This year's friends Christmas festivities were hosted by Sarah and Duncan. I should say, the fifth annual friends festivities (say that 5 times fast), as this tradition is now in its fifth year (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005). The evening included all the usual Christmas cheer: too much food, too many drinks, presents, and general silliness. Thanks to Sarah and Duncan for hosting this year's event. Andrew and I hope to one day have a house big enough to hold the annual Christmas Party. (photos)

Below are the results of the girls' attempt to take a self-portrait. I love the hit-and-miss results of such photos. Whenever we try to take a self-portrait, I always politely decline offers from others to take the photo for us. The self-portrait process is more fun. I think the self-portrait photos are more interesting than stiffly posed group shots too.

take 1	take 2	success!

At Christmas time we observe a number of traditions. Some were started years ago, like the Santa photo Davina and I sit for each year (since we were 15) or eating a breakfast of eggs, caviar and smoked salmon with my family on Christmas morning (since before I can remember. Although, I've only been partaking in the caviar since I growed up.) On the weekend, we had the traditional Christmas dinner with our close friends. We ate, we drank, we exchanged gifts... we were merry!

When I look back through the photos it seems our Christmas dinner event originally started in 2001. Four years is a pretty good run, I think we can officially classify it as a "tradition". It's very important to spend time with our family and friends at Christmas, and give thanks for the wonderful people in our life. Thanks Sue and J for hosting the dinner and giving us an opportunity to celebrate Christmas with our friends. We have a fantastic time each year, let's hope this tradition survives! (photos)

2001	2002	2003

I've come to the conclusion that Canadians are a very rude nationality. First of all, they have a store called "roots", which has a children's version, "roots kids". Secondly, every now and again Sarah will say something that will have the group guffawing with laughter. I can't actually repeat some of these things as FuShMuSh has a PG "Jess's family reads this website" rating. However, I do have one example I can share with everybody. Apparently in Canada, if you're feeling a bit hungover or seedy it's perfectly acceptable to say "I'm feeling a bit raunchy" to just about anybody. When Sarah said to Sue the other day "I'm feeling a little raunchy this morning", Sue's reply was "too much information thanks, maybe you should share that tidbit with Duncan". Poor Sarah, it's a conversational minefield!

Happy New Year everyone! Andrew and I have returned from our week of beach, beer and beauty sleep up the coast. While we were up there we had no internet access and no mobile coverage. It was a very relaxing experience.

Now for the task of sorting and posting all the photos we took in the past few weeks. The first lot of photos to go up are from Sue and J's Christmas dinner. Each year, we have a Christmas dinner with our close circle of friends. During the evening we exchange presents and usually eat and drink too much. This year it was Sue and J's turn to host in their lovely new apartment. We were each allocated a course, I did antipasto (dolmades, fetta stuffed olives, Castellano cheese), Alison was assigned entrée (prawns and avocado), Sue and J were in charge of the main course (lamb roast and vegies) and Natalie made a delicious dessert (berry meringue). I think the walkie talkies Alison gave to Brent were the hit of the evening. *crackle* being followed by a fat man in a suit, over *bzzzzt* Santa Claus is early this year, over... *grin* (photos).

Well I must admit that I have been very slack as I haven't added a new (proper) note for a long time. We've put lots of photos up because December was a very busy month. So here is what happened:

• Chris' 28th Birthday - Chris' birthday party was a month a late (his birthday is actually in november). Better late than never I guess. Once again Anh laid out a feast of vietnamese food! My favourite are the vietnamese spring rolls, although they are a little tricky to roll and mine would often fall apart as I was eating it. Anh had also made a impressive ginger bread house which we quickly demolished.
  
  
• Sun Christmas dinner - We attended a Christmas BBQ thrown by Andrew's boss, Michael. We had a lot of fun playing with Linus, Michael's four year old son, and all his toys! Especially his yoda mask and lightsaber.
  
  
• Nat and Luke's Christmas Dinner - Luke has become a gourmet chef! For dinner we had pork wantons with sweet chilli jam for entrée, a lime and ginger sorbet to cleanse our palate, roast spatchcock with vegetables for mains, and a platter of white chocolate parfait, cheesecake and pannacotta for dessert. Each course was complimented by a different wine, selected by our sommelier, Sue. And with Nat's funky wine charms, we never lost track of our wine glass. It was a very successful evening!
  
  
• Boxing Day Picnic - We actually managed to make it to Austinmer for the Boxing day picnic this year (Last year we were prevented by the fires), although the picnic was held on sunday 22nd instead of boxing day. Maybe next year we'll get it right! Competition was fierce in the annual bocce tournament with the (winners) Cup going to Kay and Brendan and the (losers) Plate going to Andrew and Max (who was subbing for Mrs Middleton). Max and Andrew were the winners of the grand final play off. Julie was most unimpressed, she thinks Max rigs the draw so he can win :D
  
  
• Christmas Day - It was rush, rush, rush on Christmas Day this year. Andrew and I spent the morning with my parents at Pyrmont and we then travelled to Goulburn to spend the evening with his parents. Once again Santa was very generous and we received many cool presents. I think Oscar scored the best presents though. It seemed like everyone wanted to play with his new toys.
  
  
• Davina's house warming - Davina has recently purchased a 2 bedroom apartment in Redfern and she had a huge party to celebrate. I think she managed to squeeze about 50 people into her small 2 bedroom apartment. It was standing room only!
  
  
• New Years Eve 2002 - Yay! Another good new years eve. Two in a row, it must be a record! Sue had a party at her house in Lilli Pilli and we had a great time! We played Andrew's new board game, Cranium, which was most amusing. It is a cross between trivial pursuit, pictionary, scrabble and charades. Mark's impression of Mr. Bean was hillarious. We also established the connect4 rankings, grandmaster Andrew, followed by Daphne, Jess, Sue, J, Natalie, Luke and Mark.
  
  

I hope your festive season was as fun-filled and exciting as ours!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year People!!!!

Photos are now up from Nat and Luke's Christmas Dinner. (Click here). We ate too much (roast lamb, chicken and pork and lots of vegies) and drank too much (some of our lovely wine from the hunter).It was lots of fun! I got a bit drunk but at least I didn't fall asleep on the way home. Does Sue snore?