Mad About Bags Christmas Cracker Swap

One of the swaps I signed up for this year was Tracy's of  Mad About Bags annual Christmas Cracker Swap. I was paired with the lovely Suzanne (no blog). We e-mailed a bit about our likes an this gorgeous cracker arrived a couple of weeks back -

I love the idea of a tea towel around the cardboard tube!

 Such a beautiful array of goodies -

 one of the boys gobbled up the candy cane - we still, unbelievably, have others on our tree! I only bought one box of 8 this year too. Love the sweet tin of lipbalm - a year round use for me.

 What an adorable dcoration and look! Look at the very cute knitting brooch. How cool is that?!

 Washi tape always comes in handy for my snail mail and I'll be doing the cross stitch on our summer road trip.

Thank you Suzanne for a very cool cracker!

This is what I sent to Suzanne -

I put the cracker in the bamboo cup!

Thanks Tracy for hosting the swap again this year - it is always neat to see what one can fit inside a cardboard tube!

An exciting day

An exciting day in two ways. The first is a very sarcastic exciting moment in that moths were spotted in the pantry. This is the 2nd time this year and the 2nd time ever for me. To say I was mad was under stating it. So the entire pantry has been pulled to pieces; every single Tupperware container has been opened; multiple foodstuffs disposed of in the bin; pantry shelves given an almighty clean with white vinegar; bay leaves bought; it seems like every Tupperware container has had a huge scrub and it is all out on the kitchen bench now to put back.
The pantry does look rather superb now I have to say. It probably did need a decent clean. Fingers crossed no more icky things discovered ever again. I'll be buying smaller packets!


The 2nd exciting thing was we went to buy a new fridge/freezer combo - went into one shop to look and kinda came out with this... I had no idea the husband had planned this! It was on a super special with the $250 icecream bowl thrown in for free as a promotion! As the best husband in the world had been looking at prices for weeks apparently, he knew this was a super deal! We did go onto buy the new fridge/freezer later in the day with a shop price matching another shop's price, just so I could get fly buy points :)


Now to finish sorting out the pantry; buy more baking supplies and to play with my new surprise toy!

The Tree

Bought inside only about 5 days before Christmas! I got sick of having pine trees piling up behind our shed year after year - there is no collection service here that we know about, so two or so years ago we went to a garden centre and bought a "forever" tree that lives in a pot in the backyard all year round. We did re-pot it this year in a divine deep red glazed pottery pot. I was still putting decorations on it on Christmas Eve. We had staggered wake ups on Christmas Day - the last two woke at 11.30am! We really are not fussed about that here - one had just worked 11 days in a row. Christmas isn't huge in this house - I really could have had the day pass me by this year and it would not have bothered me. I'm waiting to hear today if Dad has been discharged from hospital after open heart surgery a few days before Christmas.

Cousins' 24 Day Advent Calendar Swap - days 11 to 15

Lots more knitting, bike riding, reading, stitching, husband cooking dinner... just what holidays should be! I did do oodles of ironing - not sure I've reached the bottom of the ironing basket since October or something!

Following on the with cousins' Advent swap -

The following five are what I sent Jackie-

the 3rd one down is a cushion cover (I've one too); the 4th one down is something I was very proud off - ha! a year or two back, someone in a blog swap (I wish I could remember who sent it to me - I am sure it was another kiwi blogger!) sent me a wool bag - a genius of an idea where you put the ball of wool into the bag just as you are starting it and pull the end of the wool through the hole. This is particularly good for travelling (no balls of wool wandering down the plane aisle - I've had that happen to me before...!!) or for knitting multiple balls and stops the tangles. I pursued the shelves at Spotlight about a month ago and found the little tool and bits to put the hole in the bag. I'm thrilled at how they turned up and made quite a few for knitters for Christmas. I love Happy-go-knitty wool.

Jackie sent to me -

a yo-yo (I am hopeless but keep trying); a heart stress ball (perfectly timed for the end of year at school); a crochet hook - great for picking up dropped stitches in my knitting; some divine Vintage Purls wool and paperclips - always useful for my long letters to penfriends and university stuff. lots of good useful practical items!

I'm now opening the Twelve Days of Christmas swap, so I don't have withdrawal :) symptoms yet of opening a gift every day!

Boxing Day looks like...

Boxing Day (December 26) looks like this here...

 A kid on his new bike (first new bike ever for this kid, as he has only ever had hand-me downs

 Knitting "Falling Water" - so close to the end! Taken about 15 months to get this far!

 summer stitching - so easy after my last project was on 32 count linen!

 Always laundry (and new Christmas clothes being washed!)

 Hydrendras picked from the parent's house

 Christmas reads

 lemon honey made by the twin brother for me for Christmas

Boxing Day shopping - when New Zealand made merino wool tights are $NZ30-50 for ONE pair - it pays to buy them at 50% off sales. I've waited months for this. Some of these are gifts too... I bought one book alongside these and skiddaddled out of the shopping centre - I need nothing else!

Twas the day before Christmas

and I'm not ready and not sure I can really be bothered leaving the house for anything.


We've just spent 4 hours at a scout den. The New Zealand Scout Jamboree is in 5 days. We've packed and packed and loaded and loaded. Everything from a entire kitchen (which the scouts have to build!), a washing machine powered by a bike, army size tens, tresle tables, seats, wooden bench seats, huge number of bamboo poles, equipment like camp stretchers and pillows for the Australian troop we are hosting - the equipment and packing is something else - incredible to watch! All the boy's gear has been packed in big 60L plastic containers as a lot easier to freight down. They are chartering a plane and no luggage is allowed on the plane.


it took hours and hours and hours of packing and labelling clothing with not just a name, but a troop name, a site number and a number. On it went. One kid has truly got zero underwear left now and barely any clothes left for the next 5 days.


It will be an adventure. Now all I really want to do is sleep. We have a kid with zero Christmas gifts. I still have not done any food shopping for tomorrow... Dad had open heart surgery 2 days ago.
I think I've run out of Christmas inspiration/interest really!