Costello Christmas

We had a lovely evening Christmas dinner under our back pergola. Mark had to have a Milo to finish off. We had so many treats. We ordered our ham from Teys' meat van at the West End Market. It was beautiful! Our lovely large and moist turkey breasts (that David hot smoked) were so good. They were from David's favourite butcher - Major Cuts at Morningside Central. Our table did look good at the beginning - believe me!

L'Arte

Vivo coffee was my treat this morning. I had a latte at L'arte - a beautiful new coffee shop just around the corner on Riding Rd. Kylie is the lovely proprietor and I had fun browsing around her shop looking at beautiful artworks, jewellery and gifts. Byron Bay Cookies sticky date and ginger cookie was also a yummy treat with my coffee.

Fab Time in Toowoomba

Another lovely family Christmas photo from the Toowoomba get-together. Terri is the spectacular hostess in the middle. We all bring food and drink but they go to a lot of trouble to bring it all together. What a nice do!

Neighbour Christmas

It's our Christmas street get-together today - this year at Caroline and Roger's house. Here's my sliced turkey breast (smoked by David) garlanded with orange slices and mint and a nice dollop of Hank's cranberry and citrus jam in the middle.

Here's some nice Santa Pudding from Charlesworth Nuts in Adelaide decorated with some sliced nectarines. How ironic that Christmas celebrates the preserved summer fruits but we have them all in abundance here in topsy-turvy land at Christmas time.

And some nice potato salad with truffle mayonnaise from Doodles Creek decorated with chopped red onion and fresh herbs and lots of mint from the back garden. Can't wait to get to the neighbours' place to tuck into what everyone else has brought!

Toowoomba Christmas

Here's all the young ones at Michael and Terri's family Christmas gathering in Toowoomba. They had their own special table - just like when they were little.

Here's Cathy with her four brothers. We're all looking a little middle-aged.

Danielle made some beautifully decorated Christmas cookies. Here's Lindsay and Patrick with the treats that went well with the beer.

All the cousins together with only one missing - our lovely Gracie who is busy picking watermelons at Chinchilla. We missed her so much. What a treat it is to still have little Jack believing in Santa and maybe Thomas too.

Christmas Cake Success

Grandma Charlesworth's Christmas Cake is a success. Charlesworth's Nuts from Adelaide send us all the fruit and nuts measured and weighed and we beat up our butter and sugar, eggs, flour, spice and add the fruit (chopped and soaked overnight in brandy). It's so easy and no waste.

Christmas Dekkies

Here's the gang admiring our tree. I like getting out all the Danish decorations Amy collected when she was over there. The Danes think they invented Christmas almost as much as the Swedes do.

Liz and Danielle like the Santa hats.

I like my gum leaf wreath made from leaves I found in the park. It may need a freshen up before next week.

Brother Espresso have great toast toppers. Marinated vegetables with feta is our favourite.

Christmas Treats

Charlesworth Nuts from Adelaide have a mail order system and they send you all the fruit and nuts measured out and ready to chop. We bought two Christmas puddings and a Christmas cake. People in SA have known about them for years and we found them at the markets on one of our treattracking expeditions to Adelaide. I steamed my puddings for four hours each in pyrex casserole dishes. They'll heat up very easily in the microwave on Christmas day.

Pearl Day

Hooray! Pearl Cafe, Woolloongabba, is open for business again after their unfortunate fire. They have done a lot of fixing up over the last few weeks and everything is back to normal, thank goodness.

We're so glad to be back to admiring their homemade cakes and goodies. Everything looks just the same and we had our usual beautiful breakfast there.