My First Christmas

I loved this photo so much I just had to play around with it and here is the result. This one has been sized at 10x10 cm and is going into a square white frame I bought on special at Coles yesterday. Looks great and will remind us of Tate's first Christmas!

A Bowl of Flowers

We have had some much needed rain during the last week and our Hibiscus are flowering beautifully. I couldn't resist going out to pick some this morning to photograph.

Christmas Day

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted but that's Christmas for you. We have been really busy helping sell raffle tickets for our Carriage Club and going to parties and break ups. What has been really good is to just sit and reflect on all the wonderful friends and neighbours we have. Yesterday we had a really special Christmas Day with family and friends. We started off at Lou and Jeff's place with a champagne breakfast with lots of beautiful fruit including mangoes, followed by pancakes cooked on the Barbie with maple syrup and yoghurt. Then it was on to opening the presents and we all received lots of nice things. After that we packed up all our food and drinks and headed down to Golden Beach at Caloundra. Here we set up picnic tables and we all just kicked back, ate, talked and drank. We had nibblies, prawns, cold chicken, ham and some nice salads. This was followed by trifle, mango and ginger cheesecake and rumballs. Awesome!! Brian had brought his Catamaran and a few of us went out sailing but it was too windy for me and sadly too windy to use our kayak too. Never mind we all had a great time anyway. We drove home and could not eat another thing. All in all the perfect Christmas Day. Here is Me and Alan with Tate - his bib reads My First Christmas Ho Ho Ho :) Also there is a picture of our special lunch. We were set up right on the water under a shady tree.

Gympie RDA Volunteer of the Year

I was very proud when Alan was recently announced as Gympie RDA's Volunteer of the Year. Alan always puts 100% and more into everything he does so I think this was very well deserved :)

We have a new Caravan

We have finally joined the ranks of `really retired folks' and we have bought a pop top caravan. Last year we tested the water with a little pop top camper and we liked it so much we decided to trade up to a larger model with a bit more comfort. The Van we have bought has an island double bed, a lounge and a dining table with extra seating around it. There is a lot of storage space, a good sized kitchen and a few extras like a Microwave Oven and a CD Radio with speakers and a DVD player. Also there is an electric fan and good reading lights in the bedroom area. All we have to buy now is a small LCD TV and we have all the comforts of home. No shower or toilet, but there is a good annexe, a solar panel on the roof and a TV Aerial. We don't plan to go away for long, just have lots of short trips. Our kayaks will fit on the Ute, as will our bikes, so we can keep fit when we are away. So `its all good' as they say and we are already planning our first trip away. :)

Christmas is coming

Life for us is really starting to get very busy, all the groups we are involved in are having their Annual `Break Up Parties' and we have 3 Barbecues to attend tomorrow and 1 on Sunday. Whew!! We will have to seriously modify what we eat and drink at all these gatherings. Last Sunday we had our Annual Family Gathering with Alan's Mum Iris and she was able to meet her newest Great Grandchild - Tate - for the first time. Iris and Tate are almost 90 years apart in age as Iris was born in April 1917 and Tate in August 2006.

Digital Artist Trading Cards

I have really been enjoying becoming involved with a group of Digital Artists who exchange ATC's on a regular basis. For those who have never heard of these they are limited edition trading cards the same size as playing cards and you make and then trade them with others. The artists I am trading with all live overseas in the United States, Canada, The United Kingdom and Germany. We make the cards digitally and then send them on by snail mail. It is so exciting to get so much mail each month from overseas, each one with a special limited edition card inside to keep. Our theme for November was `Locks and Keys' and here is my card. :)