Oscar’s “big” present from us this year was a tricycle (full credit to Kristy for this one). We didn’t take it away to the coast with us as we figured there wouldn’t be much use for it while we were there; instead, we assembled it upon our return to Brisbane while Oscar was sleeping off his drive home nap. Of course, he immediately wanted to take it for a spin once he woke up and saw it, so we headed down to the Kedron Brook bikeway for a cruise through the park.

Yep, the tricycle is a huge winner!

When I used to live over at Bracken Ridge, the Durhams used to come over each year just before Christmas, and we’d all walk over to Wickfield Street, where the first dozen (or so) houses on either side of the road put on a fairly impressive display of Christmas lights. Obviously, this tradition couldn’t be kept up while we were living overseas, but last year, we resumed right where we’d left off with our annual Christmas expedition to Bracken Ridge.

Boy were we disappointed when we found out that there were no lights on display!

So this year, instead of suffering disappointment at the hands of thoughtless tenants who don’t attempt to out-do Chevy Chase, we decided to do a little bit of research, and find ourselves an alternate source of lighting spectacular. As it turns out, there’s a house just around the corner from us at Bowers Road South, who won the 4KQ Christmas Lights competition for Brisbane North!

Clearly we had to go and investigate, and it wasn’t long before we discovered exactly why they were the winners. Firstly, their plot of land is huge, and they open it all up for the public to walk through. And, the place is covered in lights!

And it’s not just lights either; they have a whole “rainforest walk” to go through, a huge model train set, a model European city, a sleigh for the kids to sit in, and even a face-in-hole scene for the Julians of the world.

The only downside I can see to a display like this (apart from the obvious power bill) is that I don’t know how they can top it next year. Only one way to find out, I guess!

“Christmas” and “pigging out” go together like “Pearl” and “Jam”, and we’ve been doing our best to honour this sacred tradition. We kicked things up another notch last weekend, when Jason and Susan hosted an (extended) family Christmas party at their place.

Even Oscar got in on the action, throwing less food onto the ground compared to what he normally would!

Rounding off the weekend of pigging out was morning tea at Mark and Jen’s place (our back neighbours), where we did our best to consume as much coffee and sugar as possible. Kristy’s “North Pole” cupcakes were a rather impressive highlight.

Christmas season is in full swing in Australia, and we already have two-and-a-half parties under our belts!

The first – and the half party – was at the Dahl residence last week. I’m only calling this “half” a party because it was actually a birthday party for Chellsie; however, given that its the last time we’ll be seeing the Dahls for a month (due to an amazing long overseas holiday on their part!), there was a bit of Christmas action going on there as well. The kids were all the big winners with lots of presents to start their holidays off right!

Party number two was my work Christmas party, with the venue this year being The Doomben Races. Although it was nice to spend some time with the workmates outside of the office, I don’t think I’ll become a regular race-goer. It didn’t help that half-way through the meal my stomach started feeling a bit dodgy, so that was the end of both food and drink for me!

I completely forgot to take any photos from the day, and all I’ve ended up with for memorabilia is this “awesome” shot that Rob took on his phone.

Classy, eh?

Finally, party number three came in the form of the Harvey family Christmas celebration, which was held on Sunday. I had to hit up the gastro stop in preparation, and thankfully, things were feeling a bit more solid down south come party time. Good thing too, as there was plenty of delicious food to be eaten!

Once again, the kids were the big winners with lots of new toys for them all. The light up super-bouncy balls were especially a winner with the Harvey circus! We did our best to try and get a photo featuring all four kids with Mia and Pa, but suffice to say, it is not an easy task. Believe it or not, this was the best one:

And, this is probably a close second. Not exactly a great example of Oscar’s best work, though.

Besides our lingering sicknesses, it’s been a great start to Christmas 2011, and there’s still plenty more food and presents (not to mention time off work!) to come!

I must admit, Christmas never really felt like Christmas to me this year. I don’t know why this is, but I choose to blame the weather. Regardless, it has still been an excellent, busy few days, and I’ve loved every minute of it!

On Christmas eve, we attended our first ever Foley Christmas dinner party, along with about 30 other family and friends of the Foley clan. The dinner table was massive! Aunty Carolyn catered the whole thing, and she and Laura did all the cooking for everyone (at least, that’s how I think it worked). The food was amazing, and there was plenty of it – lamb, pork, ham, turkey in pastry, prawns, salads, potato bake – you name it, they had it. I have no idea how big Aunty Carolyn’s oven is, but suffice to say it must be massive!

