It's Christmasssssssss!!!!

Santa blessed us with a very generous sleigh-load of presents this year. Scarlett's face was a picture when she saw the carrot had been munched, the milk and mince pie eaten, but Santa didn't seem to have left any presents in the living room where the food had been left. We suggested she check under the tree and she stood agog at the sight of all the gifts, declaring 'there are too many presents to count', before breaking into a spontaneous happy dance. As mountains of gifts were replaced by mountains of wrapping paper, Flo happily played with the tape and ribbon. While the Scarlett became engrossed in her fabulous new doll's house ('How did Santa get it on his sleigh?') and painting easel, we set about preparing a lunch

for 11, keeping our fingers crossed that the rain would stay away. Rob boiled and glazed the ham and I roasted the salmon before all our friends arrived at midday with bowls of salads, puddings, quail eggs and foie gras canapes. The weather held and we had a beautiful lunch outside. Merry Christmas one and all.

Christmas Eve

We sadly farewelled Rick and Justin on Sunday night after a brilliant hot day at Balmoral building sand castles and wave jumping. It was so brilliant to see them again.

We had a super festive Christmas Eve, Aussie style, starting with a visit to the Sydney Fish Market. Christmas here is all about the seafood and the fish market opened at 3am on Sunday morning not closing until 6pm on Christmas Eve. There were thousands of people there carrying great boxes of fish, trays of oysters and heaving bags of prawns about. Despite the crowds (we were there at 8am) it was really well organised and fun. We picked up our 3kg salmon and headed to the water's edge for coffee and fresh pastries straight from the baker's oven. Then it was onto the famous AC Butchery to pick up the ham. The queue was out the door and down the street, and included among the crowd the Premier of New South Wales. While Rob queued, Scarlett, Florence and I zipped over to the local library to give our favourite librarian a card Scarlett had made for her, alongwith a Christmas kiss and a hug. We then went back to pick up Rob and then zoomed over to nearby Drummoyne for Christmas Eve drinks with our old neighbours and friends Dave and George and their family. Then it was home to prepare a mince pie and a glass of milk for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph...

The spirit of Christmas

We were filled with the spirit of Christmas last night when, together with Rick and Justin, we went to the brilliant Christmas At The House concert at the Sydney Opera House. The choir and orchestra of Opera Australia performed carols and other festive songs and we had songsheets to join in with the easy ones that didn't require six years' training at the Conservatorium of Music. Rick and Justin loved it but were rendered gobsmacked when the crowd seemed to respond most enthusiastically to a rendition of the Rolf Harris 'hit' song Six White Boomers (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hlSsffF2xhA) which tells the story of Santa's sleigh being pulled by six old kangaroos. Good grief. We spent the interval on the opera house deck sipping champagne and watching a cruise ship glide away into the night. Driving home at about 10.30pm, we had an encounter that convinced us of the existence of fate. We were driving along the busy motorway and as we reached a point where our two lanes met another two, we saw a young, smartly dressed bloke staggering along in the middle of the road, as drunk as a lord. It was terrifying to watch. Cars were zooming passed, blowing their horns at him and on he walked. We managed to stop on a sort of hard shoulder in the middle of the two motorways and yelled at him to climb into the back of our car, with me wrestling the kid's car seats out of the way to make room for him. He was so drunk and didn't seem to realise he was on the motorway at all, slurring something about how hard it was to get a taxi. In between repeatedly reminding him NOT to be sick in our car, we asked him where he lived and were astonished when he replied, 'Ashfield'. Of all of the hundreds of suburbs in Sydney he lived in ours, in fact only about 300 metres from our house. I found this amazing. Destiny? It makes me shudder to think that if we had driven passed a few minutes later we might have been stuck behind an ambulance scraping him off the road. Before Rob eventually woke him and poured him from our car to his door, he told us his name was Cyril and that he was 22. So that's our Christmas good deed for the season ticked off. Merry Christmas Cyril.

Countdown to Christmas part 4- the hidden room

It's December 21, Scarlett's last day at nursery for the year and it's a scorcher here. Rick and Justin arrived yesterday and are here until December 24 when they fly to NZ for Christmas with Rick's family. Despite severe jetlag, making them feel like it was 4am, they managed a couple of large gin and tonics before we headed out for pizza last night. Yesterday was also momentous for being the day Florence really starting crawling. She has a lovely fluid style and is pretty quick. No more mornings at the shops knowing she is happily sitting on the floor at home with some clothes pegs, car keys and flick knives. Before we head out to a carol concert at the Opera House with Rick and Justin, I wanted to leave you with this picture of our second loo, aka Aladdin's cave, where we have been stashing all the Christmas presents that have been arriving every day. As ever, we are very grateful but can't help wondering whether all this is really necessary for a 9-month-old baby who likes to play with straws and a 3-year-old who is more than happy making rockets out of old milk cartons. May the door never be found....or this blog page for that matter.

