Christmas Day at the Seetos and Boxing Day at the Chans

Christmas Day

Janet, Fiona and I spend the day with the Seeto's for lunch and dinner. I made sushi to bring there for lunch as well as some chocolate cupcake christmas trees for dessert. Bindy and Ange made a vongole and mussel spaghetti, which we had with a cob of bread.

For dinner, Aunty Cath made her eight treasure duck, Bindy and Ange supplied the oysters, prawns, bbq pork and vegies. For dessert, Bindy made oozy chocolate puddings.

Boxing Day

The Seetos came over to our place for lunch and dinner. We decided on a Thai menu, with rice paper rolls, tom yum soup and thai beef salad for lunch. Also invited Marion over for lunch.

 

After lunch it was present opening time. Lily played Santa and handed out the presents.

 

 

Then for dinner we had thai prawn mango salad by Megan, pad thai by Lily, Bindy and Ange made pork larb, and Janet made steamed egg plant, and soop park (kung koong) and sticky rice.

Lights of Christmas

The day after Janet, A. Cath and Evan got back from their holidays up at Hallidays Point, we went out to the city to see the Santa Fest at Darling Harbour and the Lights of Christmas at St Mary's Cathedral. Drove the blue bus in as we had Fiona with us and went to Darling Harbour first, got there at 8.30pm so positioned ourselves on the bridge and waited for the 9pm fireworks.

After the fireworks we walked to St Mary's Cathedral to see the lights. Jenly was there with her parents as well. Took a lot of photos and then made our way back to Darling Harbour. We wanted to go check out the Christmas Tree, but Fiona was not going any further and wanted to go back to the car, so Evan, Kaylene and I went to take photos of the tree. By the time we got to the tree, Janet rang to ask when the Parking station was closing. Not too sure whether it was 12 midnight, so we started jogging back to the car.  It was a warm night so by the time we got to the car, we were sweating profusely. Got Lily to drive the car down and then I took over to drive home. As we were driving out a car was driving in...I think Janet is a worry wart.

LTS Christmas Dinner 2012

Wednesday 19 December 2012

After deliberations, it was decided that we would go to Rhodes Phoenix for our work Christmas dinner this year, so I was given the task to book the restaurant.  I sent around the menu and everyone got to choose a dish.

The menu:

Entrée	Fried/Steamed Mixed Dim Sim Platter (3 in a serve)	$8.00
	Spring Rolls (3 in a serve) or Curry Chicken Puff (3 in a serve)	$8.00
	Vegetarian Spring Rolls (3 in a serve)	$8.00
Mains	Sauted Beef with Vegetables (JB)	$19.80
	Crispy Chicken with Ginger & Shallot Sauce (PO)	$21.80
	Honey King Prawns (MT)	$26.80
	Pork Ribs with spiced salt and chilli (RS and IR)	$19.80
	Braised 2 kinds of mushrooms and veges (JG)	$23.80
	Mongolian Lamb (KM)	$19.80
	Steam Rice (per person) 7 x $3	$21.00
		$176.80
	Per Person (excl. Helen who is ordering her own, also excludes drinks and tips)	$25.26

With drinks, dessert, tea and coffee ordered as well, I think we all ended up paying $25 per person.

Fiona's House Xmas Party

 Sunday 9th Dec and it's that time of the year again.

On Saturday, there was last minute gift wrapping to be done.

Then on Sunday, Janet made beef mince & vegie puff pastries, Lily made vanilla slice and curried eggs to bring to Fiona's xmas party. I made sushi for our own lunch and brought a tray over for the Seeto's.

We left home around 1pm to go pick Lily up from Narwee and then to pick up Uncle David, Aunty Cath and Evan before heading to the party which was scheduled to start at 2pm.

Food on offer this year was mini party pies and sausage rolls, mini quiches, sausages, spinach and fetta pastizzis and the food we brought. Desserts on offer were an assortment of store bought cupcakes, mini pavlovas, peach cake, Aunty Cath's chiffon cake, chocolate slice, plus lots of chocolates - mini soft drinks and packet chips.

Got to meet Kathy, the new house mate's family (sister and husband). JT bought DVD's for each house mate, and gave female staff a purse holder from hawaii and chocolates wrapped in mini milk cartons.

