Feliz Navidad. Joyeux Noel. Hristos se rodi. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates, and to those who don't, I hope you enjoyed a happy holiday regardless!

Last night whilst watching the Carols by Candle light and munching on my lamb lollipops, I turned to The Husband suddenly and started to cry into my dinner. He didn't know what to do, he didn't know what was wrong.

I tried to explain that I was just really sad that I wouldn't be with all of my family for Christmas.

Maybe it was my pregnancy hormones, I'm not sure. I also kept thinking of how good Christmas would be for us next year, so maybe it was a bit of happy tears at the same time. 

My mum is still in Perth, Cat is in Ireland, Liz and the boys are in Adelaide, Lucas is in Afghanistan, Greg is in South Africa and we wouldn't be seeing Joanna. 

I don't remember the last time that we have had Christmas in Melbourne and I didn't see my mum. 

I did get to see Geefa and Joseph though which was good!

It's comforting to know that next year Lucas will be back from Afghanistan and Cathy will have moved back to Australia - I just cannot wait.

I don't know how those who have lost family members feel on Christmas, but I imagine it to be really hard for them. If this is you, I hope you were okay and not lonely today. 

Anyway, on to brighter things.

The Christmas Tree at Dad & Bets house was looking a bit sparse on the bauble front this year.

I'm trying to decide what colour combo to do our tree in next year. I figure for our first real (full sized) tree that we should go traditional, but just what is traditional?

I nominate this as my favorite Christmas Table Setting to date.

This is last years table, and whilst it may be more Christmas-sy, I prefer this years but there is no denying that Bet doesn't mess around when it comes to decor.

See the little dice like things? They are actually vintage scrabble pieces from before they were flat.

The paper that the place cards, which contained lollies, were wrapped in was actually paper found in my Nana and Grandads house, dating back to the late 1950's - pretty awesome to be able to incorporate that with our Christmas Lunch if you ask me!

Don't worry, I've kept mine and wont be throwing it out. 

This bread was the business. It had spinach, thyme, ham and all things nice. 

I know that Bet said the little pots had to be cured (is this the right word? She had to soak them in oil, bake and repeat a few times for them to be suitable to bake the bread in). 

Here you go Joey, stop saying I don't feature you on my blog. It's your time to shine.

Christmas Lunch always includes seafood. If it didn't, perhaps I would not turn up. 

This is just a quarter of the spread. 

After gorging my self on Lobster, Bugs and Prawns I really struggled to eat the hot foods, ham, turkey and the like but did manage to jam some salads in.

I nearly lost my cool yesterday making custard for the trifle I was preparing in honor of my mums absence. I only burnt 4 saucepan loads before mastering it and cursed trifle all the way to the lunch. 

I chose to omit the sherry that my mums recipe calls for but I still think that it tasted pretty good!

My attempt at a love heart made of jelly. Or jello for those of you reading from America.

You know that it is Trifle Season when you grab the last box of Port Wine flavour jelly from Woolworths.

Look, I know that everyone says the alcohol content evaporates during cooking but I chose to not eat the Christmas pudding anyway.

How adorable is Raina just chilling out with her new headphones in?

The adorable noodle box that my gift from Dad & Bet came in. Look how cheap Fords were going for back in the day. 

In case you were wondering what I wore today, wonder no more.

I didn't want to wear my fitted red dress, I need all the room I can get for extra eating so I trekked to the maternity store, Maternity Collective, in GPO and bought another dress from Soon Maternity - the Kara dress.

I am really annoyed though as I paid full price for it, and it is on sale on the Soon Maternity website. 

That is just not right!! What a rookie error. 

Kara Dress - Soon Maternity 

Lovisa Necklace

Witchery Sandals 

Baby Bump at 29 weeks! 

My hair is finally long enough for me to curl at home, hurrah!! I curl it into full on ringlets and then spray and brush out a little. 

As you all know by now, I am not afraid to wardrobe repeat and wore the same outfit on Saturday too. 

This dress is so comfortable. I am just annoyed that I didn't check the website as I knew that the dress that I got for the work party was on sale. gjskergiksh. Does this annoy others too??

Anyway, you will see a lot more of this dress I am sure. 

The Husband and I are not swapping gifts this year, we have enough to buy! He wants to go shopping tomorrow for stuff but I have become funny about crowds and people bumping into me and my belly so maybe I will give it a miss. I don't find the sales to be that good anyway. 

Getting Festive!

Friday night we celebrated our work Christmas Party at Number 1 Fitzroy Street.

I must admit, I was at exhaustion point. You can probably tell by my crazy eyes in all of the photos.

We had Grants funeral on Friday afternoon and I had not been sleeping much during the week due to the heat, I am just not coping well in this heat as our air conditioner is broken but The Husband came home with a little portable air con for me to use in the mean time whilst I find someone to fix it.

I wore this Celina Tank Maternity dress from Soon Maternity, and now I see that it is on sale. Always the way isn't it? Damn.

