It was mostly a good year but sadly in September we found out that my father in law's cancer had returned. After a couple of very hard months, with up and downs, he passed away at the end of October. It's been a very sad time, everyone misses him terribly and he was mad about all the grandkids. I am so glad we moved back to Ireland when we did and our kids had the last 2 and a half years to know him properly and spend time with him. I can't imagine how awful it would have been if we'd still been living in Sydney at this time.
I have many new years resolutions, the usual ones, fitness, be less of a potty mouth, get more organised and re-ignite my blog.
We had a lovely Christmas, it was very important for all my husband's side of the family to be together at this time so we had everyone to our house for Christmas day and everyone stayed over. The boys were delighted having everyone there, 15 of us in total!! It was pretty relaxed as everyone brought an element of the meal.
I wanted the house to look extra festive this year so pretty much every corner of our living and dining areas were twinkling or glowing...
Even the wine was feeling festive :-)
I made my usual Christmas treats, traditional Christmas cake, pudding and extra special rocky road. My Christmas cake always has that special lopsided quality that you just don't get with a shop-bought cake ;-)
We alternate between a traditional red and gold or very colourful tree every year. This year was a traditional year, I love having our tree packed with decorations, a mixture of handmade, vintage and new. My favourites are the ones the boys make and the collection of ornaments my Dad gave a me a few years ago that have been hanging on our family tree since I was a child.
As always we left out some treats for Santa and his reindeer on Christmas Eve. S in particular is hugely excited when he sees the leftover crumbs on Christmas morning :-)
I love seeng their little faces light up on Christmas morning as they see their stockings have been filled and they open their presents and see if Santa brought what they asked for (he always does, no matter how much mischief they've gotten up to all year ;-)
On Boxing Day we went to stay with my parents and younger sister and my Dad made the most delicious roast pork dinner, we had a lovely evening playing board games, watching tv, drinking wine and chatting, the boys were delighted with the presents they got and we all stayed over. My superstar dad made a lovely breakfast the next morning and we stayed for lunch then headed back home. We had a lovely time, my husband took the full 2 weeks of school holidays off work so we were able to take lots of outings, hiking, swimming, eating out, sleepovers with cousins. I hope 2017 is a happy and peaceful year for everyone xxx