This year I received a $30 Myers/Coles giftcard from Fiona and we gave her a DVD and framed photo of JT, MT, KC and FT for her room.

OTEN Christmas Luncheon

The LTS team decided to join in the Christmas spirit and this year we all bought our $20 tickets for the OTEN 2012 Strathfield Staff Christmas Party which was being catered for by Spit Roast Catering.

On the menu was: Oven Roasted Turkey, Leg Ham off the Bone, Roast Beef with Gravy, Rost Pork with Apple Sauce, Roast Potato, Roast Pumpkin, Bread Rolls & Butter, New York Coleslaw, Garden Salad, Hawaiian Rice Salad, Caesar Salad and for Dessert, Plum pudding and custard or Pavlova and a soft drink or water.

Iveta, Ronald, Jenni, Katherine and myself had an intimate table for 5. Helen had opted out and was manning the phones in the office.

As they were lining  up to get the food, I rushed back to get some money and buy some raffle tickets. Ended up getting 10 tickets for $5. And guess what, I won 4th prize, which was a $100 bunnings gift card.  So glad as I can put that to use more than I can a bottle of wine.

Tourists go to Blue Mountains

Unfortunately I had to go back to work, but Lily, Janet, Kaylene and Fiona, joined the Seetos and the Puns for a trip to the Blue Mountains. They visited the Three Sister, Echo Point and took the scenic railway and cable car rides. 

 

According to Bindy, she ordered 13 pork or chicken rolls for their lunch which they ate whilst bush walking.

They also went to the Peter Whynn sports store in Parramatta, where Uncle David got to meet the man himself and get a photo taken with him.

When they got back they went to Flemington for lunch. They didn't call us to join them until it was too late and by the time we were going to drive there, they rang to say the restaurant had closed it's doors to customers. As it was, I had already bought KFC for dinner just in case, after going to Zumba, so that is what I had for dinner.

Tourists in Town

The day after Ken's wedding, Evan, Bindy, Josiah, Grace and Jonathan swung by Strathfield and then Lily, Janet, Fiona, Kaylene and I joined them on a train ride into Circular Quay.

Walked to Customs House first so that they could see the diorama in the floor of the city and get their bearings and then walked around to the Opera House. Janet and Fiona headed towards the MCA and waited for us there whilst we took photos of the harbour bridge and opera house.

Then we made our way back to the MCA and the passenger terminal. A cruise ship, the Oosterdam was in town and was blocking the some of the views. So we made our way around the Hyatt to the park just before under the bridge to take more photos.

After we head back to the Rocks. Met up with the elderly party, Aunty Cath, Uncle Isaiah, Aunty Susan and Aunty Christina who were having a late lunch of subway. The younger ones bought more meat pies and sausage rolls and I bought some sushi.

Then we parted ways, the elders went to the Opera House and the young ones walked down George Street to the Strand Arcade, then through the Art House to a sports store and then back down and under to QVB to check out the Swarovski christmas tree.

Janet and Fiona then caught the train back home from Town Hal, whilst we continued walking to Chinatown. I bought some Emperor puffs and Bindy bought Lo Por Beung. Then walked to Central Station where we caught the train back to Strathfield.

Got back to Strathfield and the oldies had also just got back as well. Waited for the rest of the family to finish work before we headed to the Pine Inn for some good old aussie pub grub $10 meal. As Justin warned them, "it's quantity, not quality", but still good food. Joined up at least 4 tables to seat us all. I shared with Kaylene, although we ended up with Fish and Chips as well as Steak and Chips. Mix up in the orders.

After the meal, we went back home for tea and left over cakes, which we had a lot of.

Ken & Angel's Wedding

The big day had arrived and hopefully everything that needed to be done was.

I arranged for a hair stylist, James (Janos Kiss) to do a home visit and colour and style my hair as well as style Kaylene's hair. He was running late but eventually came just before 9am. So after colouring my hair, and with Kaylene washing her hair, he styled Fiona's hair, putting in curls and "joogshing it up". Then he went to work on Kaylene's hair. While he was doing Kaylene's hair I washed my hair. After styling my hair, even Lily wanted her hair styled. All up it cost me $180 for the four of us. he was finished by 11.30am and we had time to dress and put on our faces.

