December Recap

 Hello, lovely friends! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’m so glad to be back linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Can you believe how fast the festivities flew by?

To kick off 2026, I thought I’d do a quick December recap and share some of the things we got up to. Thanks so much for stopping by!

December Recap

The Last Day for 2025

Walking out of work on the last day of the year, December 19, never felt so amazing. I think I got home and didn’t move off the lounge for about two days. My husband said, “Wow, it’s so good to see you getting right into holiday mode.” He knew exactly how tough the year had been at work. The truth is, I was completely done. Kaput. Done.

I know I always feel tired at the end of the year, and I usually have a good old whinge about it. This was next-level tired. It wasn’t until I was at home by myself on the first Saturday evening that I started to feel a bit better after a little cry.

It was so weird because it wasn’t like I felt sad, but I must have been, and I wasn’t really sure why. After all, it was holiday time, so there was nothing to be sad about. I was exhausted but couldn’t relax or fall asleep. Every time I was just about to drift off, I would jolt awake like I was falling off a building. I guess I was emotionally and physically confused, haha.

The good news is that I soon got out of the funk. When Monday rolled around, we went straight into happy holiday mode with lunch at one of my favourite places, The Grounds of Alexandria.

Our Lunch at The Grounds

The Grounds always look amazing, and for Christmas, they went all out with a traditional festive theme. It was so pretty.

Christmas Dessert Prep

The next day, Tuesday, I made a chocolate hazelnut filling for the small tart cases I’d bought from Woolworths. I wanted to get a head start on some Christmas desserts for the big day.

Date Night

Then, in the evening, we headed out to Martin Place to have dinner at a restaurant called Epula, which is in the Fullerton Hotel and right near the giant Christmas tree. The restaurant had a lovely, relaxed feel as well as beautiful decor. The food was pretty spectacular, too.

After dinner, we wandered around Martin Place and soaked up the Christmas atmosphere in the city.

Christmas Eve

Christmas feels like a decade ago now! We had our big family celebration with the cousins, although our older son and his partner couldn’t make it. His partner’s family also celebrates on Christmas Eve, and in the past, they’ve managed to attend both gatherings.

Since last year, though, their celebration has moved to another relative’s house, which is much further away. My cousin, who hosted our gathering this year, has also moved, and it would have taken them well over an hour to get there. So we decided in advance that we would have Christmas lunch with just the five of us at my place on the 25th. We missed them both, but it certainly made things easier for them.

My son’s partner is the best, and we couldn’t love her more. For many years, she cut her own celebration short to attend ours as well, but the distance is now just too much.

Christmas Eve was a huge feast followed by some crazy games. I’m pretty sure the whole street heard us shrieking.

Loved the Star Wars Christmas crackers my cousin found.

Christmas Day

It was such a lovely, calm day, and after the endless hot weather, we finally got a break. Instead of temperatures in the high 30s, Christmas Day sat in the low 20s, which was perfect weather for eating. And eat we did.

I was really happy with how the table turned out.

This year, I picked up the tablecloth and plate chargers from Kmart, and the gold napkin rings came from Amazon. We’re a bit behind here with Amazon, or maybe it was just me, but until December 2024, ordering from Amazon didn’t feel like such a big thing. I used to read posts about “what I primed this month” and think, huh? Now I get it.

I still try to be intentional when it comes to buying things, but the cute gold napkin rings are something I know I’ll use often, and not just for Christmas.

We started with seafood.

Then turkey, ham, roast potatoes, beans and gravy.

Pavlova and hazelnut tarts for dessert.

Boxing Day

What better way to spend Boxing Day than a trip to Ikea with one of your favourite people? That’s exactly how I spent mine. My lovely friend booked us into a free gingerbread house-making activity at Ikea.

New Year’s Eve

Steve and I had planned to stay home, make a trifle we didn’t get to make for Christmas, eat, drink bubbly, and see the New Year in just the two of us, as Sam had a fun party invitation. But the day before, my friend texted to see if we wanted to come over to their house. Of course, we said yes. They made a delicious meal, and we took our trifle over for dessert. It’s a Mary Berry recipe, and it not only looked spectacular but tasted really good too. So good, even without any jelly, that we will definitely be making it again.

It’s interesting. If you want to grow a relationship, I definitely recommend cooking together. Haha, we had creative differences, pushed through, and even learned how to make the darn sugar decoration thingy that nearly broke me. Five attempts later, it finally worked. I wasn’t going to let it beat me!

Holiday Projects

Now that I have some time on my hands and plenty of oomph, I’ve started a few DIY projects. I turned the living room upside down, cleaning all the nooks and crannies, changed the curtains, washed the sofa covers, and a whole lot more. It’s so good to be on holidays and have time to work at home.

I’ll be back on Wednesday to share a recipe, and later on, I’ll show you all the things I’ve done around the house and in the front garden to spruce it up. It feels so good to be back here 🤗

Happy Monday!