Christmas in July in August 5 & 6th August 2017

A lot of to-ing and fro-ing this morning.

Took Fraser to school for his last hockey game, then to the doctor for a routine blood test, and then back home for some breakfast.

Then onto picking up some chairs for the table in the upstairs room, going to Taits for the shed flooring, (and then deciding not to get it, as they don't cut yellow tongue to size), strapping down the shed pieces to the ute, and finally getting to Inglewood around 2pm

Had a rather late lunch of a pie from the Bakery, and then into the backyard to put the shed up.  Justin and I placed the pieces "just so".  Was starting to rain a little bit, but we finished it that afternoon

And then into the kitchen to start peeling and then slicing the 6kg of potatoes that I'd bought for the Potato Bake for the Christmas in July in August dinner.  Took a lot longer than I thought it would...

Got the potatoes into the oven around 10 to 5, and then off to David's quickly for some eggs.  He only had 1/2 dozen left, but he told me to come back tomorrow afternoon (when he's closed) and ring on the bell.

 Upstairs to listen to Justin play guitar and read the Age online, and then onto to Kingower around 6.20 (we were supposed to be there between  6 and 6.30, with dinner sharp at 7pm).

I hoped that the potatoes were sufficiently cooked through.  I thought the potatoes in the shallower green enamel dish were cooked, but I wasn't sure about the potatoes in the deeper corningware dish. And of course, they were very hot.  Had to put them on the back of the ute on top of wooden chopping boards, and hope they wouldn't slide off - as we had taken the sides off the ute in order to fit the shed pieces.

As it was, when we arrived at St Mary's Church, the pots had half slid off the boards and one of the boards was rather close to the edge of the ute, but it was all good, nothing spilled or broken

Damo and Nicole had outdone themselves, Both dressed up - Damo as Father Christmas, and Nicole as Mrs Claus

The table was set beautifully and Anne had made a LOT of nibbles ie prawn cocktails, pickled eggs, turkey meatballs stuffed with blue cheese and a raspberry sauce, smoked salmon pinwheel sandwiches, trio of dips, pate, cheese, biscuits - too much - but all delicious

There were 20 of us, so we all sat around the one large table.

At 7pm we were invited to grab a plate and come and get served (but we hadn't really started on the nibbles yet)

Damo and Nicole served up the chicken, beef, gravy, mixed veg, my potato bake (from the shallower dish, the other was in the oven) - and it was all very nice

Sat with Maile and David and had a nice chat about our trip to France.

Dessert was also very good, Jan' famous trifle, Terry's famous plum pudding and custard, and my Christmas biscuits - I assembled the star tree, and also had the cinnamon santa and Christmas tree biscuits.  Maile had made litres and litres of egg nog, and there was also mulled wine.

All excellent!

And they played old Christmas records

We stayed pretty much til the end, and then home - no kangaroos on route.  And I took home about 4 kg of my potato bake (in the corning ware dish)- at least my kids love potatoes

Bit of a sleep in on Sunday, and then off to the Bridgewater Pub for a late breakfast.  It's actually the first time that we've eaten there (had tried a few times before hand, but it was closed etc)

We were the only ones there - and had bacon eggs, hashbrowns and a coffee - not bad.  Was also an open fire in the dining room - which provided some additional heat.

Back to the house, via the IGA, where we bought some more mouse poison (as we still have mice, discovered them last time), and we also looked for some shed flooring. Found the below, which might be good - given that the yellow tongue might just be too hard

Justin then painted a couple of cupboards

And I organised the dvds into one of those silver cases.  Took ages, and I still haven't finished, but just want to tidy up

Then back to Brooke Street, where I got more eggs from David (he opened up just for me), and then to Maile and David's where I was invited to pick some lovely kalamata olives.

Stayed till just before 4.30, and then back home