Christmas Celebrations

Z and Opa on Christmas eve.

K and Oma.

The MZS guys checking out the new key board. It is going to be lots of fun!

We had a really good time celebrating Christmas eve together

Christmas morning found Z outside digging out a dinosaur skeleton. Just love that he still loves things like that!

Christmas day was spent with extended family relaxing at T. And yes, my daughter has overtaken me by a long way! I am bound to be the shortest member of our family.

We gave C&T a cute finger puppet book for their precious little one due next year. It was so cute to see them enjoying it as he made all the animal sounds for "Old Mc Donald had a farm"....

G trying out the boys new toys....

J and G had some fun with guitar hero and the drums....

Boys tried out new pool toys....

It was good to catch up , relax and enjoy the day.

Dinner was superb, not that we needed it after all the snacking all day! The tables looked so pretty with the gold runners and crackers. It was lovely to enjoy it all with everyone and we missed family members who were far away. It was great to have the farm cousins here!

Inspired by Jane's Deliceous Kitchen and my friend's garden

After receiving such lovely gifts, I needed to get into my kitchen. I found a recipe for onion marmalade in my new book and made it from my meagre onion harvest.I knew I wanted to use my onions for something a little different and not just in my normal cooking. It was just enough to enjoy with our burgers that evening.

With the huge marrow my friend gave me, I made some delicious healthy marrow muffins. Even my little guy wolfed those down! You can find the recipe on her her blog here: http://its-our-life-for-six.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-marrow-munchies.html. As I didn't have wheat germ or nuts, I substituted them with sunflower seeds and oat bran and bran. They were so good I have subsequently made another batch.

My oven never sees just one item in it at a time and so I made some yummy corn bread with chillies from my friends garden.

Just a peek at what I harvested from my garden....I am sure Jane will have a recipes for me to try!

What a special birthday....

Friday 17th was my birthday and it was a really special day. I was so blessed by all the calls and wishes and was spoiled with lovely gifts. Our family tradition is to all pile into our bed early in the morning and open gifts. My hubby gave me a book I have been wanting for a while and I cant wait to get stuck into all the great recipes! It is so much more than a recipe book as there is all sorts of other advice and the cooking is seasonal...just love it and recommend you get a copy if you have your own veg garden.

My sweet children gave me chocolates, magazines and a beautiful tennis bracelet I had my eye on.

The day was perfect and hubby and I made our way to Simon's Town Yacht Club to enjoy breakfast with a friend from our Dar es Salaam days. We spent the rest of the morning enjoying a few rounds of Mah Jong.

After an afternoon snooze, I was greeted with this amazing gift from a special friend. What made it so special to me was the fact that it was all freshly picked from her garden. There were fresh herbs; spinach and celery; strawberries; purple, red and green chillies; a huge marrow; a jar of homemade jam and a strawberry plant. It was so beautifully put together and I hope that my little garden will soon be able to generate such a lovely gifts.

That evening hubby invited a number of special friends to join us for a celebratory meal at one of our favourite restaurants, Cape to Cuba. We love their chili poppers and other fare. I enjoyed the seafood special and a fun evening was enjoyed by all. I was thoroughly spoiled with lovely gifts. The only thing missing was my sister who was making her way to CT!

Where's the kitty?

Our sweet kitty has taken up residence under the Christmas tree. She can be found there morning, noon and night!

At home day

Today was declared an "at home day" for the family. We have been so busy rushing around and have also done a fair bit of entertaining. It was time for a relaxed day with no pressure to go anywhere or do anything. What a great day!

After a delicious breakfast of egg and bacon sausages and family bible reading, the younger two and I got to baking the gingerbread biscuits we have wanted to bake for a while. K kept telling me to get the flour out of the cupboard....

Z was hiding in there and I got the fright of my life! Of course the children were highly amused!

We put on some Christmas carols and got to making the gingerbread dough.

Besides the cookie cutters that we borrowed from Tess, Z decided to male his own Christmas trees. After we made the first batch we decided that there weren't nearly enough so I quickly made more dough for the kids.

My artist daughter decided to spruce things up a bit and made all sorts of coloured icing and even painted her icing onto the biscuits.

The finished items were just lovely! There was an "I love you " gingerbread man made by K for her big brother, an alien, a dutch flag and some that had way too many silver balls.....

Later it was time to pull out the Christmas decorations and the tree.

I love our Nativity scene that was given to me by my mum. We also have some decorations that Z must have made the year he attended grade R. They are precious . The ones the children love most are the ones given to them by their Oma and Opa the year we were in Dar es Salaam for Christmas.

