T2 reviews: Vanilla Slice (iced)

2012 was the year my taste in drinks expanded.  2012 was the year I discovered T2, and chai, and iced tea.  All of a sudden, there was a whole new world to explore.

So I'm taking a break from writing up Australian Women Writers book reviews to review the glass of iced tea I am currently drinking.

It's called Vanilla Slice, which admittedly sounds a little odd for a tea.  But the smell is heavenly (and very vanilla).  The description on T2's website (link above) says:

 Velvety vanilla with summer fruit is a heavenly indulgence. Crisp apple and elderberry combined with the sweetness of vanilla spice and a squeeze of citrus to provide a crisp, tangy finish. A medium-bodied, gorgeously pink infusion that is a sweet treat and a decadent delight.

We made it up for New Year's Eve with fresh blueberries and strawberries in the jug, but I made a jug previously without the berries and it was just as nice - with the berries added it tends to mute the vanilla scent a little, which is worth keeping in mind if you find the scent a little strong.  I'm not sure I can taste the citrus that the description mentions, but as I don't exactly like some citruses, that's not a bad thing.

I'm not sure our current stock will last us until it gets cold enough to try it as a hot tea, but if it does run out I may have to buy some more so that I can try it.

Christmas Day in the evening

by H.

I guess it's not really all that 'normal' to be wrapping presents at 3pm on Christmas Day afternoon, but that's what I've been doing.  Partially because I've been procrastinating at it, but I've been *able* to procrastinate because our Christmas celebration isn't until this evening.

Chez Stutters is celebrating with H's parents this year, on the understanding that next year we really will be going to M's parents.  It's been a while since she's had Christmas with her family, so she's more than due, but somehow this year it all worked out as an H-family year.

H's family have always celebrated Christmas Eve, in the Scandanavian/Minnesotan tradition, but over the years it has proven increasingly difficult to fit family celebrations around church services, especially as so-called 'Midnight Mass' keeps creeping earlier and earlier.  (Last night we started at 8pm, and the sky was still (barely) light when we finished.)

So a few years ago, we decided to shift Christmas Eve to Christmas Day night, particularly because two of the five (at the time) members of the family are non-church-going.  Now it's three of the six, and so the Christmas Eve Night works okay, except that it pushes all the Christmas waiting by a whole extra day.  And M could be characterised as ... somewhat impatient when it comes to things Christmassy.

But - we're working on how to meld our family traditions, and how to create new ones.  It has taken H's mother 40 years to get vaguely used to Christmas in summer: H will eventually get used to having (some of the) presents on Christmas morning, and the vital importance of Boxing Day movies.  (Hobbit tomorrow morning, yay!)

Lego Christmas

By M.

For the last couple of years i've been getting steadily more addicted to lego building. Yes, it's something random to get interested in at the age of 30ish but hey, i've always been late to the party. It started because of an assignment - I had to interview a child and work out what developmental age they were. I borrowed a friends 8 year old who loves lego and because part of this was watching them classify objects I grabbed some lego and used it as a teaching tool - and then realised how much fun it was to play with and how relaxing it is.

Anyways, last year after Christmas, H. and I went to Canberra for a couple of days. While we there we noticed some "Christmas Winter Village" Lego sets and while we didn't buy them I came home and asked my best friend for one of the sets for my 30th - he bought me all three saying it would count for the next Christmas and birthday as well...

So on December 1st we built the sets and here is what they look like put together...



After sending it to the Best Friend who gave us the sets he replied, like any good former police officer, it needed more security. Now I don't have a lego police station and didn't feel like building one but figured the Doctor was even better than a police officer. So my Doctor Who Mini-figs joined the Christmas set...






So Merry Christmas from our Christmas Village to you and your family/loved ones!

Decoration of the Day - conceding defeat

So, it's Christmas Day and I haven't posted a "Decoration of the Day" since December 12th.  Incidentally, that was the day before M's Graduation, and from then on, everything just got really, really busy.  Also I lost Kirsten's St Lucia crown, which meant I procrastinated on the post for the 13th, and from there everything went downhill.

So I'll save the rest of the photos for next year, when there might be repeat decorations - and there might be entirely new ones!

Decoration of the Day - Day 12

"Slave 1" is M's.  It's a Hallmark decoration we bought last year.

To quote M:

I love Boba Fett.  A lot of that is because of the expanded universe books and I try and ignore the dodginess of the prequels but Boba is one of those characters that fandom made 1000 times cooler than Lucas envisioned.  Which makes a Hallmark decoration Slave 1 a no-brainer for me to buy especially after it has the sound chip to quote Boba from Empire Strikes Back.  Empire is my favourite Star Wars movie and one of my favourite movies of all time.  I love the darkness and that the bad guys win and I love that on my Christmas tree is a bounty hunters spaceship taking away Han Solo to be sold to a giant slug.

Decoration of the Day - Day 11

M owns two Christmas decorations from the Historic Royal Palaces.  Hampton Court she bought herself when she lived in the UK: the decoration from the Tower of London was a present from H, the first Christmas they were together, when H already had a trip to the UK planned (and saw the back fence of Hampton Court.).

Decoration of the Day - Day 10

This is a new one, purchased in Newcastle (Australia) at the Oxfam shop.  It's listed as a Cinnamon ornament: we don't recall whether it's actually made from the tree cinnamon bark comes from, but whether it is or not, it smells beautifully of cinnamon whenever you get anywhere near it.

We hope that it retains its amazing scent for many years to come.