Christmas wishes

We are heading off tomorrow for Melbourne for Christmas - driving!!! I think we're a bit crazy but we are going to give it a go. The kids and I are away for a month and Col for 2 weeks, back for a week and then back down to Melb for another week that we are spending with my whole family at a house we have rented in Ocean Grove . I'm really looking forward to that week, I can't remember when the last time we were all together was and very excited about finally meeting our new nephew Jake.

Ella is beside herself with excitement about going away on holiday. She has been wanting to go for the last 3 weeks. I bet by tomorrow afternoon she won't be so excited, teehee.

I can't wait to see all our families again and to catch up with friends, I'm just praying that the kids don't get sick like they usually do when we go away - keep your fingers crossed for us!

We hope everyone has a very safe and Happy time celebrating this Christmas and that you get to spend it with the people you love and care about. If you are driving please drive safely. Look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!!

love and best wishes
xxxxxxxxx

Finally.....

I have finished the Christmas shopping - I got the last few things today and I can tell you I am so relieved to have it all done!!! I had grand plans that I would have it all done by the beginning of Dec but here we are the 19th and I've just finished, lol.

Now I just have to get the house in order, presents wrapped and everything packed for our big trip south. This time of year really is frantic but it's such a wonderful time that it makes up for it all!!

I noticed there seem to be a lot of photos of Ella on here but not too many of Huddy so here's one I really like:

and one of him being "dog boy"

Huddy crawled and then walked around for ages carrying things in his mouth like this hence the name dog boy. Very funny, he doesn't do it as much any more.

Another Christmas tradition...

Yesterday afternoon we went onto town (in the pouring rain) to see the Christmas train in Myers, the windows and the huge Christmas tree in the mall. We went with our very dear friends Kath, Mark, Ruby & Max and had a lovely time. The kids were so excited which was contagious I must say. We went to the little Christmas train first. Ella, Max & Ruby were very excited standing and waiting with their gold tickets..

but this is what happened when Ella got on :(

needless to say she got off again before the train had even started.
The train driver took Huddy to put him on and when he tried to put him in his seat he started crying too so he didn't go for a ride either. No convincing could get Ella back on the train! They both still got a little bag of goodies which was nice.

We went to the Myer windows which this year is the story of Wombat Divine, a lovely story about a wombat who wants to be in the nativity play but isn't right for any part until the other animals decide he could be the baby Jesus. It was gorgeous and the kids loved it. Really sweet book by Mem Fox which I must get to add to our Christmas collection.

There is a huge tree set up in the mall every year so we went to see that - Ella was astounded. Her words were "its enormous mummy!".


and then later after dinner we saw it all lit up


We had a really great time so I think this will be become another Fletcher family Christmas tradition!!

HOHOHO!!

I made us a new Christmas decoration for the house which I'm pretty pleased with, I had grand ideas of using part of it in our Christmas cards but the kids decided not to co-operate with me. What's new, lol.

I thought I would share.

Fun Girls night out with great friends!!

I had a girls night out last night with some really lovely women I have met since moving up here to Brisbane. We went out to a Turkish restaurant - Caravanserai in West End (for those that know Brissy) and had a great night with good food, good wine and good company. We did a KrisKringle and I got spoilt with a kids cake cookbook and some really yummy Rocky Road from Megan. Thanks Megan!!!


These women have made the move here and our lives so much easier and happier. They are such wonderful, caring ladies and I would like to thank them heaps for making us feel so welcome and for including us in their lives xx.

Here's a fun photo of us from last night.......

Busy days

I haven't had a chance to update so have a few things to catch up on!

We have been really busy the last few weeks as I'm sure has everyone else, it's a crazy but wonderful time of year. We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Christmas last weekend, we caught up with some of our fabulous friends and had lovely Christmas food and wine - yum!! The kids had a great time opening presents and they were both very very spoilt - thankyou Amanda, Dave & Nathan and Will & Faye.

Wiil & Faye came for lunch on Sunday and bought these huge Christmas bags with the kids present inside, Ella was very pleased when she had found them.........

and even more pleased with what she found inside......

as was Hudson too

the bag proved to be popular too....