Left home just after 1am to go to Parramatta. On the way there, we got a phone call from Evan asking us where we were. They were already at the registry and waiting for us. The room was opened at 2pm and we all filed in before the bride and groom made their entrance. The marriage celebrant was so funny, she tried to get Ken to relax and called Uncle David "the prime minister". She injected laughter into the ceremony. We only had time to take a few photos before we had to rush back to the car, as it was metered.

We all made our way back to Strathfield for afternoon tea.  Some of us got changed into our evening wear and redid our make up, whilst others ate and talked or took photos.

4pm came and it was time to load up the cars and make our way to the reception venue at Rhodes. Got there and Kylie, Dion and Vanessa were already there. They even helped with the decorations, thank goodness for Dion's height. I discovered a box of table decorations were missing and started to panic. All that hard work...then remembered that Janet and Nathan were still at home so called them up to locate the box and bring it with them. Phew..panic attack averted. If worse came to worse, we'd go to Ikea to buy some. With so many helpers and willing hands the tables were decorated, the stage was dressed and the reception table all set up. Justin helped blow up the balloons with helium. Bindy helped tie them up. Grace, A. Christina, A. Susan, Lily, and Jonathan helped set the table decorations. Sophia helped pin the flowers on the cake and reception tables. She even had to go and buy some more safety pins.

Three beautiful ladies (Belinda, Kaylene and myself) manned the reception table, greeting guests as they arrived. Getting them to sign the frame, accepting gifts and directing them to their tables. I was so busy and so relieved after that I didn't take a lot of photos, which I now regret and the photos that I did take turned out to be blurry - so much for wearing contacts.

The welcome and following slide show seemed to go on forever and the guests were beginning the clatter their cutlery wanting the food to come out, but they had to wait for the slide show to finish. By then an hour had passed and people were chewing on their chopsticks. When the food did come out it was quick and fast. One dish after the next, hadn't even finished eating one when the next was out, but they were all delicious and the service was very good. Before the 3rd course was out I had already asked for a takeaway box. With 3 kids on our table there was a lot of food going uneaten.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur. Cake cutting, toasting, speeches. There was no bridal dancing, but we did have some music, care of Sylvia, and the kids enjoyed the dancing, if not on the dance floor and then it was time to pack up.  Even that went pretty quickly and we were out of the restaurant before 11pm. Janet helped settle the matters of the bill and we went home to call it a night.

New Lounge Suite

We received delivery of our new King Furniture Jasper Lounge Suite.

Angel's Kitchen Tea

On Saturday 17 November, 2 days before the big day Bindy organised a kitchen tea for Angel.

Kaylene and I were up the night before busy making tags for the thank you gifts, home baked cookies by Bindy, and that morning I finished off the Happy Kitchen Tea banner.

In the morning I went shopping for ingredients and set to work making home made sushi rolls. Still busy making the sushi rolls, I co-opted Lily, A. Christina, Angel and Sandy to make the salmon sandwiches.

There were a lot of cakes. I baked a boiled apricot cake and some red velvet cupcakes, Sylvia made a flourless chocolate cake and banoffee, Kaylene made chocolate crackles, Lily made curried eggs, Janet heated up the pastizzis, A. Cathy made her chiffon cake.  Aunty Joy came with a Date and Walnut cake. Vanita came with a Ginger cake, Linda came with a baked cheesecake, Marisa and Mandi came with a Madeira cake. Bindy and Ange whipped up cheese and cold meats platters. Lily and I made up the fruit platter.  Lots of sweets, not to many savouries.

There were kitchen tea games. We all had to go around and tell a bit about ourselves and how we were related to Ken. There was a memory game with kitchen tools. There was a peg game, which I managed to win, with some help from Casey who managed to sabotage the game with spare pegs. But they had the most fun designing wedding dresses out of toilet paper and the winners were Marisa, Linda and Mandi with their mini wedding dress, which Justin judged to be in vogue.

Darren's 22nd Birthday

On 6 November we went out to celebrate Darren's birthday without the birthday boy, who had gone out with friends.

We went to Pine Inn for dinner.

Janet's 50th Birthday

We celebrated Janet's 50th Birthday on Saturday. 

