Great day for washing

What's with yesterday's wind?

My fake moustache blew off that many times the children now recognise me. I had them calling me "Uncle Roger" for a couple of hours.

And, the wind came on the back of about six years' worth of rain.

We drove back from the Coast in the rain and I had visions of the car aqua-planing on many an occasion.  I remained the rational mustachioed mother and screamed for an hour that the Husband's driving was going "KILL US ALL!" And the children all screamed back, 'Uncle Roger you're scaring us!'

Apart from the weather, the Christmas gigs for the MMMCs have started.

The ladies' lunch, of course. 

I changed my mind about the red luncheon theme ... and went for a pinkish-green feel. In retrospect, more flowers were needed. Hospitality is a life-long learning process, I suspect.

Though, how lovely to host a lunch for like-minded ladies! They help themselves to what they want; they help clear the table; they bring lots of delicious, simple dishes; they are relaxed company; no one fell off their chair. I'd recommend, to everyone, having such a lunch.

And then we had Christmas lunch with grandma and grandad.

You don't want to know about that, other than to say, there were crackers ...

... and paper hats.

And grandad brought his horse inside. Again. There it is in the background trying to look like hired help.

 And he bought his goose inside.

And someone spiked the cat's drink ...

 And now it's all on board for Christmas Day. I was inspired by one of the ladies at the luncheon's brown crockery. 

So I created this kitcheny tableau-ish montage.

I think green and brown are the colours for Christmas 2010 - embrace their 70s organic goodness.

And you know how I am the apron's biggest advocate? Well, I received this calico one which tells you what to do when you gaze down wondering how the hell you'd ended up in the kitchen.

 

I might whip-up some prawn cocktails, because anything with tomato sauce in the recipe can't be that complicated ...  

 and then do some Swedish meatballs (there's a recipe in the 1977 edition of The World Book's Christmas in Scandinavia) but I think I will use the one I found a few years ago in the KikkiK catalogue.

Anyone know where one may get lingonberry jam in Brisbane, other than at Ikea?

 Grandma has a lot of Christmas books which I perused for Seasonal inspiration.

Someone has to have a cry on Christmas Day. It's part of the tradition.

These books are wonderful ... full of classic recipes and photos. I'll go through them and see if I can find something interesting for you.

And finally, I've never before sat down and made something with Lego ...

But recreating Fallingwater is enough to convince me that building with Lego is quite relaxing ...

Child One jumped right in and she's almost finished ... we're taking turns and doing different stages ...

What an amazing building and a great way to introduce children to Frank Lloyd Wright. I'll show you it when it's finished.

PS Thanks to those who commented and thought about Jane.