...and onto 2008

Crikey that came around quickly. I still don't have my head around the fact that it's already '08. I know it's been a long time between blogs but I'll do my best to catch y'all up quickly.

The San Antonio Riverwalk at Christmas. Not quite dark enough for the lights but you get the idea.

Christmas/New Years was great - well celebrated with plenty of friends and food, and thanks to Kate being with us, even a little family :) However, we were still both terribly homesick: Jo for the cold blue waters of Boat Harbour and me for a spot of fishing on the near rock.

We spent Christmas eve/day at John and Jo's where we cooked lunch for 16 adults and 2 kids, including roast pork (with crackling) and roast turkey, all the trimmings (potato bake, vegies, green beans and crispy garlic etc) as well as a baked ham provided by Andrea! It was a pretty busy day but lots of fun. We ended up with an eclectic group of friends from all over the world, and only two Americans!

Me using the nifty little gadget that Kate and Josie bought me! It's a silicon thread with a needle attached for stitching up meat for cooking and it is a total dream!
The finished product! I haven't got a photo of the pork because the hounds descended so quickly and I had to fight to protect the crackling, but it looked good. I might post the pork recipe soon because you cook it over apples/pears and red onion and it is simply delish!

New Years Eve was the exact opposite, totally laid back and not a moment of stress. Eric and Andrea hosted the event on what turned out to be one of our few freezing nights, so we rugged up and sat outside by the fire sipping wine and eating Andrea's divine homemade paté. We had a bbq for dinner, including Aussie lamb chops that were melt in your mouth gorgeous! Anyhow, after dinner we got stuck into playing board games, in particular "Battle of the Sexes", a game that was brought out by some Australian radio show I think, so it would have seemed pretty odd at times to our small American crew. The game got so heated that we actually missed the countdown altogether, but since that was mostly due to the fact that we were laughing hysterically and taunting each other it seemed to be a pretty good start to the year.

More exploits soon!