You will probably see a bit more of this dress as I plan on wearing it to death to last me the entire festive season. 

I decided to jam my feet into my Sandler wedges and it was a decision that was regretted very quickly. 

Heat + elevation = swollen feet very quickly. 

I have not painted my nails in yonks. I don't have the effort in me to maintain them but glitter polishes wear quite well so why not get in the festive mood and go red and glittery?

This is China Glaze Ruby Pumps which does not photograph as awesome as it looks on. Take my word for it. 

Roses.

Chocolates.

I keep my GHD, Parlux, Curler and other essential electrical items in the cabinet under the bathroom sink (which was probably not my brightest move) so when my sink leaked last week, guess what got ruined? Fancy that. 

Anyway, I dropped into a random salon on Friday to have a quick blow dry before the party as my hair was frizzy from the rain during the day. Half way through my blow dry the hairdresser accidentally knocked my glass off the bench, causing it to smash and glass went everywhere, including slicing my leg and left me with blood gushing every where.

So not only did I have a soaking wet dress, I also had a bleeding leg.  They gave me antiseptic wipes and band aids but for some reason it just kept on bleeding.  Definitely not a relaxing blow dry, believe me. 

As soon as I stepped outside my hair went frizzy again anyway so it was a pointless exercise.

My hair is at such an awkward length. I cannot wait for it to be long again. 

When you ask for a virgin Cosmo, you will be given cranberry juice in a nice glass.

At least it matched my dress.

The staff were fantastic at making sure I always had a full glass of water handy.

Christmas Party Clutch Essentials:

Mace, Chafing gel & Paw Paw ointment. 

Don't mind the messy room, this was taken at 1am and at 1am I am more than happy to take a photo surrounded by mess.

I'm glad I bought an actual maternity dress, the ruching is actually rather flattering and I am contemplating getting it in another print in the next size up so that I have another nice dress but I only have 11 weeks to go!!

11. 

Can you believe it?!

Hello baby. 

I drove Kitty home after the party as she is a fantastic friend, often driving me home in peak hour traffic so I don't have to battle with strangers for a seat on the tram, and I told her that I actually felt drunk.

I think I had gotten to the stage of being so overly tired that I was delirious. 

So I got home at 1am and then was up at 4:30am to drive mum to the airport, I am getting in practice of having no sleep - but I am struggling. 

What are you doing/have you done for your office Christmas party? Did anyone disgrace them selves at yours? Everyone was very well behaved at ours! 

It's Friday folks.

This photo doesn't even look like me.

I look like a pin head.  Perhaps I always do and nobody ever bothered to tell me. Thanks a lot guys.

I didn't take any other outfit photos so sorry about that.

I don't know if this J Crew Bubble necklace is the real deal as I got it from eBay but it seems to have served me quite well. 

26 weeks pregnant. 

I got told that my face looks much younger now that it is fuller and to quote Kacie from Lady Bear 

"water retention: nature's own 'filler'" - ain't that a damn positive!

Sick of hearing about my dresses from Kookai? Don't worry, me too.

The day I fell pregnant I think my priorities changed as I had no interest in buying clothes for myself, just stuff for the bun in my oven. 

As you have probably noticed, I quite like necklaces as they take away the attention from my ass other bulging parts of my body. 

I went to the movies with the usual suspects, Vanessa and Celeste and we saw the new Twilight.

Look, it was good, but my heart did not sing. I have never found a movie to be better than a book. It just will not happen. 

We popped past Priceline, and unlike Ikea, I did not leave empty handed.

I got this Dove moisturizer then got home, realized it contains SPF and is meant for day time use only. Some people so not to use at night and others say I will be fine. Time will tell.

My skin has finally cleared up a decent amount and I don't want to jinx it and to be honest I am not loving the feel of this on my skin. 

I don't really use moisturizer much though. My routine at the moment goes like this:-

Dove soap

Witch hazel

Cliniques "All about eyes" 

Done. I don't even know why I stopped using Witch Hazel and got expensive products as they didn't help as much as the Witch Hazel did.  Maybe I owe it all to pregnancy and it's a coincidence? Who knows. 

The girls also swear by this Pure Tan business. They rate it far higher than St Tropez which didn't even come second place on their lists. 

I use St Tropez weekly on my legs. The Husband always asks why I put it on but no matter how many times I answer "It makes me feel skinnier" he still asks the question.  Perhaps he just doesn't understand my reasoning. 

This stuff comes out thick. I put it on and it was like rubbing melted chocolate all over my body, and it wasn't sexy either. 

I was trying to reach my feet and my belly was rubbing against my thighs without me realising resulting in a half tan belly. Yuck.

Vanessa warned me, she said wear gloves or a mitt when applying but I did not listen. 

My hands were so disgusting afterwards and felt dry all night due to the amount of soap I was using to try and get it off.

The next day I scrubbed with my loofah in the shower and it came off so that was a success. 

