This year we had a very relaxing Christmas. This was mainly because we didn't have to travel very far to attend our Christmas celebrations. We had our usual "eggs, caviar, champagne and a pillow case full of presents" breakfast at Mum & Dad's in Pyrmont. Later on, we were back in Erko at the Carillon for a lunch of spinach pie, cold meats and prawns. A big hug must go to the Wilsons for daring to join the rowdy Daleys and Bells for Christmas lunch. (photos)

Last year we had trouble convincing Oscar to open more than one present in one sitting. Last year he wanted to play with each new toy for at least an hour. This year, we didn't have any trouble at all; Oscar was a present opening machine! We think he must be a graduate of of the "Patrick School of Unwrapping". On Christmas morning, Annie and Richard's attention was diverted for a few moments while they gave each other gifts. They turned around to discover that Oscar had dived into the pile under the Christmas tree and was arbitrarily opening presents. Luckily, he'd only managed to open a few and they were all for him. (Suspiciously, they were all trains. I'm not sure if that's because Oscar is cluey enough to pick the train-shaped presents or because 90% of Oscar's presents this year were trains.)

Oscar was just a tad excited at the prospect of turning three (Click the thumbnail on the right to watch craaaaaaaaazy Oscar). It is understandable though. Any day that includes presents, smarties, freckles, and cake is worth getting excited about.

Happy Birthday mooshuk! (photos)

We visited the Veitch Family last night to give Hannah, Sarah and Ellie their Christmas present. This means, I can finally boast about my wonderful creation. This year, I made a puppet theatre and a family of puppets for Hannah, Sarah and Ellie (aka HSEV) for Christmas. The girls were very excited with their new toy. While we were there we were treated to shows entitled "Hannah sings the Alphabet", "Sarah sings the silly Alphabet" and "Mummy and Daddy get married". (photos)

Puppet Theatre	Hannah and Sarah Puppets	Case, for easy storage	Veitch Family

I can't take all the credit, though. I got the idea for the puppet theatre from a fantastic crafty blog, Angry Chicken. Thanks for the inspiration!

Congratulations are in order for Jason, Heather, Hannah and Sarah. On July 26th, they welcomed the newest recruit to Team Veitch, Eliana Joy. Eliana is in good form this season. While we were there the other evening she did lots of...drooling and... cuddling. Or maybe we did lots of cuddling of Eliana. Jason is now 25% of the way to having his own cricket team. Only nine more to go!

On our ANZAC Day holiday we picnicked with Heather, Jason, Sarah and Hannah at Carss Park. The park is a popular picnic area and is located on Kogarah Bay. As soon as Sarah and Hannah saw the water, they were very keen to go for a "paddle". Jason and Heather let the girls run down to the beach with the instructions "just get your feet wet, NO SWIMMING!". The girls followed the rules at first, but then the paddling turned into splashing, the splashing into dipping, and the dipping into swimming. Jason and Andrew had been sent to supervise the process but even though they were mostly paying attention, it wasn't long before the girls were soaked. Luckily, Heather had brought a spare change of clothing for the twins.

For lunch we chowed down on burgers from Paul's Famous Burgers. The day before we'd eaten fish and chips from the best fish'n'chip shop in the universe. Australians just to love to make big claims! We're not satisfied with saying "we're pretty good" we have to be the best ever in the whole of the world. Enthusiasm is us!

After our picnic we headed over to the Sackville Hotel to watch our friends lose money playing two up. Our friends were up and then they were down; just like the pennies being thrown in the air. Being Mr and Mrs Competitive, you'd think that Andrew and I would love to gamble. However, Andrew and I like to win and there are no guarantees in a game of luck. We prefer to spend our hard-earned cash on better things (beer and chocolate!) (photos)