyeliner. Except for this time I went with a brown colour instead of the black colour that I normally use. As I’m getting older I think that black eyeliner looks a bit too intense and harsh on me. #3 I have been really happy with the Chanel lipstick that I always wear. But the bright dazzling lights in the Mecca store had me in a trance I think. Because I splurged and bought myself a new Hourglass lipstick (which looks very similar to the colour I already own 😬). The good thing about this lipstick is that I’m pretty sure that it can double up and be used as a self-defence weapon. Because look at the lid…….it’s super pointy!! #4 I went out to the front of the house to put the rubbish out and I spotted this big beautiful pink rose. It smelled so lovely too. It’s funny that I hadn’t really noticed it before but that’s probably because I don’t often put the rubbish out. That’s Sam’s job but he’s away until Monday. #5 I used the pledge grab-it duster to dust my blinds. It did an amazing job of picking up a lot of dust. Look at how grey and yucky the duster looked when I had finished. #6 Thursday night my bible study group got together for our end-of-year dinner. Our lovely hostess made us the most delicious cocktails. It was such a lovely evening! We started with an amazing cheese platter. Then for mains, we had a delicious fall-apart lamb with a variety of salads and sides. Then we finished off with a cheesecake and ice cream. #7 I was in Bed Bath and Table the other day and I saw this cute gingerbread man decoration. I nearly bought six for the tree but I was in one of my indecisive moods and I didn’t buy any. Then when I went home I couldn’t stop thinking about how cute they were and how I wished that I had gone ahead and bought them. Anyway, I was telling my friend this story and the next day she messaged me to say that she had found the last two at the shop and she had bought them for me. How sweet was that? So I’m very happy to have two of these cute gingerbread men. And next time I won’t be so indecisive!! I guess that wraps up my seven favourites for this week. As soon as I finish this post I’m going to get ready for our monthly family dinner at my cousin’s house. Then tomorrow I am so excited to spend the day with my bestie. We are heading into the city for the opening of the new building at The Art Gallery Of NSW. Then we are going to have a look at The Rocks Christmas markets. Going to a Christmas market is number one on my December bucket list. So I’m happy that I get to tick this off the list so early. I’m looking forward to a fun weekend and I hope that you have a great one too. Happy first weekend in December and Happy Friday!

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