Twas the Night Before Christmas....

The stockings are all hung up and even Jazzy wont be missing out.

We just had a really big storm, but no damage was done. Just lots of thunder and lightening.

On my way home from work today I was listening to a CD with lots of Christmas songs. I always have abit of a chuckle to myself about singing along to songs such as White Christmas and Let it Snow, when its a humid hot summers day outside. I love all those songs though. I especially like Judy Garland singing "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and all the songs off the Bing Crosby "White Christmas" album. Those are all the songs my mum used to play when we were growing up. There's also some good Australian Christmas songs like "Six White Boomers" and "Aussie Jingle Bells".

We are having Christmas dinner at our house tomorrow and my Mum and Step-Dad are coming over.

Dylan is very excited and was worried that Santa wouldn't be able to come when we were having the storm. But all is well now and he has been assured that Santa and the elves are currently packing the sleigh.


Merry Christmas to you all. Hope you have a wonderful, safe and happy time with family and friends.

I'll enjoy looking at all those photos on blogs of White Christmas's from around the world.

All the best. Take care.

I had a wonderful Birthday yesterday

I got some lovely presents for my birthday. One of them was a Keith Urban concert DVD. I went to Keith's concert in Brisbane earlier in the year with Donna, one of my friends, and it was one of the best concerts I have been to. So I watched this in the morning and got to relive the memories. He has some beautiful songs.

Then we went to Byron Bay for my birthday and looked around the many interesting shops. I bought a book (that wont surprise anyone) and also a beautiful ceramic green mug with the "OM" symbol on it.



We then went to the Crystal Castle and had lunch. It isn't an actual castle. They have beautiful gardens, a labyrinth, cafe, bookshop, crystal and jewellery shop and a Buddha walk with lots of statues. There are also amazing giant pieces of quartz, rose quartz and amethys scattered throughout the gardens. My friend Donna and I enjoyed taking many photos of the various statues, the view and the beautiful flowers in the garden. See the mosaic of photos I took in the post below.

Crystal Castle

My creation
Originally uploaded by Barb64

A mosaic of photos taken when we went to the Crystal Castle.

I have been blogging for one year today!!!

I just realised that it was 12 months ago that I started this blog. I'm enjoying the blogging world, especially going around and looking at all the various blogs of so many wonderfully creative people. I have loved reading all the comments people have left on my blog and being able to connect with people that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Here's to another year of Blogging, creative pursuits and keeping in touch with new and old friends!!!

The first present under the christmas tree

There was a storm last night and Jazzy was hiding under the Christmas tree. My son saw her under there and said "Mum there's a present under the tree".

This is the tree. It looks great with all the lights on. Not many days to go now, the countdown is on.

Looking forward to the weekend. I was supposed to be working but it is my birthday on Saturday. I'm going to be 44. Also Duncan's work Christmas party is on that night. So I wanted to enjoy myself and not have to work. We will probably be going out to lunch somewhere on Saturday. I also bought myself a few books for my birthday and I have managed to not open the package yet although I was very tempted.

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

This is the bell that Dylan found on his bed after watching Polar Express - one of Santa's spare bells from his sleigh.

We have a shop bought tree that we got a few years ago that looks fairly life like. It's the biggest tree I've ever had and nearly reaches the roof with the big star at the top. Lots of our baubles were old looking so I have started each year building up a supply of new baubles. Also I like how different ones, like the one above, will have a little story to go along with how we got it.

These are some that I got this year.

I really love the green and the pink ones. They have a real Indian look about them. I think there was also a blue one the same colour as the blue bell one above. I think I will have to go back to the shop and get the blue one - might even get some more so I have two of each. They are just so lovely. By the way - there's no colour co-ordination on our tree. Its a real mix and match of coloured tinsel and various coloured baubles - but I love it that way.

Australia - The Movie

I went and saw the movie Australia last night with one of my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We laughed and cried. It had great scenery as well. I loved Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and the little Aboriginal boy. It was just an enjoyable entertaining movie.

I have been sick of hearing all the bad reviews over the last few weeks since it came out. Also I think they went abit overboard in criticising Nicole Kidman. I think she is a great actress. I also read a blog (I forget which one now) that went on and on about how bad they thought the movie was and picking everything to pieces. I do respect other peoples opinions but I think its abit much the way some people go on. Of course not everyone is going to like the movie, or any movie in that case. But I think it's enough just to say they didn't like the movie. So many people seem to just look for negatives. You could sit back and just pick everything to pieces in life as nothing is ever going to be perfect or exactly how you would do something yourself.

Anyway, enough of that....just expressing my opinion.

I've got a busy week this week - my son's school Christmas concert is on and a few Christmas parties to go to. Christmas is a nice time of the year. My son, Dylan, is 7 and is still wrapped up in the magic of Santa. I did a little surprise for him the other night. We were watching The Polar Express and in a commercial I snuck out of the room without him realising what I was doing. At the end of the movie when he went to bed there was a big red round bell on his bed with a note that said - "This is a spare bell from the sleigh for your Christmas Tree, Love Santa." He loved it so much, he was abit too excited to go to bed. If you haven't seen the movie - the boy in the movie gets a bell from Santa's sleigh for Christmas. Anyway Dylan has been telling everyone about it. Its fun doing little things like this - I hope it is something he will remember.