Christmas and New Year's Day

Christmas and New Year

So I just realised I never posted my Christmas and New Year story. As always it was incredibly warm here in South Africa. Luckily we are sort of used to it, but don’t judge me when I say I love winter time. Yesterday alone we had a high of 36 degrees Celsius.

So for the Christmas weekend we hooked up our caravan, and left Bloemfontein with two cars (my dad and I still had to work the Saturday). We went to a place a little out of Bloem about 25 km and pitched our tents and setup everything for a long 5 day weekend. We went with my dad’s cousin, so we were a lot of people. On Saturday morning (Christmas Eve) I went to work and after work bought some fresh bread and made sure everything was ready for that evening. We were going to have a fondue that night, which is a new thing for us since we usually just make finger snacks for Christmas Eve. So after loading everything in the car equipped with Christmas lights and these cool things I found, They look like candy canes and when you leave them in the sun during the day, at night they light up, no electricity or batteries needed. They were awesome.

So we started prepping for our fondue by cutting up meats, mushrooms, pieces of bread, and everything that works nicely with fondue, that was at about 5 in the afternoon, the funny part was when we wanted to light the burners of the fondue pots they started burning around the burners instead of inside (we haven’t used them in a while) so in my car I get and went home to get the electric pans and we did our fondue that way. It was wonderful; we all had a great time and ate too much.

We had a chocolate fountain running for dessert, memo to all people out there, when entertaining don’t test out a gadget for the first time. We were completely out of our depth with that thing, we didn’t have the right equipment to melt the chocolate, we threw in too much oil in the chocolate and it all came out blobby, but still it was hilarious and we enjoyed ourselves.

We then just sat around telling stories about Christmas’s past, and remember the people who aren’t there with us either because they were in other parts of the world or those who have left us to go to a better place. We talked a laughed and cried a little. We also listened to one of the local radio stations that lets people phone in wishing their relatives a happy Christmas. We laughed at all the drunken comments on the radio.

When it was past midnight we opened our presents, and went to bed. You might realise I don’t elaborate about the presents, it’s just that my parents taught us it’s not about the presents, it is about Jesus coming to earth to save us. That is what is the most important of Christmas, so we never got the big presents. We spend time with family and just realising how lucky we are to be able to practice our faith openly.

On Christmas day we all packed the Christmas lunch and made our way to Edinburg were my grandmother and uncle live. It’s about 100km from where we camped. We barely survived the potholed road, there were more potholes than tar but we had a great day with my gran and uncle. I must thank them for this was the best Christmas we had with them. You guys were wonderful, you opened your house to people who weren’t invited and changed your whole plan for Christmas lunch. I love you guys.

We went back to camp and just spend the rest of the day enjoying each other’s company and just being merry.

We had a storm on Boxing Day; we all huddled together under our big tent, and got soaked to the bone. Each time we had to run to the bathroom. We only went home on the Tuesday, thank you to all the people who got us an extra public holiday; we had to start working again on Wednesday.

We had a great New Year’s weekend as well. On the Saturday after work, we started making salads and preparing our finger snacks for that night. As you can see the finger snack thing is a Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve tradition. We also have a tradition of watching Dinner for One on New Year’s Eve. So we watched that while enjoying our snacks and then we watched a movie. We all stayed up until midnight, we just had a cowering Boerbul since people were shooting fireworks and crackers from about 19:00 that evening. The poor dog nearly went crazy. I think it’s really inconsiderate of some people.

We spent our New Year’s Day at home in the swimming pool and had a lovely turkey for lunch.  

So there is our Christmas and New Year’s I hope you enjoyed. Pictures will follow in the next blog

Christmas Decorations

Christmas Decoration Time

As I mentioned previously, I am a total sucker when it comes to Christmas decor, we usually have a small Christmas tree, one of those 90cm models that is hip high and you don’t need lots of decorations for it. Well last year it started to fall apart so on one of the specials at our local supermarket after Christmas, I bought another one on a huge special, we threw it in the closet since Christmas was already over and everyone was packing away all there decorations. Over the weekend while my parents were away I thought I will get our decorations up in hope of surprising them when they got back.

I started with our entry way, we have a wreath that always hangs over the door, but since it’s summer the door is always open and you don’t see the wreath, so I hanged it over the mirror, you might recognise the mirror from a previous blog. Our display cabinet is the perfect place for decorations so I threw all the telephones and post holders to the side (new home for them to be decided) and put all these things on there. The wreath with the candles will be lit on Sundays until Christmas, this Sunday we are at candle number 3.

And the lastly, the Christmas tree, remember how I mentioned we always have a small Christmas tree? Well I took out my brand new tree in a very small box, not noticing the manufacture sticker...

When I opened the box, the tree was in pieces and after assembly the tree was a whopping 1,8m tall! That’s twice the size of our normal tree, needless to say our decoration bubbles were not enough and I had to run to the store to get new ones, luckily I bought tree lights that usually wrapped a bunch of times around our small tree.

