There are only two words I fear at Xmas time and they are "assembly required" This year I bought Emily (amongst lots of other things) a lovely big wooden doll house. Normally it wouldn't bother me that it had to be made up as thats Joes job but since he won't be home for xmas and since Haley is clueless in that department, I felt obliged to do the right thing...
I was pleased to see the screws were all separated out in a plastic box with compartments...however none of them looked like the screws in the picture diagrams so there was a lot of "process of elimination" throughout the whole procedure...thankfully each wooden piece was numbered which helped but I am not the greatest at following instructions so what I thought would take an hour actually took 4 hours and several times I blew a poofer valve and had to go outside and have a smoke to calm down...Emily will love it, it even has a lift for heavens sake....a far cry from the dollhouse I had as a kid made from a toilet roll box.
Ebony was been diligent at changing the numbers on the advent tree every morning and I can't believe it is only 3 more sleeps till santa comes...I am so ready for this, I can't wait to see everyones face when they unwrap their gifts.....may I add that Ella has already started to unwrap several of them none of which were hers.
We have decided on our xmas menu..prawns, chicken and honey glazed baked ham..the ham was my idea even though none of us are really into ham....but I really want to to the whole diamond criss cross thing with the cloves..looks so cool...they couldnt decide on one dessert so we are having the usual pav and trifle and this year we are adding triple choc honeycomb log...I have had a practice run and its yum...not that I should even care as I wont be able to eat it anyway.
Jodie emailed me a few days ago and said she had received her care package...she loved everything but was most excited about the milo....they seem to be loving it in Canada, Duane earned 800 dollars in tips when he helped out as barman during the world cup.....Jodie had been promoted and is now supervisor of her department and gained a payrise to....wait for it......$10.20 per hour!! She also got employee of the month which earned her a restaurant meal, a $70 gift voucher and a 3 hour snow boarding lesson.
Martin intends to take three days off for Xmas..woopdeedoo, he isnt big on the whole relaxing holiday thing, he would much rather go to work...but I think he will take a week off at the end of JAnuary so we are trying to find a holiday destination that will suit all of us...Martin hates the beach or anything even remotely related to water or fishing or anything that separates him from his big screen tv....I hate anything that resembles camping or roughing it....Ebony hates anywhere without access to a power point to her hair straightener and needs to be in close proximity to major shopping centres...as expected we havent been able to think of anything that suits all of us...in fact I reckon we should just stay at home because it meets all of the above criteria.
Thats all for now as I need to get an early night as I want to be at the shops at opening time tomorrow to do my xmas food shopping...my list is a foot long and I know th ecrowds will be out in force. Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy the day with your family and I hope Santa comes to each and everyone of you , even if you have been naughty...see you next year!