Hello my fine friends, and a very happy New Year to you!
December was pretty full-on, you can probably tell as my last post here on the blog was the November edition of A Sentence A Day.
Don’t worry, I have plenty of posts planned, just need to put fingers to keyboard. Being on holidays for another week means I may actually get a chance to do exactly that – so watch this space 😉 .
1 December – Had KFC and a movie on Netflix to celebrate Friday night – “The Lost City” starring Sandra Bullock.
2 December – Miss 27, the husbear and I went to the Twilight Makers Market at Raby Bay Harbour.
3 December – Happy 1st wedding anniversary to our son and daughter-in-law! I did some Christmas shopping at Carindale.
4 December – It would have been my mum’s 79th birthday. Hard to believe she’s been dead nearly 17 years (although I only found out about it about 11 years ago).
5 December – Business coaching session. I snapped this pic of the poincianas in bloom near my coach’s office. We have a lot of poinciana trees in the area where I live and I love the festive display they put on every year just in time for Christmas.
Miss 27 had a bit of a crappy day so we splashed out on Thai takeaway for dinner.
6 December – Started the morning at my BNI group where we learned about the differences between termites and flying ants, thanks to our building and pest inspector member.
7 December –
8 December – Attended a business planning workshop in the morning – getting ready for 2024! – followed by lunch for the group at Fiction Bar in Raby Bay Harbour.
9 December – Saturday is errands day – went to the library, took a heap of quilts to the laundromat (they’re too big for our washing machine), decorated our Christmas tree, and wrapped some pressies.
10 December – We went to the local pool for a swim, followed by fish and chips at Cleveland Point.
11 December – Roses from the husbear! Today marks 36 years since our very first date.
12 December –
13 December – A great start to the day with a Christmas breakfast and predatory Secret Santa with my BNI group.
Later in the day however wasn’t so good – I discovered somebody had hacked my business Paypal account and had been siphoning funds into their account, to the tune of about $600! Spent ages trying to get that sorted out. (Good news – Paypal refunded the money just before Christmas).
14 December – Met my friend Jeanie for coffee at the Lighthouse at Cleveland Point.
15 December – Busy day conducting interviews today as I need an extra team member (or two) for my business. Hoping to appoint somebody before Christmas, though they won’t start til mid-January.
16 December – Weekend at Coochie: the husbear was exhausted so while he napped, I went for a solo beach walk 🙂 .
17 December – It was the annual street Christmas party, which is why we came over for the weekend, such a great community here.
18 December – Conducted two more interviews today. Four of the applicants will go through to the next stage – a copywriting task, which will help me make my final decision.
19 December – Took this pic of Miss 27 as she left for work 😉 .
20 December – Haven’t had much luck with the books I’ve been reading lately, but I’m enjoying this one.
I gave up on the last book, it was in the sci fi/fantasy genre and looked intriguing, but I missed the small print on the cover that said it was “a cross between Fifty Shades of Grey and (some other book)” … I only got about a quarter of the way through as the plot was extremely light on, and I was sick of all the parts about “throbbing members” (gratuitous sex scenes)!
21 December – Yay!!! Last full work day for 2023!!!! And I appointed not one but TWO new team members, here’s to a bigger and better 2024.
22 December – Busy packing and then we got the 2.20pm barge over to Coochiemudlo Island. So nice to sit on the porch enjoying an icecream spider …
23 December – Settling into those holiday feels with a leisurely cheese board.
Fleur certainly seems to be enjoying her holiday on Coochie too. She has her own camp chair as she’s not allowed on the couches (she’d claw them to bits)!
We went fishing just before sunset and caught a couple of bream and a tailor.
24 December – Our daughter arrived after dinner to spend Christmas with us (our son will be spending it with his outlaws), and we played a silly version of Scrabble. No counting points, the rule was that every word we put on the board had to relate to Christmas in some way. There were some pretty weird and wonderful justifications, I must say, and we had some good laughs! And – I couldn’t believe I got the letters to make up my name!
25 December –Â A very low key Christmas. After breakfast and unwrapping pressies, we went down the beach to fish and swim.
Then it was home to glaze the ham, mix up a brown rice salad, and to cook potato bake for our festive lunch.
In the afternoon we watched a movie on Netflix and enjoyed more beach time, before Miss 27 caught the ferry back to the mainland just before dark.
26 December – Another gorgeous day at our island paradise, spent a couple of hours swimming at the main beach. A series of storms came rolling in after lunch, the first one hitting about 3pm and they continued til late.
27 December – Snoozy sleep in. I made some brownies, and we went for a beach walk.
28 December – Dad and June came over to the island for a Christmas catch up, and we had lunch at the Beach Bar.
Went for a stroll on the beach after dark and watched the moon rise.
29 December – Ahhh, these holidays are very hard to take!
Went for an afternoon swim at Main Beach, and I started one of the 1000 piece jigsaws I received for Christmas, it’s called “Venetian Kitties” – very me!
30 December – Our son and his wife came for a belated Christmas lunch.
After they left the husbear wanted to sail his remote control catamaran but alas, when we arrived at the beach it was far too windy.
31 December – Another beautiful day, and yep, you guessed it, more time at the beach 🙂 . No wonder I call Coochiemudlo Island my “happy place”!
I’m actually writing this on Sunday 31 December … at this point we have no intention of staying up to see the New Year in. We know from past experience that Coochie is very quiet and there’s little in the way of celebrations so it’s not like we’ll be missing anything!
Plus, we want to be fresh for a visit tomorrow from some friends who are back in Australia for the first time in over 11 years 🙂 .
Tell me all about your December in the comments!