To top it all off, everyone got a present at the end of the night!

It was close to midnight when we got home, which didn’t make our early start for breakfast with the Thomas family too easy. Thankfully, Mom and Dad and Jason and Susan were all coming to our place, so at least we didn’t have to travel. Oscar must have been super excited that it was Christmas, because he woke up extra early, not long after 5 AM!

We had all the Christmas classics including ham with scrambled eggs, champagne, and orange juice. The roasted tomatoes next to the wilted spinach made our plates look very Christmasy indeed! Not surprisingly, Oscar tallied up the most number of presents, though he didn’t really get the hang of ripping open the paper – all in good time, I guess.

My main present this year was a Rancilio Rocky, with Doser (it’s a coffee grinder). It had a bit of a rocky start (hehe) with some of the beans not falling properly through the hopper. But, after some advice from coffee guru David, plus a bit of “home maintenance” on my part, it seems to be grinding like a champion now!

Next came Christmas lunch and more presents at The Harvey’s, where four generations worth of family were gathered to celebrate. And, baby Oscar wasn’t even the youngest – he was outdone by his second cousin Hudson by a little over two weeks!

Our final leg of Christmas was spent down at the Gold Coast, again with the Thomases. We drove down late on Christmas evening, which was great, as there was barely any traffic on the road. It was great to get away from Brisbane, even for only two nights, and even though it rained pretty much the whole time we were there. We were visited on Saturday by some great family friends – half the Foley clan, and the Couchmans. It was great to just relax and catch up over some food and drinks, but we managed to squeeze a few swims in as well!

Jason and I also hit the beach both mornings, which was an absolute pleasure. One of the things I missed most while overseas was Australian beaches! Jason took his waterproof camera in and between us we managed to get a few decent photos. Check out this young sailor powering through the water!

Last but not least, we had post-Christmas lunch at home with Ben and Michelle, and our lovely friend Kirsty who flew all the way from the UK just to eat with us! Oh, how lucky we are! It was awesome to see Kirsty again, and it reminded us of how much we miss having her, Matthew and Emily around. Hopefully we can convince them all to move home to Australia in 2011 .

Check out some photos from the break in the Christmas 2010 album on Picasaweb or on Facebook.

On Sunday, we made a final farewell to Albert – who served us so well over the Christmas season – before taking him down to the Christmas Tree Graveyard at Gunnersbury Park.

Laying him down with all the other discarded Christmas trees was a sad moment. All the hopes and dreams for the Christmas mornings of spoilt children that those trees collectively represented, only to be discarded into a pile with nary a thought for what their future holds (probably a date with a man wearing some overalls, at a restaurant called “The Chipper”).

Well, whatever happens to you Albert, thanks for doing such a swell job at holding up our Christmas decorations. You’ll always be in our memories of Christmas 2009.

With all the snow and crap UK weather we’ve had lately, we were somewhat worried that our flight to Aberdeen on Christmas Eve wasn’t going to happen, but as it turned out, the hardest part of the trip was getting to the airport (seems we weren’t the only ones trying to catch a train to Luton).

Thankfully we managed to squeeze on to the second train that came along, and from there it was smooth sailing. We were very pleased to see Wes and Stacey’s smiling faces on the other side of the arrival gate! And Hotel Bramley is lovely and warm – a stark contrast to -1°C that it is outside at the moment.

Our Christmas day followed the tried and true formula: A fry-up for breakfast, opening presents, a few board games, a massive “lunch” (at 5 PM), then falling asleep on the couch in front of a movie. We all blamed the tryptophan in the turkey.

Tomorrow we’re off to Cairngorm Mountain where we’ll stay overnight, to see if we can get in a day of skiing on Sunday. Apparently they’re having the best conditions they’ve had for 15 years. Should be a hoot!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, and that you’re all enjoying your time off work.

This year it seemed as though the Christmas celebrations just didn’t want to end – but let’s be honest, isn’t that a good thing? We flew out of London on Tuesday (23rd) afternoon to crash Nick’s family Christmas in Eschborn, Germany. It was the first time we’d spent Christmas with a family (admittedly not ours!) since 2003!

The Zeebs showed us an amazing German Christmas, ensuring that every morsel of space in our stomachs was full at all times! We ate quite a variety of meats – goose, duck, turkey, wild boar, pork, and a countless variety of sausages. Nick’s family (espeically his Mom, Renate) are amazing cooks, so it was impossible for me to stop eating until I thought I’d explode. Stupidly, I didn’t take any photos of the delicious food, so you’re stuck with your imaginations I’m afraid.

