Winterr's words

Hey there everyone! I haven't had too many spare moments for computer time, you ,know with family commitments and all, so I want to take this opportunity to wish all my readers and passers by a happy new year! I hope that 2007 is great for all of us.
New years eve was a quiet one for me and my family, and my last in Australia, unless we happen to be visiting at this time one year, so I'm making the most of it.
Have a great time in all the festivities!

I hope everyone had a great time on Christmas day. I'm still recovering from the food and late night we had on Christmas eve after the mass.
The mass was beautiful, I always get a tear in my eye while singing the carols at the beginning, seeing the manger scene near the altar with the baby Jesus, and then looking up to the top of the altar at the grown man dying on the cross.
My mother was up at 6am cooking and my daughter was up at 6.30am opening presents, I could hear paper being torn, while I was in bed. Then more paper being torn by my cousin who was sleeping on the couch (my 2 cousins were locked out of their home accidentally so they slept over). My sister came over wanting to open her gifts from her boyfriend, she was diving into them, she is really loud too. So up I got by 7.15am.
The food!! There was so much food!! Everyone ate! Then some fell asleep, woke up and it was time to eat again.
It was not a hot Christmas this year, yay!! It was a windy and cool one so maybe I'll be better prepared for my next Christmas in Ohio.
It was a fantastic day, I loved every moment of it, even if some of the family fell asleep after lunch.
I definitely missed Jonathan more than ever, but we'll be together in a couple of months and can prepare for Easter. I have to be in ohio by at "least" the end of february 07, so it's all coming up so very soon, after a long wait of course.
I've posted a picture of the left over cookies for all my readers, take one! But don't take the one with the fly sitting on it, unless you have a pet frog. I didn't know there was a fly there til after I took the photo, maybe it was wanting some Christmas festive food too.

Below is a photo of the manger scene that my parish had, it is bigger than it looks.

I want to wish everyone out there a very happy and safe Christmas season.


If you don't celebrate Christmas then I wish you a happy time of year.

I told Jonathan that I would do this meme if I blogged before Christmas.
Come on now, I know you don't really want to know any of these things about me but in the spirit of memes, here you go!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Egg nog, it's tasty.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

He wraps them of course.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?

At the moment i'm living at my mothers house because i've vacated my home, so i've decorated her home with white lights on the tree and colored ones out side.

4. Do you hang mistletoe?

I've never even seen mistletoe

5. When do you put your decorations up?

I try to wait til the first day of Advent but they always go up late november.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish?

My mums curry rice salad

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

Getting our brand new Christmas tree (we live in a hot climate we don't have real ones)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

When my sister sung this song to me "someone got a 22 and shot him in the head" she later explained "he's dead and his real name is St.Nicholas" ...............great sis.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

No

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?

I hang live cats on it, just joking, I do what everyone does, lights, ornaments and the rest, is there another way?

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?

I don't live in the snow. I love snow but dread it when it comes to days on end of it.
12. Can you ice skate?

I've never tried I live in the hot dry part of Australia.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?

My engagement ring

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?

Celebrating Jesus birth, the mass, and family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

In Australia, Christmas cake (lions brand) in the USA, Pumpkin pie and Jonathans grandma's pistachio thingy, I tried to be a lady and not eat it all, little did the family know that I secretly wanted to run away with it and never share.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Sharing a meal with my family, opening gifts together, looking at lights, decorating the home.

17. What tops your tree?

Star, some times angel,

18.Which do you prefer giving or receiving?

giving, especially this time of year, I do like receiving too, like if someone wanted to give me a whole heap of money, i'd receive it without sulking.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song?

O Holy night

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

"yum", not "YUM", or "YUMMY", they are just like a mint, so medium "yum" without a capital Y, just a small "y" to show that it's medium yum, not "THE BOMB" yum, just "hmm nice" yum.

You know, that type of yum?

If you would like to be tagged just be tagged.

Try this for karaoke. I wonder how you will keep up.

I found this button from here and thought it was a good way to show the reality at hand when it comes to abortions. I'll add it to my side bar when I do get the chance. You can just click on it to get to the site where it was created.
The argument of abortion is always that the unborn child is not a child, but if it's a life then of course it's a child, "life" is when you are alive, so if you are alive, you are indeed a being.
It's the same as stem cell research, it 'might' and I stress the 'might' save one life, but to save that life you must destroy the other life first, how is that right?

