(no subject)
Merry Christmas, everyone! (Kind of late for the other NZers, but ok for everyone else!)
I'm currently attempting to catch up on my flist, but being distracted by Guild Wars because I want to do the Wintersday quests, but have to figure out how first! I think this is going to involve running to lots of new places :)
Spend the day with family - Mum's place for lunch with immediate family + Aunty Bev, Steve, Rachael and Nana, then Jan and Alec's place with Stick and Steph for tea. Julia has been having heaps of fun opening presents and playing with them!
Julia's stash (so far - tomorrow is a boxing day tea at my Mum's for extended family!):
- 2 x Thomas the Tank Engine train sets + some extra pieces (the tunnel is the best bit!)
- a baby doll that drinks from it's bottle
- a stacking thing (sorry Alli, I have no idea how to explain it better... ) that came in a Hello Kitty bag! From Alli :))
- numerous books
- some clothes
- chocolate spoons
- $60 Pumpkin Patch vouchers
- $10 Whitcoulls voucher
- Pocoyo Bedtime DVD
- Spot soft toy
My stash:
- 2 x tops from my Mum + $100 to spend in the sales next week (however, if I can't find anything I like I'm going to see if she minds if I use it to buy material for my dress instead)
- $60 Pagani vouchers
- $100 Farmers voucher
- small vibrating back massager
- chocolate
- 2 x stationary sets from Alli! Thanks Alli! I really do have no excuse not to write to you anymore... don't worry! I started a letter tonight :)
- Guild Wars Nightfall and Factions expansions! (Yay! Thanks Stick!)
Julia's favourite presents so far are her train sets and the doll :)
I now have to take a break and go make my last batch of fudge (not for a present, but I promised Mum I'd bring some for dessert nibbles tomorrow night), then tomorrow I need to make Morgie's teething rusks, and then I'm officially done with Christmas baking!
I have made:
- 1 x batch of sugar-free shortbread (blue; for Dany who can't have sugar)
- 1 x double batch of shortbread (red)
- 1 x double batch of shortbread (green)
- 1 x batch of russian fudge (failed)
- 3 x 1/2 batch of russian fudge (failed)
- 1 x 1/2 batch of russian fudge (actually worked! More or less...)
- 1 x batch dark chocolate fudge
- 1 x batch milk chocolate fudge (semi-failed, as it remained very sticky and gooey, but I didn't have any more milk chocolate chips so couldn't make another)
- 1 x 1/2 batch white chocolate fudge (not enough white chocolate chips for a whole batch :()
When the microwave russian fudge recipe says "requires a very large bowl", it really means it! The first batch overflowed everywhere because our biggest bowl wasn't big enough. The second batch (only half size to attempt to overcome the bowl sizing issue) burned because our microwave is too powerful. The third (half) batch worked fine at 50% power! But the texture was off and it was too hard because not all of the sugar had melted. The fourth (half) batch at 70% power burned because I put it in for 1 minute too long (the recipe was 13 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes, so the last minute burnt it). The fifth (half) batch at 70% power also burnt, but in the last three minutes. I suspect that when I ask Richard to put it in for me as I was cutting other fudge, he forgot to push the power button twice to get to 70%, and only pushed it once which leaves it at 100%. After this, I gave up and gave my sister some left over chocolate fudge to fill up her jar.
In conclusion, russian fudge is really hard to make!
Now off to finish with my flist and then to play Guild Wars!
I'm currently attempting to catch up on my flist, but being distracted by Guild Wars because I want to do the Wintersday quests, but have to figure out how first! I think this is going to involve running to lots of new places :)
Spend the day with family - Mum's place for lunch with immediate family + Aunty Bev, Steve, Rachael and Nana, then Jan and Alec's place with Stick and Steph for tea. Julia has been having heaps of fun opening presents and playing with them!
Julia's stash (so far - tomorrow is a boxing day tea at my Mum's for extended family!):
- 2 x Thomas the Tank Engine train sets + some extra pieces (the tunnel is the best bit!)
- a baby doll that drinks from it's bottle
- a stacking thing (sorry Alli, I have no idea how to explain it better... ) that came in a Hello Kitty bag! From Alli :))
- numerous books
- some clothes
- chocolate spoons
- $60 Pumpkin Patch vouchers
- $10 Whitcoulls voucher
- Pocoyo Bedtime DVD
- Spot soft toy
My stash:
- 2 x tops from my Mum + $100 to spend in the sales next week (however, if I can't find anything I like I'm going to see if she minds if I use it to buy material for my dress instead)
- $60 Pagani vouchers
- $100 Farmers voucher
- small vibrating back massager
- chocolate
- 2 x stationary sets from Alli! Thanks Alli! I really do have no excuse not to write to you anymore... don't worry! I started a letter tonight :)
- Guild Wars Nightfall and Factions expansions! (Yay! Thanks Stick!)
Julia's favourite presents so far are her train sets and the doll :)
I now have to take a break and go make my last batch of fudge (not for a present, but I promised Mum I'd bring some for dessert nibbles tomorrow night), then tomorrow I need to make Morgie's teething rusks, and then I'm officially done with Christmas baking!
I have made:
- 1 x batch of sugar-free shortbread (blue; for Dany who can't have sugar)
- 1 x double batch of shortbread (red)
- 1 x double batch of shortbread (green)
- 1 x batch of russian fudge (failed)
- 3 x 1/2 batch of russian fudge (failed)
- 1 x 1/2 batch of russian fudge (actually worked! More or less...)
- 1 x batch dark chocolate fudge
- 1 x batch milk chocolate fudge (semi-failed, as it remained very sticky and gooey, but I didn't have any more milk chocolate chips so couldn't make another)
- 1 x 1/2 batch white chocolate fudge (not enough white chocolate chips for a whole batch :()
When the microwave russian fudge recipe says "requires a very large bowl", it really means it! The first batch overflowed everywhere because our biggest bowl wasn't big enough. The second batch (only half size to attempt to overcome the bowl sizing issue) burned because our microwave is too powerful. The third (half) batch worked fine at 50% power! But the texture was off and it was too hard because not all of the sugar had melted. The fourth (half) batch at 70% power burned because I put it in for 1 minute too long (the recipe was 13 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes, so the last minute burnt it). The fifth (half) batch at 70% power also burnt, but in the last three minutes. I suspect that when I ask Richard to put it in for me as I was cutting other fudge, he forgot to push the power button twice to get to 70%, and only pushed it once which leaves it at 100%. After this, I gave up and gave my sister some left over chocolate fudge to fill up her jar.
In conclusion, russian fudge is really hard to make!
Now off to finish with my flist and then to play Guild Wars!