Christmas greetings

From my family to yours, I hope you have a very happy Christmas. For us, Christmas morning first sees us busily getting the almost thirty members of the extended family to nine o'clock church! 

We welcomed the newest family member to her first Christmas. I think she was impressed and shows early signs of being a party girl :)

Like everyone, much of our day is centred on specially prepared food, always a cold feast for our family in Australia. I don't ever recall having a hot Christmas lunch. Salads and seafood abound!

The feasting is interrupted only to spend time pool side, cooling off. Or perhaps for the adults to have a snooze in a quiet corner!

Having had a sick daughter in 2012, we are particularly thankful this Christmas that she is well. It is a time for our family to reflect on a God who continues to give us every good thing. He continues to give graciously and willingly, two thousand years after sending His most precious gift of His Son for us all.

I hope your Christmas is a special time of reflection and time with family, and that 2013 brings good health and happiness to you and yours. 

Bloom x

Busy hands

Our kids always hit the ground running when holidays roll around, all eager to 'make stuff' and do things that the demands of the school term haven't allowed for. They have all been enthusiastically creating.

Miss 17 has most helpfully taken on the task of gift wrapping, priding herself on making each a little different.

She has also declared her intention to learn how to crochet and as her first project has chosen to make a double bed blanket - she doesn't do things in halves! It is currently 240 chain long and 1" wide. Photographic evidence of progress to follow at a later date :) 

The boy has been madly folding origami Christmas ornaments from old French texts to sell at a local pop-up market.

He has been selling his kusudama too. He first began making these a couple of years ago, and has refined his skills to a point that I can't match and others are willing to pay for!

This is his (and my) first market experience, and he is quickly learning the intricacies of maintaining adequate stock, filling custom orders and balancing his till at the end of the morning! His customers have been very kind and encouraging. I suspect he is quietly busting to have an 'origami'free' day to indulge in Minecraft!

Our littlest bloss has been keeping our strength up with morning tea chocolate creations.

She has also been beavering away in her room making gifts for family. It is such a pleasure for us all to see her returned to her happy, creative self after such a tough year with sickness.

And me? Well I'm mostly racing about like a lunatic as is apparently normal at this time of year. But just occasionally I find a quiet spot and a few minutes to stitch the bind on my latest little quilt.

Peace on earth

We have been to the farm for a few days with our kids and have returned to civilisation to the horrific news of the Newtown school tragedy. To be frank, I have avoided reading the details as I'm not sure my heart can take it. As a parent of three children, freshly on school holidays and pulling me this way and that with requests and busyness, this news stops me in my tracks; makes me re-appreciate the blessing they are to me this Christmas.

As I was reading through my emails this morning, one from Sarah Jane Studios struck a chord. Sarah has designed a downloadable card with 100% of the funds to go to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund which is set up with Newtown Savings Bank to support families of the victims and community needs. In some small way, purchase of this card may just help with the practical needs of those mourning the loss of precious children.

In Australia, gun ownership has been stringently controlled since the Port Arthur massacre of 1996. I am genuinely interested to know how the Newtown tragedy leaves our US friends feeling about the complex matter of gun laws and the right to bear arms.