This part of the year is my favorite part of the Church year. So posting a little bit on it is a must.
Advent is actually the begining of the Church year and begins on the fourth sunday before Christmas day.
This advent I have packed away my advent wreath, but Jeff Miller has designed one that we can all use, it's on my side bar.
The whole focus during advent is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. If you want to know more, Churchyear.net have a page called
All About Advent which is pretty helpful.

My cat gave birth to a pig, true story.


You can shake your head because yes, I am a strange bird. In my defence though, I did not take this picture :)

Here is that photo of the big Christmas tree in the city of Melbourne, blogger didn't let me add it to my post with my other photos so now I finally got it in! Also blogger keeps saying that the new version is available, has anyone updated to that? I am too scared to update because i'm afraid it might be the blogger beta that everyone hates.
Enjoy the photo! (ok it's not that big of a deal, just a tree.)

So here I am, slowly moving out of my house and I haven't even booked flight tickets out of the country. I'm planning on leaving in february (only 2 months away) but don't have anything concrete yet to work toward. We've hardly got anything booked for the wedding either and it's supposed to be in march. I know weddings normally take about 6 months to prepare, and all I have is 3 months. The Church is sort of booked, the venue isn't booked, no music, photographer, cake, cars and all that. Do you really think that's enough time? I'm focusing on the sacrament of marriage and what it means, but I can't help getting such panicky feelings about whether there will be enough time. I wonder if i'm just thinking about it too much. I have that little girls dream of this being a perfect day. Am I being silly by being a little nervous?

Since I am a Catholic and want to share my faith on my blog as well as other things and want to wish you all a blessed Feast day of the Immaculate Conception


A feast called the Conception of Mary arose in the Eastern Church in the seventh century. It came to the West in the eighth century. In the eleventh century it received its present name, the Immaculate Conception. In the eighteenth century it became a feast of the universal Church.
In 1854 Pius IX gave the infallible statement: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” to read more click here

Father, You prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy Mother of Your Son. You made it possible for her to share beforehand in the salvation Your Son, Jesus Christ, would bring by His death, and kept her without sin from the first moment of her conception. Give us the grace by her prayers ever to live in Your presence without sin. We ask this through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our trip to Melbourne was great! It's so refreshing to get away from the same old thing, and it's another good thing when you can get to hang out with close family.
I never did do some of the things I planned to do, like check out the museum and art galleries, but I did get my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses fitted, which was the main purpose of the trip. All went smoothly, although there was a small hiccup with one of the bridesmaid dresses, and it is supposed to be fixed by the time I am to go back and pick it up, we'll see about that soon enough I guess.
I have chosen a beautiful pink, which I think looks classic and I've tried to keep away from anything that will go out of style in the years to come, that's the best thing about choosing classic styles.

I have chosen something similar to these girls on the left, but without the black.
So that's that.
I did promise to share some pictures of my trip, so I'll post some ones that I took while we went to the
Crown Casino. It was awesome, I love going there because of the food and shopping, also because of their light shows. They always have something different, and this time they had something Christmas related, since we are well and truly in that time of year. All casinos are extravagant in some way. So here are the long awaited pictures of the Christmas show:



below: a carousel



I tried to add a picture of a Christmas tree in the main street of the city but blogger is playing up and won't let me, so these will have to do for now. I'll try and get it up later. I hope you enjoyed the photos, even if they are a bit dark.

Well I had previously typed some serious ramble here it was just one of those days, and now I have decided to make it more about my friends wedding, since it was so special, I have more photos too, but i'm leaving the cartoon up, again sorry for the swear word in it, I don't know how to blot those things out, but I do find this cartoon funny.
On to my friends wedding things......

Melbourne was great, I will still get those pictures posted, but I am pretty tired from the whole week. When I returned home, it was time for one of my dear friends wedding. It was beautiful, she is a wonderful girl, and her now husband has honored her and treated her like a princess, now i'll have to get used to her new surname.
I had such a great time, here is the first kiss as husband and wife! I had to crop it way too much because I was far away and it was really dim in there, so it's not the clearest.




My other close friend and I enjoying ourselves at the reception in the grooms family garden.

I'm back from Melbourne, with lots to tell and also have some photos to share, i'll be doing that through this week when I have more time and life gets back to whatever normal is.
Thanks for your comments and visits while I was away. I'll be reading your blogs and catching up with you all soon. Have a safe weekend all. :)