She was up and spirited away by the Seeto's around 7am that morning to go to the flower markets to buy flowers for a trial run of making wedding bouquets.

Once she left, Lily and I set about decorating the place, putting up the Happy Birthday banner and organising the table and chairs, before heading out to Woollies and Aldi to buy the food for the day. We also ended up buying the cake at Hello Happy.

I made potato salad, thai beef salad, thai mango and prawn salad. Lily made devilled eggs and caesar salad. Mark bbq'd the sausages, steaks and kebabs. Bindy came over early to lend a hand and Kaylene made chocolate crackles.

While we were prepping and cooking the food, Janet and Aunty Cath were making bouquet after bouquet. The bride-to-be was ctaching up on her z's in the govinda room.

Evan was busy taking photos of the wedding bands and engagement rings.

After lunch, Janet and Kaylene went to pick up Fiona and U. David. Bindy and A. Cath went ?? for shopping and Ken, Angel went to Ikea Rhodes for shopping.

After cleaning up it was back to more prepping, this time for dinner.

When Janet got back with Uncle David and Fiona, we had afternoon tea, desserts and the birthday cake.

I did have some time to help Evan with the photographing of the rings, but then it was back to prepping and cooking for dinner.

The rainbow jellies that I had prepared the previous nights didn't turn out as I had hoped, back to the drawing board.

Didn't get to bed until after 12 midnight - I think it was a long day for all.

On Tuesday night, Sue and Leonie surprised Janet with a belated birthday cake.

Sculptures by the Sea & Photoshoot

This year I went twice.  Once with Mare on Sat 27 October and then again on Friday 2 November with Evan, Ken, Angel and Kaylene.

The day I went with Mare, she came to pick me up at 12.15pm.  We didn't get to Bondi until after 1pm. Found parking which was relatively close for 2hrs, so we spent the 2 hours walking to Bondi and then to Tamarama.

 

Unfortunately I forgot to pack my camera which I discovered wasn't in my bag only when we got to Bondi. Lucky I had my itouch with me, so I used that to take photos. Also got Mare to take some of me too.

As Mare had to be back at Strathfield before 5pm. we left around 3pm, but traffic was so bad that we got back to Strathfield around 5pm and Mare even had to just drop me off on Railway Pde, at the lights around OTEN and I walked back home.

On Friday, I spent the morning with my Stampin' Up ladies at the Paper Expo in Penrith. Sue trained it to Strathfield and then with me driving, we went to Five Dock to pick up Maria M, Maria I and Connie aroun 9am. Got to Penrith just before 10am, but they was already a line out the door for people to pay and go in. We spent the morning there, I bough a few projects to work on and then we went to have lunch at Panthers. I had a tempura barramundi with salad and chips for $20 and a coke.

By the time I got home from dropping the ladies off it was past 2pm, which was the time I had said I'd swing by the Seeto's...running late, it didn't help that it was school hour pick up time and all the school zones were in effect 40km. Got to the Seetos, just after 2.30pm, closer to 3, Evan and Angel were patiently waiting. With Evan now driving we went to pick up Ken.  Traffic still bad, we got stuck at Bexley. Got to Ken's just after 3.30pm. Then we headed to Tamarama where Kaylene was with friends.

Managed to find parking around Tamarama beach and met up with Kaylene. So began Evan's photoshoot with Ken and Angel. Kaylene and I took our own photos, sometimes though we'd get Evan to take photos of us.

Never made to it the sculptures along the waters edge to Bondi though, by the time we were heading that way the sun was starting to set, so it was back to the car to go to Dudley's Reserve to take some sunset romantic pics. Although the day had started nice and warm, it was pretty cool by the coast and with the sun setting it was cooler than anticipated and the 2 models were freezing.  Just as the sky was beginning to light up with the city lights, they called it quits. Cold and hungry, we packed up and headed to Chinatown for dinner.

Kaylene took us to her favourite place to eat at the Dixon food court. A Japanese fast food place where we got Karage Don for $8. To get there though we had to traipse through the Chinatown night markets...lots of food on offer. After dinner we were to full to even consider buying anything from the food stalls. But as we'd only paid for 1hr in the meter, it was time to head back.

By the time Kaylene and I headed home it was past 11pm. A long day.