Ella had fun handing Will & Fayes present out too which was lovely.

We have a new Family Tradition.....

We bought a lovely wooden Advent Calendar for us this year so we can start a new family tradition. The kids are loving opening each little door and finding what is inside, each one has a little decoration to hang on the tree & wreath. Ella wants to do more than one a day though.

I think its lovely to have traditions that you do with your family each year. I was reading yesterday about a lady that wraps up her Christmas books and then for the 12 days before Christmas they unwrap one and read it that night before bed. I thought that was a lovely idea, I will have to remember that for next year!

Our Christmas tree..........

Just thought I would share a photo of our tree this year. We have gone for the silver and blue look and have lots and lots of little fairy lights all over it. I think it looks really pretty. The photo really doens't do it justice.

A wonderful day with friends

Yesterday we had a lunch with some very wonderful people we have met here and that we feel very privileged to call our friends. We are doing a rotating dinner party with one couple each doing a course, lots and lots of fun!! and yesterday was a Christmas lunch complete with bonbons, seafood, ice cream Christmas pudding and lots of lovely Chrissy lights.
The kids were fantastic and had a great time, they even got some of the prawns and bonbons too and sat at their own little table.



We had some fabulous food....



and then the storm came.....



this was at 4.30 in the afternoon, it felt like 7.30 it got that dark.

Getting the feel of Christmas....

We got our tree on Saturday and decorated it to the delight of Ella & Hudson, although it was short lived and Ella decided she would prefer to watch a show instead. Hudson is enthralled by the tree and the temptation to touch it just too much for him. He keeps going out to the front room to look at it and points to it with a big grin on his face, very cute.

I love this time of year and Ella is so into it this year which is making it very exciting. She keeps asking to go and see Santa but I'm sure once we are there she won't want to go anywhere near him, lol. She has had her Santa request ready for a while and is still quite definite on what she wants from him...."a bicycle with pedals, an umbrella and a kite". Luckily the bike was already bought, just have to make sure he gets a kite and umbrella for her now.
This year I am quite organised in the Christmas shopping dept, amazing I know, I've surprised myself.

We are all really looking forward to coming home for Chrissy!!!

Seaworld photos.

Ella & Hudson on the train at Seaworld which they absolutely loved.


Ella LOVES Ice-cream. Who do you think she gets this trait from????

Hudsons first time on the merry-go-round, he doesn't look too sure does he!?!

Exciting day!

We went to Seaworld today, well Ella, Huddy & I did, poor Col had to work. I was taking Hudson down to Burleigh Waters on the Gold Coast to the Kinesiologist (sp?) so thought I would make the most of the day and our annual passes. The kids had an absolute ball. It's a fantastic place.

We went with our friends Gayle, Erin & Jack which made it even lovelier:)).

Ella is very very taken with the Sharks and would spend nearly all day watching them, even more so if they didn't have any kids rides, lol. I took Hudson on the rides for the first time today too, not sure why we haven't taken him before but he loved them, he had his Mr Serious face on though most of the time.

I took a few shots - will try and add them tomorrow.

The Kinesiologist said poor Huddy is having a terrible terrible time with his teeth and the pain is really making him very frustrated and short tempered, we have some homeopathic tablets for him to take which will hopefully help. He looked at Ella too and was very impressed with her and her balance, she put on a lovely performance of showing off for him too.

We are off to a Christmas Capers concert tomorrow put on by the Queensland Orchestra, looking forward to it, it should be good. Will let you know.

Hello there!!

Well I thought maybe it was time to move into the 21st Century and start our family blog, so here goes the first inaugural post on our little blog :)

I'm not sure that this will be that exciting, it's really just for our family to be able to see what we are up to seeing we are so far away from each other.

I am finding the distance particularly hard at the moment with Mum having just started chemotherapy for Breast Cancer and not being able to "be" there for her. We love you Mum and hope this terrible time is over with very very soon xx.

Here's a photo of Ella taken on a recent visit to a lovely nursery where she had a ball playing in a puddle and one of Hudson in one of their gorgeous big pots.