Sorry about the power cables and the dvd holder :) didn't think to clean before taking pics

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

All our windows were snow sprayed since we have summer here

I have these two signs outside our front door

Fouriesburg Weekend

Fouriesburg weekend

As promised here is a update on our weekend, it’s wonderful there you can just sit around look at the majestic mountains and feel God’s present, every time we go there I just once again realise that by seeing these mountains there is no way you cannot believe in Him.

We left Friday afternoon, we wanted to leave earlier but my mom needs her passport renewed for next year and I decided my sister and I should also renew our passports, after standing in the queue for what seems hours, the person behind the desk informs us in this sour face that my sister and mine is still valid and how dare we come apply for a new one, so sorry we forgot we applied for new passports, silly us. Anyway when we got home and after a long search, we found the passports and saw that indeed ours is still valid.

Anyway back to the weekend, so we got on the road just after lunch and we only arrived at 6, and this is normally a 2 hour drive. The road works on the road was incredible, we stood in queue’s containing up to 50 cars, it was madness, and we thought we will miss the Friday rush. WRONG!!!!

It was still worth every hour in those queues, the valleys and mountains were not as green as previous years, but there were smudges of green everywhere.

I will let some of the photo’s do the talking.

Golden Gate

View from our Chalet

We over indulged on cherries and had lots of peaches.

On Saturday we spend the day in Clarens, and just looked at art, and ate a lot.

Yummy Barone Chocolate Cake from a German Restuarant

Plougmans platter from the Post House

Enjoy the photo’s

Long Time no Blog

Long Time No Blog

Hey all, so it’s been a long time since I blogged and I do apologise...

Well this past couple of weeks has been very busy. At work everyone is getting their pc ready for the holidays since the school holidays starts in 1 week. That means that everyone is heading out to the ocean side to enjoy a well deserved summer holiday/Christmas holiday.

My parents are having their 25 year anniversary at the beginning of December and they have decided to go on holiday for that time. They will be stopping over in Beaufort West which is halfway from Bloemfontein to Cape Town. Then they will spend a couple of days in Cape Town. *I’m so jealous! I love Cape Town* They will then head out to Nature’s Valley and from there they are going to Hogsback. All these places are really lovely and I’m sure they will enjoy it a lot.

Mom bought a new camera yesterday so this means this time we might get some great pictures of their holiday.

This weekend we are going to Fouriesburg for my mom’s birthday on Sunday, can’t wait, will post some photos next week. Fouriesburg is really very lovely and the sites are awesome. Most people forget about this little jewel in the heart of the Eastern Freestate.

Next week will also mark the 7 year anniversary of my grandmothers passing, not looking forward to it since this will be the first year that my mom won’t be there to stop the tears flowing...

Well I’m wishing all my US friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

Monday

Monday

Good morning all,

As promised here are a picture preview of my wreath project, I took a grape vein wreath, and wrapped it with an old denim when I was done I realised it look very dull so I took some denim and started making flowers but they just looked stupid. My sister is a second year education student and she had a big project where they had to make hand puppets and she used felt and there was still a lot left over, so I took some scraps and cut out circles. I then cut the circles into strips and then rolled it up, as you might see some of these look really nice and others sort of looks sloppy, but first timer here, so I think it turned out good, and it looks like a summer wreath, next project will be getting ready for Christmas, I have a bazillion ideas running through my head.



In other news it was a really quiet weekend, I also decided that I want to go visit my uncle in England next year, so I definitely have to start saving some money and my passport needs to be in order.

So I will leave you with another picture, until next time

TGIF

Thank goodness it’s Friday

Good morning all!

I’m quickly grabbing a moment to update you guys, this has been an eventful week indeed.

I have had my first date like almost ever, don’t get me wrong I had a boyfriend or two in college but since we went to classes together and sometimes hung out afterwards it was never a big thing to go out especially to get to know each other. So this week there was a guy and asked me out, and I went. The only problem for me was this guys age, you see I am 23 almost 24 and he is 36! 13 years is a big deal in my book, so we will see how it goes. Afterwards I got invited to another one, but unfortunately had plans.

So at work we were really busy, as you might know I studied IT and I also did programming and then a lot of how you plan and execute the programs, now either these people just don’t do what they are taught but how do you roll-out a program containing so many bugs to half the countries brokers, really weird, but it keeps our days filled with new and exciting things to doJ

The other thing is since in South Africa the next big holiday is Christmas thus the shops are already decorated in their Christmas finery, which I don’t mind, I love Christmas it’s my favourite holiday. I love the decorations, the spirit of giving (I always go way over board on buying Christmas gifts) and the fact that our Lord was born as a human to die for our sins. The only bad thing about already decorating now, it’s a whole 2 months before the fact, I sometimes wish I wasn’t in South Africa, I bet in America they are all decked out in Halloween decorations until Sunday and then it’s probably going to be decorated for Thanksgiving. So no Christmas decorations until December and that is how it should be.

