Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. It was a gorgeous day here in Nelson & we had a picnic lunch with family… as it seems many Nelsonians do these days. Certainly was busy at Rabbit Island. Although, I have to confess I missed setting the table with my traditional gold cloth, napkins, pretty candles & the good china plates. They were traded for vintage Duraware instead. I chose the red & green ones 
I’ve been taking lots of photos of our activities leading up to Christmas but haven’t had a chance to post them. So, here we go…..
Some of our Christmas decorations…..
Our new artificial Christmas tree .. love it!
Salt & Pepper shakers my mum gave me earlier this year.. just fit the Christmas colour theme as does the vintage jug cover behind
Rag Wreath I made many years ago.. hangs on our front door.. it has a lavender sachet for a welcoming scent + I think it deters the flies a little
This ornament was given to us for our wedding.. I added the santa hat.. too cute
Candle made by my 5 year old
Our table centre.. usually I have a china chook sitting in this wreath 'nest' but it didnt survive last Christmas so this year I replaced with nesting Santas I found at the school gala white elephant. I love this vintage table cloth which I save just for Christmas use
Christmas Tea for One set hubby gave me a few years ago
Cards on the fireplace
Musical reindeer with Mrs Clauses' washing hanging behind
These are the Gingerbread biscuits & Fruit Mince Pies the boys & I made for hubbies clients…
These are the plaster of paris decorations I made with my sons school class…. they were well received by my family. I do hope the school parents enjoyed them too. Gifts made by little people are lovely aren’t they? Something to treasure for years to come. I found the origami box pattern here & if that’s a bit mind blowing there is an instructional video on Utube. Quite easy once you have done the first one. We used christmas wrapping paper.
On Christmas Eve ( just when you need it!) I noticed the sour cherries were ripe. From past experience I know you have to be quick to beat the birds so the boys & I picked 3 kg & I made it into yummy Sour Cherry Jam.
This is the recipe I found but I made it in small batches, boiling 500g fruit to a pulp & then scooping the seeds off the top (instead of painfully pitting each cherry), adding 3/4 cup sugar to each cup of fruit & the juice of half a lemon, boiling until it looked thick on the spoon (I’m not good at testing jam for setting.. this visual works for me) & I added 1 tablespoon of vodka to each batch.. partly to make it more special but also because I find my jams often don’t keep well.
I also made Whiskey Orange Marmalade as gifts for family. I used Jo Seagars recipe from a magazine but there is one similar here. I used a mix of oranges, mandarins & lemonades.. yummy!
And these are some of the chocolate gifts we received.. many from hubbies clients. I think they will last us all year!
