Christmas

I almost feel like ignoring the blog since it has been so long but a christmas update is required!

We arrived in Ireland on the 10th december and flew out on the 6th January . we spent christmas In the uk with Wendy(matts mom) Beth (sister) and Warwick (or almost uncle warwick as Emma called him :) )  we had a great time and Emma did really well santa and family spoilt her rotten. she was thrilled to get to do it all again when we got back to Ireland!

Emma spent most of the month of december conspiring with her cousin Robert (4) and when she could she would get the rest of her cousins to do her bidding (3,2,20months,the 7month old was impervious to her charm :) )  Basically having an absolute blast so much so that when we got home she did not know what to do with herself poor little only child that she is!

Matt had a blast getting his DIY on working with my Dad - he was so active he lost over 10lbs! over christmas period i mean really!!!!!
 i on the other hand while increasing my activity level by shopping everyday ate all the christmassy foods like pate and cheeses everyday to so while matt lost 10lbs i fear i may have found a few of those he lost!

I was able to meet Racheal for the first time and matt was able to meet Racheal and Megan (i met Megan briefly in sept 2009 when i came over for Elaines wedding (i was in Ireland for 3 days!). For me this is the hardest thing about living so far away while i miss my sisters and parents i hate not being able to get to know my nieces and nephews!

it was great to get to spend a chunk of time with family

One of the presents Matt and i got was a night away ! family booked us into a hotel in the wicklow mountains (stunning views-sorry no pics you can check here to look at how awesome the hotel was. Matts Favourite part quoting his facebook status " Few things in life are better than all you can eat bacon and sausages!!" the breakfast buffet the ol' fry up not that anyone here could get close to a fry up in ireland or england for that matter, bacon ,sausage, black and white pudding (if you dont know what im talking about check here to try make black pudding check here hint black pudding ingregients include a pint of pigs blood :)  )
then of course eggs, mushrooms fried tomatoes toast baked beans(i leave these out yeuch! only baked beans i like are courtesy of Ben Nelson and whatever way he cooks them! )


Ok now that my mouth is watering thinking of the fry up i might as well include other foods i miss from Ireland/UK (american translation in brackets!)
chips (french fries) from a chipper  better yet garlic cheese chips(fries with  garlic mayonnaise and cheese all melty on top) mmmmmmmn
breast in a bun  from hillbillies(chicken breast in a bun from a chipper in Cork)
chocolate 
prawn crackers
prawn cocktail flavour crisps(chips, as a side note prawn cocktail sauce is  made with mayonnaise, ketchup, Worcester sauce and paprika and sometimes some Cayenne pepper so imagine that on a chip! in no way is it like the marinara type sauce you get here)
im sure there are others but that will do for now!!!!!




we finally had some spear photos taken the first time since there where more than 1 grandchild that we have had a decent photo taken of all of us! while it certainly was drama filled to get in there it will be great to have until one of my other sisters pops out another one. Jenna and Cath both say no not I which leaves Melissa (currently only dating) to produce the next grandkid!!!!!hopefully soon we will have some pics to show from that  in the meantime see my profile pic on facebook!!!!


sorry for the long rambling post i am out of practice!!!