I have made a denim wreath which I saw on http://pinterest.com/pin/232117877/, I am almost done with it, since the felt flowers are taking a lot of time, Photos will be posted soon, mine looks different from the one showed in the link, I saw a tutorial on how to make flowers from felt, so testing that.

Well have a fantastic weekend, I am going to go to my High school’s Christmas market (I know I just complained but it’s only this week, since end of year exams start after the market) anyway, goodbye for now.

His Grace

His Grace

Hey sorry for being so absent these last couple of days, it’s been hectic at work and just life in general. As you all know I am currently looking for a more permanent position, I have been working at my current job as a contractor and being a girl I would like more stability in my life, I am searching for a permanent appointment, but all things will come in their own time, the right job will come.

Another thing you might remember is that I have a chronic disease Osteitis(Excuse the spelling, I’m not a doctorJ),  and this last week or so I met someone who told me that I should consider renewing my faith since it’s a punishment from God? Just get one thing straight, I am a Christian, I believe in God. The one thing that most people don’t understand is to me this isn’t a punishment, this is God’s way of reminding me, that I should not wander of the path, and that I should trust Him, other people might not see it from my point of view, but if you suffer from the same illness for so long (almost 15 years) you don’t want to just sit on a heap and feel sorry for yourself, there are people with much worse in their life, and my disease isn’t life threatening. So to those who think I should consider my position with God or whatever you might call it, just know you don’t have to worry about me, I’m happy and totally not depressed, the Lord cares for me and looks after me.

So back to everyday life, this weekend I still haven’t gotten round to actually doing any of my DIY projects I have been lining up, and it gets frustrating since I really want to do them but just don’t get the time through the day over weekends.

Saturday evening, my friends and I went to the local mall and wanted to do the whole safari dinner thing. Going from stand to stand, get some of our favourites and then get a nice spot and eat, needless to say it didn’t quite go according to planJ we ended up eating crumbed mushrooms, which we all love and the best spring rolls in town at Red Pepper, after feeling so stuffed we thought about walking around to make space and ended up in the book shop, all of us adore books, and the best thing is when you want a book, one of the others usually has that book in their collection. LOVE it!! Anyway so we found a couple of books and thought a nice cup of coffee will be great at that moment, we didn’t just get any cup of coffee we each had a cafe mocha, which has chocolate mousse and vanilla cream in, totally fattening and we all felt like dying afterwardsJ

Got a recipe here that I downloaded, totally going to try it:     

Cafe mocha is a combination of espresso and chocolate, typically served in a tall, glass mug. This coffee-and-chocolate combination can also be found in desserts, icings, candy and dessert sauces.

Edit Ingredients

• Fresh, cold milk
• Freshly ground coffee
• Water
• Drinking chocolate

Edit Steps

Heat the water:

·         Different models may vary, but make sure you pour enough water into the tank of the machine so that the pump pipes are fully submerged. Turn on the power and the pump to pump water into the boiler.

·         Turn on the boiler to heat the water. The handle that holds the coffee is called the group handle and this should be locked into the machine. The light on the machine will go out when the water is at the correct temperature.

·         Turn off the boiler and press the dosage button to let water flow through the handle for about 10 seconds. This will clean it through and heat it to the same temperature as the water.

·         Add the chocolate. Put a teaspoon of chocolate powder or 1oz chocolate syrup in the bottom of a coffee cup.

·         Add the coffee. Put the correct amount of coffee (see Tips) in the filter basket and tap it to create a level surface. Use the tamper provided to compact the coffee. This will ensure the water doesn't flow through it too fast.

·         Filter. Lock the group handle into the machine and put the coffee cup underneath. Turn on the dosage button. The coffee should take 14-18 seconds to filter through for a single espresso and 20-25 seconds for a double, after which you should turn off the dosage button. If it is filtering through too fast, add a bit more coffee and compact it more firmly. If you are grinding your own coffee beans, grind them more finely.

·         Steam the milk. Milk can be steamed using the steam arm on your coffee machine. Turn the arm on full for 5 seconds before inserting it into the milk, as this will clean it through. If you want a frothy, cappuccino-style topping, insert the arm into the jug of milk so that the tip is just below the surface. If you want a smoother, café latte-style topping, position the arm so it goes down the side and to the bottom of the jug. Turn it back on full and wait a few moments until the sides of the jug are hot enough to be uncomfortable to the touch. Turn off and take the jug away. Wipe the steam arm and turn it on to clean it through once more.

·         Add the milk. Tap the jug on a work surface and swirl the milk around to create a shiny surface with the consistency of thick custard. Carefully pour the milk on top of the chocolate espresso mixture and serve.

I know we don’t all have these fancy machines, but I’m going to try it on our coffee machine, will take pictures as I go and let you guys know how I did, So have a great day, Chant soon