8 posts tagged “christmas”

The presents we hate | The Daily Telegraph

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph...

The new NAB Visa Gift Card survey, which asked 1242 Australians about gift-giving habits and the presents they loved and loathed, also showed NSW residents were the most likely to re-gift, with 61 per cent admitting to the habit.

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The story contains this rather horrifying statistic:

Nearly a third of men believed kitchen and cooking appliances were a perfect present for their partners

I wonder how long their relationships will last.

I did love some of the accompanying comments though, especially this one:

I have copied this and will wrap it in Chrissie paper and give it to the grandkids instead of a present. I am sure they will be relieved not to receive any more crappy christmas presents from me and mum. Another article about crappy BIRTHDAY presents in March and October would be much appreciated.Well its off to the club to spend my savings. Thanks once again.

I am finally getting around to doing a post on our Christmas celebrations.   

On Christmas Eve we attended a German style Christmas Eve party at the home of my husband's cousin (whose wife is from a German family).  My kids were a bit envious that these kids get visited by both German Father Christmas and Aussie Santa.  It was a great (boozy) night and meant that we all, apart from my son, slept in late on Christmas Day. 

The table at the German Christmas Eve party.

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A chocolate house.

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My son actually crept up early and snuck all his presents into his room to open in bed.  This is why I wasn't able to get a shot of both the kids presents in front of the tree!  I used recyclable Christmas shopping bags instead of stockings or pillow cases this year.  The kids didn't get very much as their main gift was the plane ticket over to the island.  They seemed very happy with everything though. My son's favourite gift was a $3 torch (flashlight) and my daughter's a little dog charm for her charm bracelet.  My nephew and nieces also seemed happy with the shopping I had done for them (mostly clothes and books including most of what they got from Santa). 

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We celebrated (Australian) Christmas with my husband's extended family at a hotel with a pool.  It was really nice and very low stress for everyone (especially those who would normally have been cooking and cleaning up).  In addition to the pool there was also a lawn with games like bocce and quoits.  Lunch was a buffet and the kids all particularly enjoyed the range of desserts on offer (including pavlova and chocolate mousse).

What's your best advice/recipe/secret tip for someone throwing a holiday party on a budget?

I don't know if this is the done thing in other parts of the world but in Australia, it is quite okay to ask guests to 'bring a plate' of something to share.  My South African (Jewish) doctor was laughing to me about being asked to bring the pork to a slap up Christmas thing he attended with friends one year when his family was overseas.  We did something similar for our yoga shin dig last weekend when everyone was asked to contribute a plate of vegetarian food or a sweet (I made an orange cake).  Getting people to BYOG (bring your own grog) is another good way of sharing the cost and ensuring lots of Christmas cheer (as Santa Claus has discovered).  This year, instead of all converging on mother in law's or sister in law's place, we are each paying our own way to have Christmas lunch at a hotel with a pool.  We can just throw the children (there will be 10 of them!) in the water if they get too annoying!

I looked around for a Christmassy backdrop for this week's self portrait.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get up high enough to pose with a Christmas possum so this will have to do. 

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Show us a sign that the holidays are upon us.

Bare shoulders amongst the city suits.

English backpackers

Christmas flags in Elizabeth Street.

Christmas possum

Christmas cocky

Actually not a lot going on as far as I can tell.  The David Jones Department store has its Christmas windows ready for viewing but don't think I will bother bringing the kids in this year as they aren't all that great compared with other years.   

I haven't done this for a few weeks but will try and be more disciplined about it.  Here are my things for this Tuesday:

Negative things:

• still getting over the cold/flu I had last week and my voice is yet to fully return
• feeling overwhelmed by mess and clutter at home
• someone left the fridge door open yesterday and lots of food was ruined
• missing school uniform pieces and my new black t-shirt which has just vanished into thin air (I am blaming my husband, of course)

Positive things:

• feel 100 times better than I did last week
• found a yoga class near my work that I like (this will be in addition to my Saturday class)
• going out to a comedy night with a bunch of mum friends tonight (the comedian also a mum - Fiona O'Loughlin from Alice Springs)
• starting Kung Fu this week as a way of spending "quality time" with my Kung Fu-obsessed daughter (actually this may turn out to be a negative thing if I get punched too hard!)
• my new workstation in the office - much more private and salubrious than my old one

Looking forward to:

• Going to see Sculpture by the Sea at Bondi and Tamarama hopefully after work one night this week
• Christmas on the island 

Giant ants

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One of last years Sculpture by the Sea exhibits now parked in a suburban front yard in Sydney. 

I am at my mum's going through some of her photos.  This one cracks me up. 

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