One of the highlights for me was driving on the Autobahn. We were “upgraded” to a Mercedes Benz A-Class – but it was an automatic! How boring! Foot flat on the floor, the car hit a top speed of about 172 km/h and had absolutely nothing left to give; it felt like it was more comfortable cruising at around 160 km/h. To it’s credit, the car was solid as a rock, even at top speed – no wheel vibration, and very responsive controls. And that’s still pretty fast – when you then slow down to 100 km/h, it feels like you’re barely moving!

Nick’s Dad, Peter, took great pleasure in taking us for a tour around a few of the towns. Our first tour was in Frankfurt on Christmas day, and it was freaky to see how empty the place was when nothing was open. Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany and this is fairly representative of the institutions that you see around the joint. Still, the city is not without its culture, and the old opera house – the Alte Oper looks particularly stunning at night.

We also had a tour of Calw (pronounced “Calf”), the town in which Peter grew up, and in which his mother still lives. The style of housing (all across Germany) is so unique, and as Kristy put it so well, so Disney. It’s hard to believe that the houses were purposely built in this style, and not done just to impress the tourists.

As you can see, we had beautiful clear weather for the most part, however this meant that it was absolutely freezing cold each day. I literally mean freezing here – temperatures were consistently hovering around 0 degrees.

Still, a little bit of frozen water wasn’t going to stop us getting out and about, and Eva in particular insisted we keep up with the German tradition of walking. Kristy and I thought she was crazy – who’d want to be walking around when the temperatures are well below zero? – but to her credit, we met lots of other people on our walks, just being outside and enjoying the beautiful day. And it really helped with the digestion!

Overall it was an absolutely wonderful Christmas, and we’re extremely thankful to the Zeebs who went to great lengths to ensure we were comfortable and felt welcomed. Maybe one day we can repay the favour by showing them Christmas, Australian style!

Loads more photos in the Christmas in Germany photo album.

We declared Sunday the 21st to be Christmas in Putney, since Kristy and I were flying out to Germany only a few days later. The first order of the day – after banana pancakes, of course – was opening our secret santa presents!

Santa did amazingly well at picking something awesome for us all; he didn’t do quite so well at keeping his identity secret – except from Julian, that is. Secret Santa presents were followed by more presents, and soon I was holding two new PS3 games just begging to be played!

Christmas isn’t Christmas without oodles of food, so we all took our places in the kitchen (well, mine was on the couch, finishing Dead Space – one of the best games I’ve ever played). Kristy felt it was important for us to be a little bit traditional, and to this effect she had ordered a Christmas ham for us all to share in.

It turned out to be a little smaller than we had expected, but it still tasted good, and with the quantity of other food that we had, we weren’t left wanting. Our afternoon sped by quickly with a movie, a game of Carcassonne, more eating, and all round general relaxing. It was such a lovely pre-Christmas Christmas!

In fact, it was such a convincing Christmas celebration, that I found it rather strange to turn up to work on Monday to find that everyone else hadn’t celebrated the day before! It was such an odd feeling!

A few more photos online in the Putney Christmas 2008 gallery.

My work Christmas party this year was held at the Mandarin Oriental hotel at Hyde Park corner. Similar to last year, it was a swanky dress-up affair, with the gents wearing penguin suits and the ladies in their fancy dresses.

Though I had enjoyed last year’s party, at that stage I didn’t know a whole lot of people at the company, I had no idea where we were (having never been to Old Street at that point), and the people I was seated next to at dinner weren’t the easiest to chat to (the seating is pre-arranged, wedding style).

Boy, what a difference this year! Firstly, the people at my table were all super friendly; and better still, my buddy Al was my right-hand man! Secondly, having now spent an extra year at the company, I know a lot more people, which meant I was never shy of someone to talk to. Thirdly, the hotel we were at is just around the corner from work, so I wasn’t feeling uncomfortable about the journey home.

The food was absolutely to die for – a selection of seafood bites for entree, beef wellington for the main, and chocolate mousse cake (I think? Hard to describe!) for dessert. As one of the support guys put it, “The beef wellington was the type of dish you’d select for your Last Meal!”.

The whole evening went by in a complete blur, and before I knew it I was sharing a cab home with Nick and Suzie. Some of the more hard-core party folk hit the clubs after the party finished, but a 1:30 AM finish on a school night was definitely late enough for me. Friday was neither a productive nor enjoyable day at work!

More photos online in the Christmas Party album.