After Fiona kindly planted some bean seeds in our back garden as part of the green renovation she did in October, we picked our first harvest tonight. They were delicious, briefly pan-fried with small pieces of bacon.

Yum!

Thanks Fiona:-)

Tonight, Rob and Elwyn gave me a great gift. A night on Dusky Dolphin. Last one was over six months ago, as I battled to recover from my tonsillectomy in time for my first knee replacement. That was an age ago. Since then I have been to hell and back again as I battled the slow, mostly silent battle of the knee replacement journey.

Well tonight that journey ended.

And my journey to be the sailor I was always meant to be, but couldn’t because of my bad knees and nasty, nasty unpredictable fevers from my nasty tonsils, has now begun.

Thank you Rob and Elwyn, and Dusky Dolphin of course. You have been the most patient of all:-)

Tom and Thea were given quite a lot of money for Christmas. Today they went shopping and their reward is a lego bonanza!

Today I made myself a yummy cuppa with the cute Christmas “duckerling” tea infuser that Elwyn gave me for Christmas. Rob went past and commented that the duckling was making messes in my hot water!

After our long family Christmas (Eve) lunch finished, Tom and Pa began the move to the couch to watch Robbie the Reindeer, then Cars2 which Pa had bought for the occasion. Soon Tristan joined them. Then Thea. Then Thea had a nap snuggled up to Pa.

It was very cute:-)

Today we took Christmas to my Mum at her nursing home. They were running a children’s Christmas for the staff’s children that day and we joined in. It meant that Mum could enjoy the children enjoying themselves. She loves children and for a short while just enjoyed being there. She doesn’t get much joy these days:-(

Tom really enjoyed himself with winning musical chairs. But like his Dad, Aunty Elwyn and Pa, he wasn’t ever going to lose a chance to be competitive!

And Thea made the most of the ample supply of craft materials and made me a delightful Christmas card:-)

Sailing with Elwyn across Cockburn Sound, my legs have a long way to go to get back the strength to sail. But with the kind help of Rob and Elwyn we made it across to Garden Island for lunch, then back to Freo. It was a magic day filled with sun and sparkly sea and flying fish and dolphins and terns and gannets and pelicans!

YAY!!!!!

After Rob tried to fix the punctured tyre with a car tyre kit and burst the valve, and Elwyn went and bought a new tyre and inner tube, and Tristan worked out that the gofer tyre rim was a split rim, and Rob worked out how to split the rim and so put on the new inner tube and tyre, and Elwyn put Christmas antlers on, the gofer is ready to leave the pit!

Yay!!!

With the kids having stayed the night, and Elwyn here, they all settled to watch Toy Story 3 in the family room. It took me back to when Jeanette, Elwyn and Tristan were young and living at home, and this was exactly what happened on Saturday mornings!

As if to prove that it is a REAL vehicle, my gofer had a flat tyre today! From a large drawing pin that it picked up from somewhere. So Elwyn came home from seeing her friend with her new baby, picked up a bike pump and drove the pump and I to where I’d had to abandon the poor gofer, pumped up the tyre, and I carefully drove the gofer most of the way home before the tyre was flat again. So Elwyn had to come back with the bike pump.

Then we all got home safely and the gofer went into the pit stop where Rob unbolted the tyre from the axle when he got home!