Countdown to Christmas part 3

V excited again this week as we now only have 8 more sleeps until the man in red hits town. A viewing of The Polar Express even had Rob and I believing in Santa, it is so fabulous. Scarlett had her friend Ella over to play on Wednesday to listen to Christmas songs and behave angelically (in this shot anyway). On Friday we met up with our friends from the UK Richard Quance and his wife Karen, who now live in Perth. They were over for the opening of the Billy Elliot musical at a theatre in the city. Rob and I went to one of the previews of it two weeks ago and took it in turns to bawl, laugh and sit gobsmacked at how much swearing the child actors have to do. Richard and Karen are friends with the executive producer of Billy Elliot the movie and she was also in Sydney for the launch. She invited Richard and Karen along to the show and the star-studded after-party, which by Sydney standards was a galaxy as actual real celebrities were there like Elton John and Toni Collette, not just the cast of Neighbours. When we all met up for dinner the next night (not Elton or Toni) they were all very hungover. This didn't stop us all enjoying another lively night on the tiles, with Rob and I finally making it home (by bus, due to a taxi shortage) at 1.30am, making this the latest night out we have had since having Scarlett. Thank God then we were able to persuade Scarlett to have a lunchtime sleep yesterday so we could all crawl into bed and catch up on some Zzzzzs. Last night we packed a picnic and alongwith Martin and Drew, James and Amelia and Kendall and his mum Audrey, we headed up to the local church for Carols by Candlelight which was brilliantly festive despite crickets chirping in the background heat during Jingle Bells.

Countdown To Christmas Part 2

We are up to 11 on our multiple advent calendars and on the whole the threat of Santa not leaving anything under the tree has proved an excellent deterrent from any bad behaviour from Scarlett. She's really into the big man in red. This week we had two big Christmas events - the Santa babies proms at the Opera House and Scarlett's pre-school Christmas party. The Baby Proms was amazing - about 100 kids in a room with a small orchestra playing lovely Christmas songs accompanied by a conductor and a singer who had all the kids up dancing. Spot Scarlett in the pink in the middle of this picture with her hands in the air like she just don't care. By total coincidence (as these concerts are on over several days, several times each day) our friends Julia and Amelia were both there too with their kids which was great and made it like a special Christmas outing for them all. At the Wattle Lane Christmas party it was clear that to pre-schoolers no Santa is a bad Santa, not even one with a crap white beard applied so badly it revealed the bloke's real gingery beard underneath. Florence in the meantime is on the move. Not crawling exactly but moving around. We put her on the floor and leave the room and when we return moments later, she's not in the same place. It's like she doesn't want anyone to see her technique until she's finessed it. Now well into her solids, and with two more teeth coming through at the bottom, she got into the festive spirit by tucking into a set of red foam reindeer antlers.

Yum. Rob and I nearly died this week when Scarlett wandered into the laundry to get something and then rushed out shouting 'Mum! Dad! Come and look what I've found!." We exchanged a glance and feared the worse. In our laundry is a second toilet that Scarlett has somehow never seen. It has always been the hiding place for all gifts and currently contains a doll's house (unwrapped) and many, many Christmas presents. We have spent the last week thinking we better be able to come up with something good and quick if she ever finds the door. Before I blurted out that Santa had had to deliver early this year, she came back holding a missing hat we had been looking for. Phew!

Finally, it all got a bit too much for Scarlett after two events this week and she gave in to utter exhaustion. You better keep your energy levels up girl, we've still got 14 days to go, which includes a dinner out and two carol concerts.

Countdown to Christmas part 1

It would be fair to say that we are all a little over-excited about Christmas in the Duthie household this year. Excited to be having our first family Christmas at home in more than 10 years, excited to be our own little family and for Flo to see her first Christmas, and excited to be hosting a lunch with some special mates. As soon as December 1 rolled around, I was ready. We have four - count 'em - advent calendars on the go, the tree is up and decorated with all our special baubles from trips around the world, we have a nativity scene set up and Christmas music playing is nonstop on the i-pod. Also Rob and I have taken to wearing foam reindeer antlers. You think I'm joking, don't you? On Saturday morning after opening all the advent calendars we went to our first Christmas party hosted by kids tv channel Nickleodeon. Scarlett got to meet one of her favourite cartoon characters, Dora The Explorer, whom she rushed and embraced like a long-lost friend as well as Spongebob Squarepants and Santa Claus. Her face was a picture when Santa walked in and she got to sit with him and have a little chat about what she wants for Christmas (a scooter it would seem- oops- no luck there darling, I'm afraid) before he gave her a present. After a great deal of dancing under a giant parachute and eating of cupcakes, we headed home to put up the tree. Scarlett and I did it while Rob and Flo slept. Poor Rob has done his back in, is in a lot of pain and can be found most days lying on the floor or bed in between appointments at the back doctor, gin in hand.