BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes

I was so excited all those months ago when Boomama announced that there was going to be a Christmas tour of homes. I LOVED the original tour, I think that I managed to see 95 % of all the wonderful homes. This is a link to my first tour of homes, where my home was tidy and not filled to the rim with boxes! I love my home, we knew the instant we stepped in the door that it was the house for us, see here for more photos.
I had so many wonderful plans of how I could show you all what Christmas is like in Sunny Brisbane, Australia..........BUT that was before we found out about our BBBIIIIGGGGG move ! We are moving to Jakarta, Indonesia in 4 weeks and still having our entire family from both sides for Christmas day. (You can read about it here, and here and here)


But, as most of our home looks like this......

and this.....

and more of this.....

I am doing a bit of cheating, I am using a mix of photos from the present and the past.


Christmas 2003, note the play pen around the tree to protect all the decorations from a crawling Ben

Christmas eve 2004

Photo for Christmas cards, 2002

Photo for Christmas cards 2003

Photo for Christmas cards 2004

Photo for Christmas cards 2005

Unfortunately I cant get the same template for this year, so I have created a montage for 2006 Christmas cards.

Christmas 2006 photo

As we are moving to a predominately Muslim country, I have gone a bit overboard with decorations to take with us. I hope to be able to recreate the excitement, meaning and joy of Christmas for the children in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas.

Our first Nutcracker with Santa

Our newly decorated current tree, It is a riot of colour and glows magnificently at night when the lights are on.

Reindeer

Our Nativity scenes, I was going to arrange all the figures perfectly and then realise that it wouldn't show what it is really like. The kids all play with Baby Jesus, bring the reindeer's over to meet the 3 wise men and let the carollers sing everyone off to sleep. They all spend hours role playing and retelling the story of baby Jesus

Reindeer and snow globes

Our wreath, we couldn't have and fresh wreaths in Queensland's summer, it would wilt and rot within hours.

Our carolers

Our current tree with even more decorations

Our family room tree, this one gets moved around a lot. If someone is extra special good, they even might get to have it in their bedroom for a night!

This is a wonderful tradition that we started a few years ago, we have a family portrait in the pool on Christmas day. I have all these prints enlarged and framed in 11x14" size and on the wall. It perfectly captures Christmas in Brisbane.

Pool 2002

pool 2005



pool 2005


pool 2005

Here is another Christmas tradition, the BBQ on the deck.

School teacher Christmas pressies.

I have finally worked out the perfect presents for teachers. We create a box of goodies:- mini champagne, home made shortbread with recipe, mini chocolates, 2 pretty tree decorations and 2 crackers.

This is the recipe for the BEST EVER shortbread

GJ’s Very Special Shortbread


2½ cups of Plain Flour
¾ cups of Sugar
250gms of Butter (not margarine)
1 pinch of Salt


Combine softened butter and sugar in a bowl.
Cream mixture with electric beater until it changes colour from yellow to nearly white
(Can take several minutes!!!!! This is the important part)

Once creamed add sifted flour and salt to form a dough.
Roll in to balls the size of 20-50cent pieces
Place on baking paper and flatten to 10-12mm with the back of a fork (allow a little room for expansion)
Bake in pre-heated oven 150 deg until light golden brown. ENJOY

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas tour, please feel free to drop in any time. It has been a pleasure showing you around, next year I will be having an exciting adventure and look forward to sharing that with you too!