I slept on top of my doona as I was so hot and the amount of tan that rubbed off was less than expected. 

I almost feel like the colour is the same result as getting a spray tan, it is pretty good but St Tropez is still my choice as it is easier to apply and does not come off on my sheets.

I cannot remember where I saw this chair but I still love it. 

I got this baby Missoni cardigan from OzSale and let me tell you, the buttons are so small that I do not see any parent taking the effort to undo them and do them back up in the name of fashion. 

They are the size of a sprinkle on a cupcake. 

I've been really disappointed with OzSale lately to be honest with you. This order had a lemon Escada dress (seen in background) instead of a lemon Escada cardigan, and the white Escada dress was stained. 

Then my next order had stained baby socks and then when I was waiting for a refund I had to deal with 5 different people who kept telling me the wrong amount that I was due. They need to get their shizz together I tell you. 

This is the office Christmas tree, decorated by yours truly.

I need to buy a new star for our tree at home and you wont see photos of it until it has that damn star.

I have gotten my Christmas cards out though which is satisfying and left my desk covered in glitter.

This weather is not being kind to me. Neither is my wardrobe come to think of it. I am ready to turn to muumuus.

Wednesday night was so hot that I slept on top of my doona with no clothes on and not a care in the world if an intruder was to break in. 

I also had a killer headache and was dying of dehydration thanks to the pizza that I had for dinner to fulfil my craving.  There was only so much that a wet towel was able to aid me with during the night. 

Old Target dress. 

We have our office Christmas Party tonight but I don't know if I will be going as I am currently at Grants funeral (this post is pre scheduled obviously) and it will depend on how my mum is going, I don't want to leave her alone if it can be helped. 

I did buy a red maternity dress for the occasion and am hoping that one dress will do double duty at all Christmas functions this year. I will need to be creative and try and make it look different so that y'all don't get bored of it too quickly! 

Pink & Black

I don't know what is wrong with the lighting here, or why my eyes insist on being so crazy but so be it.

The Husband is still my loyal photographer but if in public we get one or two goes, and that is it. There is no reshoot.
Do you ever wonder who takes the photos for those rather popular bloggers who seem to go on expeditions to take photos of their outfits? I wonder too.

See these sandals? Get used to them. 

My feet really don't fit in anything but these and thongs at the moment which is not very glamorous. 

I am lucky that my work have been kind enough to allow me to wear them as they definitely don't work with our dress code.

I'm wearing:-

Kookai dress, backwards of course because the real neckline is just weird.

Kookai cardigan, handy in hiding the size of my bum

Witchery sandals

Necklace from Bali

The annoying thing about these dresses is that the bigger my belly gets, the shorter these get and they ride up when I am waddling. Inconvenient for someone who doesn't like her legs or knees.

I bought an actual maternity dress for the festive season and low and behold, it's long! Success. 

We are frequent San Churro occupants these days but on the weekend I really didn't want anything. 

The Husband was practically peer pressuring me to get something so I opted for the Peanut Butter Besos, hot damn, I was hooked.

It's that salty peanut butter like you get in Reese's Pieces but in thick shake form, hell yes. 

We also bought our pram on the weekend and got it on mega sale!

We were originally looking for the Joolz Day Earth but then discovered that neither of us liked the brown leather trim, so looked at the Joolz Exploration but didn't like that colour combo either - too armyesque.

The Husband has wanted a 'light and pure' pram from the get go, so when he saw this colour combo he was sold, and then when I saw that it was also on sale, I think I was more sold than he was!

So we got the standard Joolz Day pram and as it was a special sale thingo they threw in the nappy bag and parasol for free! We got it at such a good price, I am rather excited by it. 

I think I will probably keep this nappy bag on here as the basket is not very big (but you can buy big shopping holder things), and then use my Marc by Marc Jacobs bag also. 

Don't tell me that it will get dirty because I do not want to hear it! 

All of my google skills tell me that I can pre-treat it and then they clean up pretty nicely or whack it in the wash.

I just love the height of the bassinet, and that the inside is not black so the baby is surrounded by light. 

Both our parents are being really generous and buying a lot of things for us, which I am so grateful for.

As we were trying to stay out the heat, we crossed the road to the new Ikea in Springvale which was dead.

I am so used to the Richmond Ikea being crazy busy on a Saturday but it really was dead. 

I think we are possibly the first people to ever walk out empty handed, but we did leave armed with a list of the stuff we will buy (see my previous Ikea post here) and The Husband has also decided on the custom wardrobe he wants, complete with draws for his watches and ties. 

Maybe I made the wrong move by accepting his offer of having the walk in to myself!  

Despite walking out empty handed, we did get lunch and a hot dog for the sake of it.

I figured that the vegetarian burgers were probably slightly less likely of giving me food poisoning than the meatballs so gave them a shot and actually really enjoyed them. 

I don't know about you but my go to drink when feeling a little off is Apple Juice. It must be the sugar content because it picks me up instantly.