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Tuesday 9 August 2011

The Walker Stuart Household on Christmas Day

It was realy enjoyable to go visiting on Christmas Morning. Ed gave Nathan a great t-shirt which said 'Pikey Just Nicked It.' as a take on the Nike slogan. It has become a firm favourite!
As part of a bit of Christmas fun Nathan's Dad bought a talking monkey which mimicked everything you said- which a lot of the guys in his office were getting for their kids. Ed and Nathan were having great fun with it.
 Wendy's sister, Lisa with Wendy and baby Katie in front of their Christmas tree.
 Lisa reading Katie a story.
 Wendy opening presents with her Dad, Phil holding Katie.

The Stuart Clan with Nathan. (l-r) Jamie and his wife Tere, Tom and Nathan. Charlie was in Argentina with the boy's parents.
 John and Lisa.
Ed with baby Katie, who was trying to drink from his bottle of beer.

Nathan's Parents House on Christmas Morning.

 The Pike family tree looked beautiful in their bay window with all the snow in the background.
 More pressies.... we were so spoiled with lovely presents.
 Nathan's Mum always has her house decorated beautifully.
 Nathan and I in his parent's front room on Christmas morning.
 
 Nathan's family. His sister, Meghan. Mum, Lily and Dad, Neil in their front room on Christmas morning.

Christmas Morning in Cathcart Place

Each year on Christmas Morning Nathan is usually hungover from his boys night out but this year was different.... which was very nice. We got up and made a cup of tea and our traditional cheese and ham croissants with orange juice. Then we opened our presents.
 Nathan with his pile of pressies.
A couple of years ago we started a tradition where by we only by each other 5 presents. The first year there was also a budget limit but this year we just stuck with the 5 present categories. They are:

-Something to eat
-Something to wear
-Something to listen/read or watch
-A Christmas decoration
-A surprise.
 My lovely pressies.
 Me opening my surprise present.
This gave Nathan and I lots of amusement on Christmas morning. Because I always complain about how cold our flat is in the winter Nathan bought me a snow suit. It has pads on the feet so you can walk around in it. You can also zip your arms out or in depending how cold you are! Much fun and also cosiness!

Christmas Eve in Cathcart Place

After we returned from my Mum's house for Christmas Eve we put our angel on the tree and also lit our candles. I love having real candles on the tree. Nathan kissing our angel before he puts it on the tree! (Crazy!)
 Nathan putting the angel on the tree.
When we came home I was so cold I didn't take my jacket, scarf or hat off. (It is funny posting these photos in August when I am warm and our flat is hot.... such polar opposite in the winter!)
Some festive decorations!

 The real candles being lit on the tree are one of my favourite parts of Christmas! I love how pretty they look.
The view from our couch just before we blew out all the candles and went to bed.

Christmas Baking

 There is nothing I love more than baking up a storm in the kitchen over the Christmas period. I especially enjoy when Nathan helps in the kitchen! Above he is pictured with the Yule log for dessert on Christmas Day.
 It was really difficult to roll the Yule log up but it was so tasty (and logs are never 'perfect' anyways!) The filling was cream with orange addded in for flavour and cranberries for colour, texture and taste. Yum!
As gifts to take to family and friends houses over the festive period I made little truffles. Some were covered in coconut and some in coco powder. Everyone's houses were so warm due to the freezing temperatures outside so they had to be kept in the fridge incase they melted!
 I put them in Christmas decorative tins that I had in my supplies for some time. I really liked the ponsetti tins.
My Christmas gift this year was a personalised mug with ingredients in the mug to make the perfect hot chocolate.... including a chocolate peppermint spoon to stir into the hot chocolate. I made these by melting chocolate and dipping plastic spoons into the chocolate and then sprinkling with crushed peppermint candy canes.
 I then tied up little bags of marshmallows and little bags of hot chocolate that I made from a Susan Branch recipe where I combined cocoa powder with a few seasonal spices. It tasted yummy!
 For dessert on Christmas Day I made my Christmas pudding recipe (we still have the second pudding in the cupboard for this coming year!)
Lighting the brandy on the top (and vodka as we used this year) always reminds me of my Dad at Christmas time.
Before Christmas we purchased some Christmas Starbucks blend to put into our coffee machine. I also got a milk frother for Christmas so made some homade holiday cappacinos! (I love my stencils from Crate and Barrell.)
The aero milk frother has been a big success!

Updating the blog

Okay... well I have just downloaded over 2,000 photos from my camera so I can start blogging again..... yikes.... it is going to take a while but I am determined to get it done before we head off on honeymoon.

It is a little more difficult to blog this month as we are on our yearly sabbatical from our flat which is being rented out for the festival. I SO could not be bothered with the stress this year but somehow was convinced or more coerced into moving to my parents to rent out our flat.

It is lovely having the garden at my parents but it also makes me sad as it constantly reminds me that my Dad isn't there. 


So we currently have no Internet and the TV doesn't work all that well so I figured I will stay late at work and start up dating the blog.