Thursday, December 26, 2013

Post Christmas 2013

Boxing day is here at last. Christmas was fun, but I like the calmness which comes after Boxing day too. On the big day though, we finally got to try the family's new Christmas present...an inflatable pool.


Finally...


I've never been a pool person, but every Christmas is a scorcher. I'd like to think if we ever lost power in summer and couldn't use the ceiling fans, I'd have a cooler place to take the kids. It's only 3m in diameter and nearly 80cms tall, but its the right size for us. It's just outside the kitchen window too, so I can easily supervise.


Golden cane palm


The box the pool came in said only 10 minutes to set-up, but it took David and I, two days just to build the level ground. We re-used old Windsor Blocks left from our retaining walls, and only had to buy a load of road base to fill. We even used leftover lino off-cuts from the house, as the pool liner. We ran a little too short, and used old chicken-feed bags to fill in the gaps. It all came together in the end!


Muesli licked the mouse and biffed the monkey


Christmas presents were the order of the day, and I'm happy to say all our selections incorporated a little recycling too. Even the cat got some new chew toys, compliments of our daughter. A lot of thought went into wrapping "Muesli's" gift, which goes to show how much Sarah loves our cat!


Hats off...


I got the most nifty gift from David - a hat and coat rack. I said I wouldn't mind something to hang our hats from in the entry way, and he found this lovely solution. I secretly think David wanted a place to hang his hats too!


Our little Christmas Elf


Peter got a lovely Santa suit from one of his Aunty's. He looked so cute, but we had to take it off by the afternoon, as it was a getting too warm for him. Our little elf has started crawling for Christmas too!


First Christmas together


This was Sarah's first Christmas with her little brother and I must say she handled the day, like a champ. She helped him where she could and didn't get jealous of his presents. But she did get the reward of swimming in the pool for most of the day! A big sister perk. Sorry little man, you'll have to wait until a grown-up will take you in.

I'm glad Sarah has an outside activity to keep her fit during the school holidays.

So all is well in our little household after Christmas. We had some of David's relative's over, with just over a week to prepare - which included installing a pool. But as always, working together proved we can do what we set our minds to. I'm looking forward to some R&R, maybe in the pool...

I hope you all had a great time over Christmas, with whomever you were fortunate to spend it with.

6 comments:

  1. We had a wonderful Christmas, even a flurry of snow. Peter is absolutely adorable!

    I do hear you about a place to cool off. Pools do require maintenance but there's nothing better than water for a cooling and refreshing effect. The pool sounds like a wonderful family Christmas gift to yourselves. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A flurry of snow, sounds like something I can only dream about for Christmas. Glad you had a wonderful time over the holiday. Oh, and happy new year! Well, it is for us, today. In a short time it will be for the Northern Hemisphere too. :)

      Delete
  2. Merry Christmas my dears! Handsome little elf too! Sarah is really blossoming into a beautiful young ladyas well. I love the coat rack David biult for you. We have one that is covered by three layers of winter cloths. Lol.your pool looks like alot more fun than the snow banks we have to dive into here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely time with your family. David found the rack, but it's part new/part recycled. I imagine it wouldn't be up for the task of winter apparel though. Do you guys have a mud room? I hear they're very common where people get a lot of snow or rain during the year.


      After reading your last sentence, I had an image of diving into a pool of snow, in ones summer swimmers. Now that would either be fun or just plain crazy! I think I'll stick to the pool, lol. But at least you guys have the perfect snuggle weather. During summer, Dave and I don't get our quota of snuggles in, because it's too hot and sticky!

      Delete
  3. I wish we had a mudroom. I keep thinking that we should design one because our main entry (the one we use most) is right into the kitchen. We are supposed to add a porch out there at some point and I think we could actually use it for a mud room if we enclose it. In Chicago we had one and it was really just an enclosed porch-very cold but it did the trick.
    I do not envy you the sweaty cuddle. Hate that more than anything! lol.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hope you get around to adding a porch. So much to do though, right? It's never ending. But then I think if I didn't have a list of projects to do, I may get incredibly bored. Being creative about finding solutions, can be exciting!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I love reading what you have to share. Gully Grove is a Spam free environment though, so new commenter’s only leaving hyperlinks, will be promptly composted.