Feliz Navidad

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...as the song goes. It feels so different here with cold weather, beanies, jackets and almost snow weather - yes it's coming!!  We haven't put up a xmas tree but our lovely friend from running shared this photo of her tree. Christmas tree decorating is serious business here and it's an art. We felt very special when we saw the little Aussie touch to the tree - a keyring we gave her recently.  

My lovely niece bought us two baubles for Xmas but without a tree to hang them, we have placed them on our fireplace ledge. Batman and Wonderwoman - she knows how to look after her aunties.

We had planned to see the White House Xmas tree at night but the weekend was pretty busy so we will go through the week. Hopefully Deb hasn't forgotten that we are going to Zoo Lights !!  I love my Xmas lights and it will be pure luck if I make it through the holiday season without a car accident (I stare at the lights when I'm driving).

 

The Embassy Children's Xmas Party was on this week with 50 little (mostly) Aussie kids coming to see Santa and get a taste of home. Check out the Xmas lights outside that show santa on a surfboard being towed by kangaroos. I did the food and provided sausage rolls of course, little boys (best equivalent to be found), chicken nuggets, jelly cups with choc stick (no frogs here) and egg sandwiches. There was other food but that's a good summary. I wanted to make fire engine drink for them (or Santa Fuel as I called it). I got Sprite Zero to limit the sugar intake but they don't do cordial over here. You can buy this powdered stuff called Kool Aid which sounds like stuff you put in your car radiator. I could only buy Tropical flavour but, it had to do. So I filled up this big glass drink dispenser with about 12 litres of sprite and shook in some Kool Aid powder. Holy bubbles Batman, I created a big red volcano that erupted everywhere - and I mean everywhere. It was all over the trolley and the floor. The cleaner was with me at the time thankfully and we just looked in horror and then laughed together. What a bloody mess I made. I actually lost about 3 litres of sprite in the effervescent eruption. None the less, it still tasted like 'tropical' cough mixture albeit a little less bubbly. So this shows that I didn't pass chemistry that well at school.

I took the dogs to the vet for their annual check up and vaccinations. It's always an adventure taking both dogs at once to the vet - it's like taking kids to the local play centre I imagine. Our dogs are very social and it's ALL-ABOUT-THEM !! It's always expensive here and this visit was no surprise. We spent $1048 which included 6 months worth of heart worm and flea tablets for them both. At last we got the nail trim for free. I weighed them first as usual - Cricket was 15kg and Macey was 28kg. This was definitely not right. If it was, then I wanted to use these scales to weigh myself. I know they have both put a little bit of weight on so the vet took them out the back to another set of scales which were not so kind. Cricket was now 18.8kg and Macey was 33kg. Well, this is probably a little more than I expected (and probably still not accurate), especially for Cricket - I still think this is a bit much but they've put on weight so we went with that. I feel like a bad mum as they gave them their 'wellness examination' and highlighted that they are little bit too fat.  But despite feeling like a bad mum, I have to share their little report cards from the vet. 

Macey and Cricket are both such cuties. On today's physical examination they look great besides being overweight and Macey's dental disease ( she's getting teeth cleaned after Xmas). We collected a blood and fecal (poo) sample for their annual parasitic screening test.

Cricket - Body Condition Score 6/9 - Cricket is mildly overweight. Ribs palpable with slight excess of covering. Waist is discernible viewed from above, but is not prominent. Abdominal tuck is apparent.

Macey - - Body Condition Score 7/9 - Macey is moderately overweight. Ribs palpable with difficulty, heavy fat cover. Noticeable fat deposits over lumbar area and base of tail. Waist absent. 

So our goal for 2017 is to find Macey's waist again (and reducing our waistline would be a bonus too). And hopefully with me stopping work soon we can get back to our long daily walks in the forest. For now, less dinner and snacks. Thank god the vet doesn't do our 'wellness exams'. I dread the report card we would get.

