As every year, I am starting my review with Christmas of the previous year:

Christmas Eve 2021

I spent Christmas eve at my friends Tahereh and Melvyn’s place with almost 30 people. Their patio was beautifully decorated and the table was set in a festive design with the help of their daughters Deborah and Natalie. Everybody contributed and so we could feast on a huge banquet of yummy dishes. Natalie initiated the game Charade and made sure, that almost everybody played along. Later in the evening Deborah hit the piano keys and aunty Tilly wowed us with her stunning voice! I thought I had to stop singing, as I felt like I sounded pathetic next to aunty Tilly, but my love for Christmas carols kept me going – at least quietly! I noted, that I was struggling with the english song text so we sang Silent Night in a duet in 2 languages: aunty Tilly in Dutch and me in German. It was a beautiful evening.

Christmas Day 2021

I spent all day with my friends Vada, Charlotte and Ben. Of course Charlotte was eagerly waiting for my arrival so she could start opening presents. I arrived just after 10am and we got straight into it. Charlotte had a lot to open and was very busy! In between we adults also opened our few presents. As it was this mega hot 44 degree day, we opted for a light lunch with prawns and salad. While Vada prepared it Charlotte got stuck into her first sewing project. In the afternoon Ben set up Charlotte’s waterslide/bouncy castle present in the garden – it just fitted in! It took quite some time to add a bit of water, but eventually we were all sitting in 5cm deep water in the pool part while Charlotte was sliding and playing. For dinner we had two yummy crayfish, a steak and more salad. With the hot weather it was just perfect. It was a lovely, lazy day.

Beach

Given that I had missed most of the summer months last year, I was really keen on making the most of summer this year. I biked down to the beach every Saturday and Sunday morning, sometimes going for a longer bike ride and sometimes just going for a swim or wave hopping, depending on the conditions. I continued well into autumn and only stopped my morning routine in May.

My first dip in the ocean this spring was in September, but the water was still quite fresh. Since then the weather has been unusual cold and I haven’t had much chance to go. Just the occasional bike trip. But summer is just coming …

Crafting

I think this year at least the second half of the year was probably the least crafty year for a long time. I still tried to craft every morning while having breakfast, but I haven’t had as much time in the evenings and weekends. I did manage a bit of acrylic pouring, sewing holders for my blending brushes, a number of scrapbooking pages, bookmarks and of course I made enough cards for birthdays and Christmas. I also got together with my lovely friends Deb and Nat and we created room sprays as Christmas presents. Deb and I tried ourselves also on shower bombs, but they didn’t work really.

After seeing foiling machines in action for a while I finally tried them out early in the year and decided to indulge myself. I took a few months to get hold of the machine as they were in short supply, but finally just before I headed over to Germany I finally got it. Basically it adds shiny foil to my cards/paper by applying heat and pressure. Of course you need patterns to use the machine with. They can be shapes, backgrounds, words etc. It looks very nice especially on Christmas cards. The only problem is now, that I will want to keep buying more templates. 😉

Sculptures by the Sea

This is an annual event in Cottesloe every March and my good friends Adrian and Alessandro asked me to join them. I am very glad I came along. It was a great exhibition with a huge amount of artworks. The pictures show only like 30%. Try and find us in the last photo! 😉

Thermomix

Well, after 18 months of cooking with my Thermomix I am still in love and using it actually even more. Besides cooking lots of meals I have started to also make my own cookies and crackers, yoghurt, mayonnaise, dukkah, tahini, dips and so much more in an attempt to reduce plastic waste and also to eat healthier. I try to buy open products as much as possible, bringing my own containers and bags and I do feel I have reduced my plastic waste a far bit. Here a little selection of my cooking and baking this year:

Germany

In July I was finally going for a long overdue holiday to Germany. Since I had collected a lot of annual leave over the last 2-3 years I booked a 4 week holiday. It was fantastic seeing family and friends again and being able to catch up and go out. We celebrate my mum’s 85th birthday with most of our family with a nice dinner.

I also caught up with relative and friends in and around my home town, Ruesdesheim, Wiesbaden and Weinhausen. I was also very excited to see my great nephew Dominikus for the fist time.
The weather was for the majority really great and overall it was a very nice holiday. Here a few impressions:

Garden and Flowers

My garden as well as the driveway is growing and flowering a lot in spring. I am very happy I have done the garden makeover a few years ago. It still looks fantastic and I sit outside far more often. I now just need summer to hurry up! 

Work

Over this year my work has changed a bit since our PA didn’t come back from maternity leave and no new staff member was employed. The PA’s work load had been spread around to multiple staff members with me taking on a bigger share as my own work had decreased due to selling out multiple estates during Covid. Instead of looking after 5 different estates we had only two estates left. So I have taken over board papers and board meetings and a number of administrative tasks and of course applied good German processes and efficiency to the delight of the Directors! After our recent AGM one Director commented that previously he always had to stress the whole day before the AG, printing and organising, checking the electronic etc and this time he could just rock up 5 minutes before knowing everything will be arranged and working perfectly! And after a long wait I finally also got my position title adjusted to reflect my new task. I am now calling myself Executive Business Administrator.
Also we have a casual employee joining us every few weeks and making sure we get enough breaks during the day, which our lovely Maggie is using to her advantage with lots of cuddles.

Friends

And one of the best parts of life is besides your family having great friends. There have been many outings like lunches, dinners, movie nights, game nights, birthday parties, craft session, coffee catch ups, house warming parties and lots more.
This year my lovely friend Albrecht made a very important statement: “Friendship is not just for the good times, it’s also for the bad times.” Unfortunately we did experience also some bad times – perhaps a sign of getting old? My good friend Ross had to move into aged care and all his close friends were helping with the move and clearing his house for sale. My part was to try and sell as much furniture as possible.
Other friends are also struggling with health issues and/or losing loved ones. With all this happening I am more aware of living now.
Sadly I never seem to take enough photos of all the activities, but below gives you an idea:

While you are reading this I might be in hospital or already back home recovering. I am getting an early Christmas present: a new hip! Surgery is on the 6 December and I will be spending the rest of December mainly at home recovering.

So I am not sure yet how I will spend Christmas and New Year, but I am 100% sure 2023 will be great with my new hip. It will allow me to be more active again and I am very much looking forward to this. I have already a holiday lined up in March with my good friend Petra from Germany.

I hope you can celebrate Christmas with your family and friends. Stay safe!

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year