Utes, Rainy Days and A Very Rich Cake

We are well into Christmas Party Season here at The Farm.  Before I got married and moved to the country, December consisted of high heels, marquees and way too much champagne. The social whirl that is Christmas Party Season on The Farm is no less taxing.

We kicked off last week with Farmgirl's child care Christmas Party.  It ticked all the boxes.  There were things like red sausages and cupcakes.  Santa came and everyone got a bag of lollies.

Santa arrived in our local fire ute.

Practical Transport For Santa

(For those readers who are not Australian, what we call a "ute" is usually called a "pick up".  In Australia a "pick up" is what a single young farmer is trying to achieve when he heads to the pub on a Friday night.)

A ute is an excellent transport choice for Santa.  Practical, all terrain and reliable.  I know from personal experience that you can do lots of kilometres in a Landcruiser Ute, no worries at all. This a great feature if you are planning an around the world trip.   A good ute is also a comfy choice.  They even make ones with air con, which would be a handy extra if you were wearing a red, fur lined suit.

We have several more parties to come, including The Official Farm Christmas Dinner for all our staff.  It will be held at a local restaurant.  Then we will have my work party.  Same restaurant. (It is only a little town...)

Our harvest is held up at the moment by the weather. There was a cool change and it rained yesterday  It was a glass of red wine rain. When our crop is wet it can't be harvested.  Today has dawned bright and clear however, so hopefully things will dry up quickly.

Fortunately the rain doesn't look to have done any damage.  Many farms in NSW and Victoria have lost their entire crop to rain.  This is a so sad.  It is awful to get your crop so far into the season and then lose it (and any chance of a profit) right at the end.

A Soggy Fence Post, On Our Currently Soggy Farm

Farmgirl and I have been holed up in The Farmhouse so we don't get wet.  To fill in time we made Ree Drummond's Chocolate Sheet Cake.  It turned out beautifully.  I wimped out on the icing though.  I thought it would already be very rich.  So I just dusted the top with icing sugar.  Sorry Ree, I just couldn't do that much butter.  It was still amazing though.  I would recommend making this cake - let me know how the icing goes if you do.

Ree Drummond's Sheet Cake, Minus Icing

It would be super yummy as a pudding if you just warmed it up, added some icecream and some berry coulis.

Enjoy your day everyone.

Random Thoughts on a Wednesday

This Wednesday is much better than last Wednesday.  Yay.  The Farmchildren have been well behaved and the day went smoothly.  I am also cooking a little lamb roast for dinner and can smell it from here, so this is improving my mood no end.

The weather has changed suddenly as it is raining.  It isn't the hot, sultry, summer "gin and tonic" type rain.  It is more the cool change, "glass of red wine" type rain.  It will slow our harvest up a bit but we are at the stage where a day off will be welcome for everyone.   I can hear our workmen on the two-way planning a night at the pub as I write this...

Red Wine Rain

In other, very important, news I have solved the Christmas present wrapping dilemma.  The ladies at our local post office have helped me find these.

Christmas Gift Bags

Yay.  They will solve the lost sticky tape on Christmas Eve dilemma.  You could even make the presents look good after a couple of glasses of Champagne.  This is a challenge that I have failed to meet in previous years.

I have also decided to pass my lovely Cherry on Top blog award to Amanda over at Not a Ballerina.  Amanda has a fantastic blog, largely revolving around her experiences both traveling, and working as a travel writer.  She is a beautiful writer and her blog is well worth a look.  I particularly love her posts about her family holiday to Europe in the 80s.  The fashion alone is inspiring.

It is going to be a pretty short post tonight.  Sorry all, but there is roast lamb and red wine in the kitchen with my name on it.

Edited to add:

Farmboy's class is running the school assembly on Friday.  He entertained us over dinner with their "item"  It is a funk/hiphop version of Humpty Dumpty.  All in all we have had a lovely evening.  Dinner and a show.