After Christmas at the beach we headed to Goulburn to do Christmas with the Wilsons. Well, not all the Wilsons as Ben, Janet and Isaac stayed in Brisvegas for Christmas and Simon was at work. But, the important Wilsons were there.

And a few ring ins. Andrew's cousin Debbie, her husband Phil and their son Alec were out in Australia for their first ever hot Christmas. They were missing the coldest Christmas in decades back home in Manchester. Although, they are home now so I hope they are enjoying the below zero temperatures.

Because we had tourists in the house we did some touristy stuff around Goulburn. I've never done touristy stuff in Goulburn before. We went to Berrima for lunch (it was packed and apparently always is) and we also went to Wombeyan caves.

At Wombeyan, we did a guided tour through Junction Cave. The cave has a lot of beautiful limestone formations. My favourite was Chalker's curtain. Andrew got a great photo of it. The cave also has bats (we saw them flying around) and therefore bat poo. In parts the bat poo coats the stalagmites and makes them look like large, chocolate wedding cakes. Don't eat them though, can't imagine they'd be too tasty. After the guided tour we walked through the self-guided Figtree Cave.


We also did a mini tour of Goulburn to look at the Christmas lights. This house won second place in the annual lights competition. I wonder what 1^st looked like? This was impressive enough. I wonder what their December electricity bill is like.


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Merry Christmas from fushmush! We spent Christmas at the beach this year; you can't get more Australian than that! Pity the weather wouldn't come to play. After a gorgeous Christmas Eve (sunshine, blue skies, 31 degrees) the weather was pretty miserable on Christmas Day (rain, wind, mid-20s). We still managed a trip to the beach though and Andrew and I even went for a swim. I'm still in love with the fact that I can go for a swim at the beach whenever I want.

The rest of Christmas Day was filled with the same stuff as usual.

No presents until 7am. When I was a child, on Christmas Day, I wasn't allowed to go and wake Mum and Dad up until 7am. I also wasn't allowed to touch the presents until Mum and Dad were up and ready to go. We enforced the 7am rule this year with Oscar and Leo. They were both up at 6am though (which meant that most of the house was also up at 6am). The boys were running around excitedly checking to see if Santa had eaten his snack of tiny teddies and VB and the reindeer had eaten their carrots. Surprisingly, Santa hadn't had time to eat all his tiny teddies but did have time to drink all of the beer. I hope there aren't any RBTs up there (don't drink and fly Santa!).



The rest of the day was about too many presents, too much food and an afternoon nap. Well, an afternoon nap for everyone except the 3-year old and the 7-year old. It's funny how naps become appealing again when you're a grown up.

We hope that your Christmas Day was just as fun-filled and love-filled as ours was. Hugs and Kisses fushies!



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This year, we've decided to donate the money that we would have spent on Christmas Cards towards a World Vision Smiles Gift. We made a donation to a child immunisation program

Another reason that I'm happy to be home... my sewing machine! I missed it while I was in London. I've already done some Christmas crafting for the kids.

First up, a towel cape for Ellie. I gave the twins a towel cape for their second birthday (five years ago!). I figured Ellie's version was long overdue.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of Ellie with her towel cape. She was so happy with her present that it went straight to the pool room. She ran into the bathroom and hung it up, ready to be used that very evening. Heather said it was the first time ever that Ellie had voluntarily hung up her towel.

So, here is a photo of the girls opening their other presents.

I've also made a towel cape for Leo for Christmas. I'm pretty sure that Leo doesn't read fushmush so I'm safe to post my creation. Leo loves Spiderman so Mum suggested a Spiderman themed cape would be a winner. I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out. I think Leo will love it. (Andrew did :D)




My towel capes were inspired by LJC. Thanks for sharing your fantastic ideas.

Last year I blogged about the things we collected on our travels: pins, squashed pennies, euros and Christmas ornaments.

For the first year in three years we actually have a Christmas tree on which we can put our decorations. It's Mum and Dad's tree but no matter.

It's so pretty and each ornament brings back memories from the trip on which it was collected. It's so nice to see them all together and finally on a tree.

center 1. Christmas Tree 2009, Clockwise from top left 2. USA: New York, 3. England, 4. Czech Republic: Prague, 5. Denmark: Copenhagen, 6. Germany: Rothenburg, 7. Greece: Santorini, 8. Scotland, 9. Italy: Pisa, 10. Finland, 11. Germany: Cologne, 12. Germany, 13. Austria: Vienna

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

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Gingerbread House decorating, it's a Christmas tradition. I've actually done it every year, except one, since 2003. I think six years of an event means it counts as a tradition. This year, as we were back in Australia, I figured it was time to include the boys in on the tradition.

The boys were great. They were very patient while Andrew and I made the icing and the boys even helped with the sifting of the icing sugar. Leo thought that icing sugar was flour and yucky tasting before Andrew suggested that Leo taste it (I had gone along with the flour comment). After that we had a hard time keeping Leo out of the icing sugar.

Oscar loved the decorating bit of the gingerbread house process. He loved making patterns with the lollies and was keen to cover every single part of the house. I think we did a pretty good job.

Leo wasn't so keen on the decorating and was more interested in the eating. He soon lost interest when we stopped letting him eat the decorations. He did announce that he was going to eat some of the "cake" when we were done. Luckily we convinced him to wait at least until Daddy got home so that Oscar and Leo could show off their creation. (Then we put it out of sight and out of reach of Leo's very sweet tooth).



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