Christmas

Christmas for us this year was in someways a quite quiet one. With most of Tom's family away, it was just us & Pia, plus an elderly couple who are old friends of the family. This also meant that I had my first experience of being the host this Christmas. We still upheld the tradition of going out after breakfast to cut the Christmas tree, then home for lunch, followed by decorating the tree, cake & coffee, dinner & presents.

Dinner was a traditional Danish Christmas dinner with a few little "aussie" twists. We had roast duck with stuffing (not prunes like is tradional), brown sauce, red cabbage, boiled potatoes & brown (caramel) potatoes. There was also the traditional ris a'lamanda with cherry sauce.

Late Summer

The past 3 days we have had summer weather. Shorts & singlet tops have been dug out of the bottom of the drawer (where they have sat all summer) & as much time as possible was spent outside enjoying the warmth & sunshine. Saturday was the hottest with the thermometer topping 26.7C

Choo Choo...I'm 2

Yesterday was Joshua's 2nd Birthday. The theme for the party was Trains (due to his absolute obsession with them at the moment). I started planning the party about a month ago & have just been doing a little bit at a time since then. Everyone had a good time at the party & loved the food & decorations. Josh also had a great time. He was much more aware & interested in the presents this year. The favourite being the John Deer ride on tractor from his Farmor, Farfar & Family Sivertsen, followed very closely by anyone that contributed to his woodern train set collection.

For those interested in the details of the party here they are:
(I got most of my ideas from On My Side of The Room)

Invitation: A train ticket

 
Decorations: Railway signs made out of cardboard, Danish & Australian flags (these are just a danish tradition no matter what the theme)





Food: Coal Cluster - Chocolate crackles
               Stationhouse Sandwiches - Egg sandwiches & Ham & cheese
                                                             sandwiches
               Carriage Cookies - Iced cookies in the shape of train
Food Train: This was 4 "carriages" made out of cardboard boxes cover with patterned paper & lined with foil. There was a "coal carriage" filled with raisins, a "log carriage" filled with pretzel sticks, a "produce carriage" with vege sticks & a "hopper carriage" which had dip in it.
Diesel fuel: Apple juice. This was served in some cool dispensers with a tap on the bottom.
               Water Tower: Water

               There was also tea & coffee for the adults.

Cake: A 2 carriage train from The Australian Woman's Weekly Cake Book

             

Josh Vocab

Joshua's vocabulary is progressing in leaps & bounds. As is normal, some words he says with no trouble, while others come out a bit wrong. Here are some of his "joshua isms"

Muddy/money = Mummy

Nice = Snail

Foosa = Pølse (Sausage)

Copta = Helicopter (also used for planes)
kopa = Sko på (Shoes)

Medical Mystery

For a week now I've had a pain that goes from my jaw up through my ear to the top of my head. On Wednesday it was so bad I decided to get it checked by my dr. Unfortunately there were no appointments til Friday, but they suggested checking with my dentist. I was able to get an appointment the next day. However she was at a loss as to what might be causing it & suggested it was maybe a muscle strain. Friday I still had the pain so I went to the dr. He also had no idea as to what it could be, although he did say my nerve may be slightly irritated. In any case both of their treatments was to just take pain killers & wait to see what happened.