Tonight hubby was out and all the kids and I settled down to a fun Christmas movie, "Fred Claus", and munched on the very "more-ish " gingerbread biscuits. A wonderful day with the family.

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to the Heidi's Crafts where the carnival is hosted this week. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!

Finding Z

I just love finding my little guy under the covers like this! He really is enjoying reading and often begs to finish a page or chapter when called to do something..... sometimes I find him with his torch after lights out.

I don't think he believes in tooth mouse anymore but none the less, his teeth still get put into his slipper at the bedroom door. He has lost a fair amount over the last couple of weeks and the last one to fall out this week got lost! We tricked the "tooth mouse" with a pearl bead instead and he was really chuffed that it worked.

Beading

K went to her last craft meeting for the year and came home with some really beautiful beaded items. She has started a little business and has been getting lots of orders for the beaded serviette rings. My favourite is the pearly Christmas tree decoration.

Garden and kitchen

My garden is still a source of pleasure for me and I am learning as I go along. I got a wheel barrow full of compost out of my compost heap to add to my back veg bed . Thankfully hubby got more out as getting that one out was hard work! He dug it into the beds for me and tonight I have sown a few seeds.

I have some eggplant seedlings, spring onions, lettuces and some herbs to plant out too.

In the herb pack there is some choc mint and lemon thyme. I look forward to using them.

I just love this little corner of my garden. The orange flowers are a splash of joy and the granadilla vine keeps producing beautiful intricate flowers that will become delicious fruits. The pot contains basil and some chili bushes. I picked the first leaves of basil to add to a healthy spinach, chick pea and sun dried tomato salad today.

The recipe comes from one of my low gi cook books. I also made a warm baby tomatoe salad from the same book.

I wish I could say I had grown those tomatoes myself. The tomatoes were cooked over a low heat in a mixture of balsamic vinegar and sugar, until they just split from the heat. It was a delicious accompaniment to the braai!

Fun with friends

Now that the kids have achieved their school goals.....

...its time to enjoy the summer holidays!

Last week we spent a morning with good friends. It was a lovely wind free, sweltering hot day and the kids made the most of the pool.

The younger two and I also accompanied Aunty T and little Z on his first real trip to Ratanga. He had been before but was too little to ride. We had a fun filled day full of adrenaline rushing rides!

My Z went on the Congo Queen, not something I can do because of motion sickness. The poor boy was green after that one!

He could not get enough of the spinning cogs though. That is another ride I just cannot do.

You may ask, what can I do at Ratanga? Well my all time favourite is the Monkey Falls and it was even better to ride it with the little boys who just loved the thrill of all the water and dropping down from great heights. The best was when little Z said he was staying there and not going home as he was having so much fun.

K was thrilled to ride the cobra for the first time. Will I ever do that one : a big no!

So you think my husband is tall?

Today, while out visiting a local book shop with my hubby, we came upon this statue of Robert Pershing Wadlow. He was a whopping 8ft 11.1 inches tall and is verified as the worlds tallest human being. He sure does make my hubby, who is always getting remarks about his height, ( 6 ft 6) look short!

My little toy

The time finally came for me to get my own little net book. It is really tiny, but is just perfect. With hubby home and setting up business and needing the computer, this little thing is a real blessing. No longer are there queues as the five of us need to use the computer for school or work purposes.

K found it really helpful to use for her research essay that she finally completed today. If hubby needs to travel for work purposes, at least we wont be left high and dry at home and my customers will not have to wait for replies. I am truly thankful for the blessing of being the South African contact for Hands on Homeschooling. This is my reward for sales that went beyond my expectations.

Reaching the goals

Today we took a trip to a nearby nursery to study flowers up close and personal. I figured the nursery would be better than our garden as there is such a variety there.

The kids were armed with their magnifying glasses so they could really study the parts of the flowers. They each chose about five different flowers to photograph and add to their Botany note books.

That concludes our goals for Botany for the year and we will continue with the course in the new year.

We finished our Afrikaans last week and Z has completed his Language programme. Tomorrow is hopefully the last day that we will be busy reaching goals and then it will be time to relax and enjoy the holidays. J may however be busy until Friday.

Christmas Cards

K and I spent the afternoon gathering supplies to make Christmas cards. We then set to work for a couple of hours and had great fun while at it. I wish I had photographed each card she made as they were so beautiful! She is making some pocket money and has sold 10 already!

Look what I picked tonight....

Perfect for a coleslaw... and made my mums famous bacon and egg pie to with it!