December hurtling past

There seems to be a lot on at the moment - not so much for me because my life is very boring - but the boys have constant end of year festivities. Number one son is basically on bludging for the next two weeks - sessions called "movie appreciation" at school which means a DVD of Gremlins 2 and microwave popcorn. Number two son isn't doing quite so well; he is absolutely outraged that the final day's "treat" is going to be orienteering - which is his idea of hell, especially if it's 35 degrees. I said that given it is his last day ever of primary school he could probably take a packet of chips and sit under a tree without fear of repercussion (certainly not from me, I completely sympathise) but he is still very cross about the whole idea.

I dropped number one off at a water pistol party on Saturday that was over the road from the house where my husband I first lived when we came to Canberra twenty-two years ago! Such a nostalgia trip ... until I turned the corner and saw they'd completely knocked down the little 1960s brick box we rented and built something else. Gentrification? It's not exactly a posh end of town ... and that brick box was hideous, so I shouldn't be sad. But I am. It was fun.



On Sunday afternoon we decorated the Christmas tree. Or the boys did - while disrespecting our tree ornaments as tacky - most of which THEY CHOSE as toddlers because the bigger and shinier and sparklier the better! And it's too late to change them now, they are Our Family Tradition. As is watching 1980s music videos while we put the tree up (I tried to play Christmas carols once and got shouted down).

 

Other than that I spent the weekend weaving, a bit of light shopping (nothing useful like Christmas presents, I am not an early shopper) and trying to keep cool. The parliamentary sitting year is finally over after a frantic last couple of weeks, and we're all a bit tired. So a work morning tea is in order. I made cheesecakes like my mother used to make - that is, what the Edmond's cookbook calls cheesecakes. They have no cheese in them at all; a pastry base, with a spoon of jam, then a sponge cake top. I am sure they have a much more sensible name in the rest of the world?