On a lighter note, the vet was super lovely (as they all are) and she had this sweater with Fleece Navidad on it. I googled it and the picture is on the right. I asked her what this meant. She said it was their ugly xmas sweater day. There is a song called Feliz Navidad which is Spanish for Merry Christmas. The song was released by Jose Feliciano in 1970 and it's very popular here. You would likely know it if you heard it. I love it. Anyway, being a vet, the sweater was a cute play on words with the sheep fleece and Feliz. Anyway, I learnt something and know where that song comes from now. I just used to mumble the words when I sang along.

Speaking of ugly sweaters, I have ordered ours and they should arrive this week. I thought it was just a joke in Bridget Jones' Diary movie when Colin Firth wore that embarrassing sweater his mum gave him. But a-pparently, ugly sweaters are 'the' thing to wear here. So, we are getting into the spirit and going to get our ugly sweaters. So look out for our Xmas photos in days to come. 

A guy at work had a Golden Girls ugly sweater on the other day. It was a scream - but you wouldn't know it was the Golden Girls if he didn't say so.


It was a pretty cold week with the wind making it bitterly freezing on some days. We were well below zero and we woke on Saturday to a very icy morning outside. During the night we heard the sleet tink tinking on the window. We needed to walk the dogs and were worried about all of us on the ice outside. We had a giggle at Cricket sliding on the ice in the back yard as he went to the toilet but he didn't seem to mind. Our steps outside, driveway and street were all ice so it was a slow tippy toe walk to the forest. Once there, the dogs were off and didn't look back as usual. Thankfully we didn't end up on our arse or break any bones. I decided it was time to buy salt to throw on the ground to help melt snow - we got pet friendly stuff which is actually not salt.

 

On Saturday we went to watch the American Navy Band play their Christmas concert. A good friend has been twice and recommended we go. It's free and tickets go fast. Wow, it was fantastic. I love this sort of stuff. They were excellent, funny and entertaining. In between sets they played a video of sailors talking about xmas and giving messages and kids talking about their parents in the Navy. It was funny but quite teary at the same time.

I watch carols by candlelight every Xmas eve at home so I will miss that this year. I figured this was the closest I will get to carols by candlelight.

They played a fabulous version of Feliz Navidad so I've been singing it ever since. 



Over here they do 'potluck' a lot. I've never heard of it but it's basically a 'bring a plate' kinda thing. Deb's work team had a potluck lunch on Friday. I cooked a roast lamb and made a tim-tam cheesecake. It was a great lunch and it was nice to sit down and eat with friends. Her work area brings together a bunch of other areas including the cleaners and it was just a lovely spread of food and a good Xmas lunch.

The Four N Twenty pieman came again to deliver the next stash of pies to pie-craving hungry Australians. It's like kids at the tuckshop....a rush of people to the loading dock to meet the truck and line up to pay their money for a carton of pies. We got some more and we have a good little stockpile in the freezer. 

My last food venture for the year is making lamingtons for the school currently hosted by the Embassy. They are not found in the shops here of course, so I said I would happily knock a few up for the kids. They are coming to work tomorrow for morning tea and to show the cards they made from the animals we taught them about on our coins (recall my last visit in November). I have to provide them a quick story on how lamingtons were invented. Thankfully a friend here gave me a history sheet (courtesy of Fast Ed from Better Homes and Gardens) so I'll study it tonight. 

This is my second crack at lamingtons and like most things, it's better after a few go's. Still bloody messy but they taste ok. 

I've also taken to making a weekly stew in the crockpot either with mince or chuck steak and lots of veggies. This lasts the dogs for a week and they have been performing more for dinner each night now that warm stew is going in the dinner tin. Cricket is hysterical with his howling singing and Macey growls and spins. It's almost an OH&S hazard now at dinner time.

So it's the week before Xmas and we've noticed people say 'Happy Holidays' rather than 'Merry Christmas'. With so many different religions they find it more appropriate to say Happy Holidays. At least they still celebrate the lights, dazzle, family and food festival. We are doing Christmas lunch with several Aussie friends and orphans and it's shaping up to be a wonderful day.