What the?! It's 10 days since Christmas, leave off the Easter Buns already!

So it's not enough that I'm back at work less than two weeks after Christmas, or that we've all managed to catch a cold in the middle of summer, but today, we walked into the local supermarket at Kippax, and they are selling [are you ready for this?] Hot Cross Buns. Hot, freaking cross buns and the first weak of the year isn't even half over.

I kid you not. Seriously, they were so in-your-face out front I didn't even notice until Flavia pointed them out. I know people often complain that the hot cross buns are out a few days after Christmas or even in Jan but I'd always taken that as a bit of an exaggeration.

I understand that as a card-carrying pagan I have no call being upset about anyone selling me sugary bread with sultanas in on any day of the year, I just wish the local commercial operators wouldn't be so blatant in their lack of imagination when it comes to ripping me off. Because it's January 5th, and Easter is only well.... the next food-based holiday to cash in on. I haven't spotted Easter eggs yet.....

Post-script Jan 7: Easter Eggs. Here is what I will be eating until April

Painting Gabriel's room

Last week we began to move Gabriel into his own room. He'd had a random selection of rooms through the holidays, hotels, Nanna's... and so the dislocation was less substantial. Just one more move (or so we kept telling ourselves...)

Flavia and I had talked about jungles, pictures of smiling lions or big trees or something. But we couldn't agree on scale - was it going to be wall-paper sized stick-on animals or a big tree, or lots of thin ones? In the end, our trip North for Christmas decided it: it turns out Gabriel loves wheels, cars and mechanical stuff in general. So we painted hills (see pictures). And a road, for some wooden cars we'd found. The cars are glued directly to the wall: it is my philosophy that should anyone ever buy this house, they'll be welcome to take the kids wall decorations off with a chisel.

Of course, Miss 3 assisted with the rollers (green), and some sponges on the road. Then she decided that stacking the paint tins, and painting on paper on the floor was much better than keeping within the lines on the wall. Small dude was ever present... surely, if Dad and Miss 3 were getting messy with green paint, he'd be allowed too..... he particularly liked the acoustics - empty wooden room, big echoes, lots of "Aahh!     aah? Aah!"

It's now a whole 24 hours since we finished, and both Miss 3 and Small dude are asleep in their respective rooms. Our bedroom feels oddly empty....