Christmas Wishes

Good grief, what a whirlwind Christmas I have just experienced. A poor sick little pony leading up to the day, lunch for 26 on the day and then we hosted a party on the 27th - which is the epitome of insanity – to celebrate my birthday. If it's any indication of just how chaotic our festive season was you won't be surprised to learn I only decorated the tree on Boxing Day – and very sparsely at that!





Many years ago I made the tree decorations using found seed pods. I was shopping at the local supermarket and noticed all these beautiful little pods on the ground under the trees – some variety of Acacia I think, native to Australia. I returned one Sunday afternoon and spent a couple of hours collecting them. Goodness knows what any passers-by must have thought. I then drilled a tiny hole into each one of the them and then strung them together, punctuated with a gold bead every so often. I was addicted and couldn't stop making these blessed things – I found the larger seed pods that I used for the mantel garlands in the parklands which coincidentally is now only five houses away from where we live.

I don't decorate with them every year but this year, teamed with some fairy lights they were quick and easy and I was happy just to have something up! I also like the idea of celebrating Christmas in an Australian way minus the snowflakes, the reindeer and the frosted windows – yesterday was 40 degrees for heaven's sake!



Billie had the right idea, she's lounged around pretty much the entire time and no, we are yet to eat the pudding – it's still hanging from the mantel. I wonder if it will keep until next year?