Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! After firstly being woken by the tropical rainforest that apparently lives outside my parents house (I don't remember the parrots when I used to live here...) and then Megan jumping on me at 7am, it was time for presents. Megan did politely point out though that she had been up since 5am and we were lucky that she waited until 7am to shake her reindeer bells and wake everyone else up. After checking out Santa sacks it was then time for presents under the tree.


After presents it was time to prepare our Christmas lunch. As we bypassed the Stamford this year, we decided to create a ''money can't buy" lunch menu. Everyone pitched in and we had a great lunch... with many leftovers.

Mum created a great table setting - our theme this year was silver, blue and white (Lisa - you should take some notes). After lunch it was time for a swim and a power nap. With our batteries recharged we headed next door to check out what Santa had left Connor and Caitlin. After presents, a neighbourhood 'friendly' game of Scattegories was played while Caitlin and I watched DVD's. And now it is time to rest before sales tomorrow!

Christmas Eve with the Family

In the usual Gribble tradition we hosted Christmas Eve for the extended family. As always, there was more than enough food and drinks to satisfy everyone. After some snacks, Santa made an appearance and there were presents and many laughs had all round - who knew that Santa was a comedian! Santa in action....

Santa and I (after he'd handed over the goods)...

Then I had a personalised visit with Santa to make sure he had my list down pat...

Only one more sleep!

The Night Before Christmas...

Well, actually it's still the morning before Christmas. Had breakfast with Nat at Continental Cafe this morning - always a great breakfast and surprisingly not all that busy. Couldn't resist the 2o% off sign in the window of Ultra Suite I had seen on the way to breakky, so made a quick stop off on the way home which was well worth it - I picked up a Sass & Bide bargain. Just about to pack up and head to Mum's... will need to cart along all these presents. Meg was complaining that there weren't enough presents for her under Mum's tree... we'll see what she thinks once I had mine to the pile! Merry Christmas!!

Virgin Blue Christmas Party

Virgin Blue chose a new location for this years company Christmas Party. Marquees were set up at the cultural forecourt at Southbank. It was a great location right next to the river. It was a pretty big turnout - around 3700 people!! Sarah came along with me to experience her first VB party:

As can only be expected of a Virgin Blue party, there was many drinks on hand, and a few live bands played late into the night.

Close Encounter with ROBBIE WILLIAMS

He was here to entertain us, and he certainly lived up to expectation - Robbie Williams came to Brisbane last Wednesday. Megan, Pat and I had been looking forward to seeing him for ages and it was well worth the wait. And when he came on I nearly had a heart attack... check out his shirt!!!

All in all in was a fantastic show - I'll definitely be seeing Robbie again!

Megan and I waiting for Robbie...

Christchurch - New Zealand

Just a quick trip across the Tasman to support Pacific Blue with some of their recruitment. Christchurch was unusually cold for this time of year - especially for a Queenslander!! The Pac Blue team is quite small - but it was very interesting. I didn't really get much of an opportunity to check out the city, but this is the very cute (and very small in comparison to VB!) Pacific Blue Head Office.

HR Team Christmas Party

Well, it's that time of year - Christmas functions are filling up everyone's schedules. In tradition that was started 5 years ago, the HR team embarked on a day of lawn bowls, bbq and drinks to celebrate the huge year we have had. I had only been part of this team for 4 weeks at last year's event, and looking around this year it's amazing how much we have grown. We have gone from around 15 people to close to 50 in just over a year!! No wonder it's felt so busy! It was a nice hot QLD day and there were plenty of cold beers to combat the heat. There were some bowling shenanigans from time to time, but overall it was a great (and very long) day. We started out around midday with lunch and I think I

finally made it home after about 10pm - a veeeerrrryyyy long lunch!!

Tash in bowling action

And here I am with Miranda a bit later in the night...

Iona and John's Wedding

On Saturday 2nd December Iona Fitzgerald officially became a Tait. Mrs John Tait in fact. John and Iona had a lovely low key affair starting with a park ceremony at St Johns Wood. Iona's dressed looked amazing, and the bridesmaids had very funky and unusual outfits. After the ceremony we all headed to the Powerhouse at New Farm for some drinks and nibbles. It was a lovely affair with lots of great memories.

Posing for photos with Trent

Iona's Bridal Shower

It's only a week away, so a Bridal Shower was held for Iona on Saturday. It was a pretty low key affair which was great for a lazy Saturday afternoon. We started off with a few party games at Hazel's house and then made our way to Continental Cafe at New Farm for a late lunch and a few beverages. Looking forward to the wedding next weekend.

"The Ashes" - First Day

It was the most anticipated match of the summer - the first day of the Ashes series at the Gabba. Nat, Sean and I joined a capacity crowd - including an overwhelming showing from the Barmy Army, and perfect weather - albiet a little hot at 32 degrees. With the Aussies winning the toss, Australia elected to bat and sent Hayden and Langer in as openers. After Hayden was dismissed, Punter stepped in to take charge of the match posting a superb century in the first innings, and only falling 4 runs short of double tonne on day 2. All in all, it was a great day out.

Australia VS Great Britain Test Match

With Ben back on Aussie soil, it was only fitting that we go along to the test match at Suncorp. Great Britain needed to win to make the final, and with the Aussies have never lost 2 consecutive matches to the Poms there was a lot at stake. It was a great game with the Aussies leading all the way. And with an amazing effort on the final siren (90 metre try intiaited by Locky) the Aussies are all set to take on NZ in the final.

On A Night Like This... KYLIE

It's been a long time coming, but finally Kylie's Showgirl Tour came to BrisVegas! It was an awesome night and we had amazing seats. One of the best show's I've ever been to, although we'll have to wait and see how Robbie stacks up. The costumes and sets were fantastic... check out the photos....

The Other Sister

Well baby Meegs... here is a blog all to yourself!! If you didn't realise, Lisa was helping set this up and posted the Sisters entry herself. She was trying to have a party online without you... so if you're mad at anyone it should be her!! To my other bestest pal....

Party all together...

Dinner with Ben

It seems that London has followed Ben back downunder... yesterday it was a very cool 24 degrees in Brisbane and it even snowed in Melbourne and Canberra!! This morning we woke to find that it had snowed in Stanthorpe overnight... that has never happened in November before... EVER!! What is with the crazy weather??

As a traditional welcome back to Aus, Ben came round for a hearty meal and Amazing Race party. Ben decided to test out his new toy from Singapore so here is a photo of me in the kitchen making our dinner last night.

After dinner Ben continued to test out his new flash... it's pretty impressive. Check out the colours in the photos... unfortunatley 9.30pm on a Thursday is not a great time to take my picture!!

We watched the Amazing Race (with snacks of course!). It was great to catch up with Ben.

Sisters

Lisa (the one who inspired me for this blog) and Me.... one of my bestest pals ever!!!

Melbourne Cup

The race that stops the nation - Melbourne Cup 2006. Great day out at Doomben races. Even managed to get a spot on the evening news! Almost came in with the riches... had 2nd and 3rd! Here is a photo of Nat and I enjoying a glass of bubbly on the lawn. We finished the day off with a swim at Struggle St - Matt and Dan's (pictured below) place at Bulimba.

My First Blog

So I've followed in Ben and Lisa's footsteps and started my own blog. Not sure how long this will be around for... I'm sure the novelty will wear off at some point!! This is probably better than photosite though, cause I can access it from work! So expect to see new posts when I am procrastinating!! Look forward to keeping everyone updated on new adventures. Love Tash xo