In the Hut...

The box which the new washing machine came in is fantastic. One gorgeous pre-built hut, ready for decoration. Wonderful :)

A Christmas Tree (a little dark but you get the idea!)

Some Weekend Snaps

Mmmmm...rusks

Christmas Tree Hunting! The backpack is amazing. Thanks so much Catriona!!

A Gingerbread Cocktail for Christmas!

What could be better on 'Christmas Tree Hunting Day' than a gorgeously Christmassy drink!

I stole the idea from a Nigella Lawson book, but as I didn't have any of the gingerbread syrup she mentioned, I went about making my own (which I'm guessing probably made it nicer - more spices, less sugar!).

Gingerbread Cocktail

Make a gingerbread flavoured sugar syrup - 1 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar & 1 Tablespoon of honey, with as much crystallized ginger as your tastes require (mine required a whole lot!), 8-10 cloves, a big piece of cinnamon, 10 or so black peppercorns, a few gratings of nutmeg, and a tablespoon of whole allspice berries. Bring to the boil then simmer gently until the mixture has reduced & turned syrupy rather than thin. Strain off the spices through a muslin cloth - otherwise the nutmeg will end up in the syrup! Let it all cool down & pop it in the fridge.

Put a little syrup in the bottom of a champagne flute, and top with sparkling wine. Nothing too fancy or sweet, if it's too grapey flavoured I don't think it would taste so good. I used a trusty bottle of Lindauer!

Best sipped under a Christmas tree with lights twinkling, whilst listening to music which makes you smile.

Romping in the Rompers

Great baby ensemble Rachel :) Jarvis says thanks!

Highchair Mark II

Back in October, the highchair looked like this...

After some fine highchair remodelling, it now looks like this!

Oh yes, best high chair ever. Especially for a $20 trade me highchair. Note the green racing stripes, carefully co-ordinated with the green Formica top. Incidentally the lighting is a bit crap, the highchair was white initially, it's now a milky coffee brown!

Wonderful!

Jarvis meets Softie the calf...

Softie is one of the shorthorn reds which live up at the Clos Ste Anne vineyard most of the time. Her mum wasn't too keen on feeding her, so she's become everyone's best friend (so long as they come bearing a whole lot of milk from the cows down the road!).

Jarvis has met the mummy cows before, but this was his first up close & personal experience. I think he was impressed :)

Exploring...

Not enough time to write, but just enough to post a few snaps :)

Right, back to add a little bit of a tale! Jarvis is napping, my wonderful guitar girls have departed, and Shane is most likely feeding a baby cow & won't be home for a little while yet!

The lovely Jarvis is gearing up for Christmas, practising his climbing, commando crawling and general manoeuvring so that once the Christmas tree is up, he'll have a way of investigating it further! ('investigating it further' is a codename for picking something up, rolling onto his back, and carefully examining said item with hands & mouth!).

Crawling is imminent - we have rocking on all fours, and if he's on carpet a tentative knee moves forwards before it all gets too much. The lounge is barricaded off with a curious assortment of furniture & suitcases...He's working out potential weak points though, even though he doesn't want me to know about it!

Climbing is another fave pastime right now, there's an obstacle course of suitcases, pillows, big fat dictionaries & a guitar or two in the middle of the lounge. I think he's been paying attention when I do yoga - a very impressive downward dog happening, as well as a good looking high push up( as demonstrated in one of the pics) ! Wish mine was that good, sadly I am too lazy.

Christmas decorations are up in the lounge, despite the lack of tree. Ornaments hanging from the curtain rails, the hooks in the ceiling, in fact anywhere it was actually possible for me to hang something! I'm hoping a tree might come home tonight...although how exactly we'll protect it from the chief investigator of objects is yet to be decided :)

Rach - as soon as the weather stops being wintery, a snap of the romper suit in action is coming!! Poor little guy will freeze if I make him model it in this weather ;)