Merry Christmas!

Christmas down under looks quite a bit different from the snow covered Christmas cards even we sell in the shops!

For me means sunshine, sunscreen, & mozzie repellant.   It means paper hats, Santa stockings, and bon-bons. It means prawns, lobster, Moreton Bay bugs (which are waaaay yummier than they sound ;)).  Mangoes, plums, & nectarines.  Trifle, pavlova, & chocolate truffles.  And presents as far as the eye can see.

Wishing you all a big scrummy yummy Merry Christmas to you all from my family and me here in sunny Australia!

my holiday

Have finally found the time to go through the photos taken on my girls weekend and found an odd trend - lots of pictures taken of my feet!


Being that I am "the holder of the camera" in our household, I'm lucky to turn up in 2 or 3 pics in a year with the kids getting the lion's share of the action, and hubby appearing nearly just as much, and often in his pajamas.  No shock then that the yearly photo album takes some careful planning ;).


Anyhoo, I think the feet thing is my proof I was really there.  Lazing in the sunshine, strolling along the beach, dipping my hot toes in the blissfully cool water.


'Twas a gorgeous weekend, now must get onto the girls to book the next!!!

leaving, on a jet plane

Heading away tomorrow for a girls weekend with my BFFs from Melbourne!  Two of the four of us did the dash back home to family in the last year so it'll be a teary catch-up I'm sure.  As well as plenty of sleep, wine, chatter, wine, laughter, shopping, wine.  Did I mention wine?

See ya next week!

happy new year...and about time!

The past two weeks have been a bit of a blur. But today, finally, I feel like the New Year has arrived.

Let's take a step back. First came Christmas. Hubby and I went home to visit our families for the first Christmas in five years. And even though I have been sooooo excited about this for months, I couldn't say anythig here as my mother-in-law reads my blog (hi Christine!) and we had kept our homecoming a big surprise from her and her husband Gianni. Imagine their surprise when they walked into the kitchen at lunchtime on Christmas Day to find us there! Lots of hugs, lots of tears. It was fabulous day. Most of it spent watching my gorgeous godson and nephew Lachlan dance to his favourite song: Opus One by 1950s band the Mills Brothers. Over and over and over again ;)

I then spent the next week with my family. Hanging out with my sister Suze and her boyfriend Luke. Playing Taboo with the whole family. Watching Grey's Anatomy with Mum. Going girly shopping and nmeeting up with my godparents. Faaaaabulous week. (I introduced them all to Janet Evanovich a couple of years back and now, as you can see by this picture, they are all a bit mad for her. Including the boys.) I miss them all so much already :(

Then we came home to Melbourne just in time for New Year. We spent New Years Eve having a BBQ with a couple of couples and their gorgroues kids. The food was great, the comapy fantastic, the red wine flowing, and my hubby had us all in stitches all night as per usual. My friends Emily and Sheree and I missed the big moment as we were all inside pouring ourselves Baileys ;). Needless to say our hubbies were unimpressed.

Okay, so festivities over. The next week was set aside for revisions for my next hopeful Modern Extra. I was really excited about getting stuck into them. My editor's suggestions were spot on. It's a book I loved. I cut. I pasted. I slashed and I burned. I took half hour breaks to eat and watch Sex and the City. Four times a day. (Which is reasearch because a) I was remember writing a Modern Extra and b) my heroine lives in Paris and Carrie is about to go to Paris so...) Anyway after three days I had edited one chapter.

Needless to say panic ensued. To the point where a few days back I gathered up all the remotes in the house bar the one for the stereo and shved them into hubby's arms as he headed out the door to work and begged him to take them. "Please. I have no self-control. My brain is mushy with left over Christmas chocolate, and Carrie is just about to leave New York, and Big is about to chase her there and I know I can't resist..." He took pity and for three days lugged the remotes with him.

And what do you know? It worked. Revisions are done! Sent. A fresh new year awaits me. So today, as I drag myself out from under a week's worth of washing, and a book's worth of scrap paper notes, I wish you all a great big HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!