Oh my, it’s been too hot here for Christmas. Boxing Day got up to 44C in Perth and 46C near our suburb. That’s blinding, sweltering, is-this-air-con-working-or-not hot. I actually did have a bit of a play with the air conditioner because it wasn’t blowing out very cold air. I was beginning to think it was broken until I saw the weather report.
So yay, yay for cooler weather.
Today, even though I know Christmas is over and we should be concentrating on where we’re celebrating New Year (at home for us by the way...and more than likely asleep before the clock strikes midnight) I’m posting what I got from my Christmas Traditions Exchange. And it so rocks. The ginger bread man is MINE, no matter how much Little J wants it and I’ve already filled the needle book up with pins, it really is very handy and the cloth birds nest in up in the tree. And tonight we’re eating the popcorn while we watch Avril Lavigne on my parents’ big screen (Christmas present for Little J). The most amazing thing about the whole package is that it got through customs to get to me in the first place. I’d sneaked a look at Megs blog and knew what I was getting but was very worried it wouldn’t make it as Australia has a very strict customs, particularly Western Australia as we pride ourselves on keeping foreign bugs and diseases at bay. If you look at the pic (nicked from her blog because she takes way better pics than me...gosh hope she doesn’t mind) you’ll see a birds nest. A real American birds nest that once housed a mummy bird and I don’t know how many cute adorable baby birds. Little J saw it and instantly declared it hers, she loved it so much.
Honestly how it got through customs is mind boggling to me and to everyone I’ve shown it to. I haven’t yet opened the little plastic box it lives in, unsure what to do about it. I’d love to take it out and display it on a shelf but I also don’t want to expose WA to any bugs that may be living in it. I’m not in any way implying that my partner lives in a place infested with nasty bugs, rather it’s the natural life that lives in the wood and twigs that may upset our delicate eco system I’m worried about.
I think the best bet is to put it in a plastic bag and give it a good spray with bug spray to kill anything that may or may not be on it. Then take it out and put in on a shelf.
Gee this is hard, I don’t want to down play what Meg sent, or insult her gift because honestly it’s the best thing I’ve ever received in the mail. I just wanted to write about the little dilemma I’m having after I received something that customs really shouldn’t have let through, and how do I look after it and still be a dutiful West Aussie and look after the wildlife because I sure ain’t throwing it out.
After all this I hope she liked the ornament she sent me. I feel a bit ‘Oh it’s not as nice as what I got, or packaged as nice’ but I have to remind myself I spent probably 25 hours creating those images for her and was just worn out by the time it got to packaging so didn’t spend any time prettying it up.
You can see them here.
Just two more sleeps to a new year. I’ve already started wondering about what 2008 will have in store for us.