Christmas Australian Style and a recap of 2010!

 Couple days before Christmas my parents street had their Christmas party down on the water front :) very nice day for it, my mum made up curry puffs and jimput jimput a huge success as perusual :)

As most of you can see the traditional aussie christmas is much different then what most of you are use to :) No snow for us this year instead it was t shirts shorts and summer dresses tank tops and caprees! Santa was kind enough to drop on by the water front with presents and goodie bags for the kids :) (and a couple goodie bags for the 2 pregnant women at the party as well lol) After good eats and present opening the kids all headed for the water where they dug up crabs and other things built sand castles and dug trenches! Ending in them all swimming in the tidal pool :)

Christmas morning was fun and extremely busy for the most part :) everyone was told 11:30 and we would start eating around 1ish. The menu for our Christmas day consisted of:

Traditional Baked dinner with all the fixings as follows:

Baked legs of Lamb

Baked Pieces of Beef

Turkey

Roasted Vegetables

(carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, potatoes)

Gravy

Cold Leg of Ham

Strawberry Spinach Balsamic vinegar salad (most definitely one of my new favs!)

Chinese Cabbage Almond Soy salad of some sort

Oysters on the hlf shell

Oysters Kilpatrick

Local school prawns 

Tiger prawns 

Dips and crackers

and Nathan cooked up a heap of his Grampa's Bbq Chicken which was a hit :)

Desert was rocky road and pavlova with bananas and passion fruit and fresh whipped cream and a chocolate cheese cake of some sort.

It was all set up buffet style so everyone was able to have at it :) Most definitely be a few years before my hubby will get use to it if at all :) he couldn't get over the fact that we were eating outside, it was warm and for the most part we ate some of the food cold lol like ham :) his use to eating it hot back home :)

Now with 2010 being over id like to share some of the ups and downs of 2010 here's the downs...

•  Although i miss friends and family back in the states i most definitely didn't miss the awkwardness that was at my husbands mothers house this year due to his younger brother whom is "dating" his step sister who is 7years younger to him... Apparently its been really uncomfortable and down right awkward to see them acting in a way that they think is acceptable,which in mine and my husbands eyes it is not by a long shot acceptable. We are not the only ones who see this as disturbing and disgusting...but are the only ones who took a stand and actually said something about it due to the fact that we have a child and we are trying to be good parents and teach him right from wrong. The whole situation has changed relationships in the family which is saddening but we stand our ground just like those who think its fine for them to act that way, stand their ground. I know its hard for my husband to see his mother list this "girl" as her "daughter" when she is by no means blood related to them at all but just under that listing on her facebook is her son whom said "daughter" is dating.. its hard but neither his brother or his mother see any wrong in what it is they are doing and we were told we should "accept" it and move on.
• Another down... Loosing 2 angel babies this year.. but i know they are both in heaven being looked after by family members. As hard as this was for us as a family i think it has made me stronger and i most definitely have to say the relationship btw my husband and i has most definitely gotten stronger, he helped me threw alot and has really been one of my main support structures threw out this...
• I have to say leaving my best friends behind was a downer as well... it was so hard specially seeing my best friend fell pregnant around the same time as i did... Kevin has been one of my best friends since moving to the states i really really miss him alot..
• Saying goodbye to our pets was very hard especially Garfield our first "furr" baby it was so hard and we were late leaving the house because we couldn't pull ourselves away from kissing and hugging on him.. 
• Leaving my house and all my things behind sucked but i had to do it and i know that Kevin has it all keeping it for us till we send for it.

The Ups of 2010

• My son turned 7! We threw him the most amazing birthday/goodbye party we could afford! Everyone was invited from school/soccer and family. Hopefully creating some wonderful memories for him!
• Lochlan learnt how to ride his bike with out training wheels right off the bat no help needed! Very proud of him :) It was really exciting to watch him take off with no help at all talk about gob smacked!
• We finally made the move to Australia! Arriving to open arms and tear felt hellos! 
• Falling pregnant for the 3rd time and doing really well threw the pregnancy so far! Due at the end of May beginning of June.
• Learning about the wonders of fermented foods! And introducing some of them to my family! And i cant wait to start making some of them here in Australia.
• eaching my son to make healthy decisions when choosing what to put into his growing body. 

So i hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their friends and family! And you all had a fun and safe New Years! I will post some pictures of our New Years Celebration at a later date! And i am working on posting pictures and the recipe for the yummiest cookies EVER!