Fruit Cake Truffles

Merry Christmas everyone! to get in the Christmas spirit this year i decided to make Fruit Cake Truffles instead of Oreo Truffles. Same principle, slightly different ingredients.

You will need -

-1 packet of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (i use light to try and counter-act the effect of the chocolate ;) )

-3/4 of a fruit cake. - i just buy a Homebrand dark fruit cake. You could use light if you wanted too.

- 2 blocks of chocolate for dipping. I like Dairy Fine from Aldi.

• Crumble the fruit cake into a bowl. Then add your cream cheese. Beat until it resembles cookie dough.
• Roll into balls and place on a tray. I use a small melon baller to help me get even size balls.
• Refrigerate until they are firm.
• Dip in melted chocolate and place on a tray that has been covered in baking paper.
• Make it fancy by sprinkling on crushed candy cane, choc sprinkles or drizzle with white chocolate. You can even roll them in coconut. Whatever takes your fancy. I also like adding essences to my dipping chocolate - so in mine i did some orange, some peppermint and some plain. Have fun and be creative!

Try not to eat them all at once.

Well Christmas is over for another year. I love Christmas but i'm always so glad that it's over. I cooked a huge turkey this year and we still have leftovers that we will eat for the next week no doubt. I've already gained 2kgs in the last 2 days. It's a good thing we bought a Wii Fit for Christmas. And speaking of which - who's idea was it? Ethan gets frustrated that he isn't good at the games even though it's the first time he's ever played them and then there is much weeping, wailing and nashing of teeth. I'm very ready to take the stupid game back to the shop! Although it IS pretty fun. :)

And as the year comes to a close i can't help but be pleased with some of my accomplishments this year. If you can call them that. I had 3 things i wanted to do this year - 1. have my baby naturally and without drugs, 2. Get my licence, 3. Get my citizenship. 3 from 3 ain't bad ;) I don't have any goals for next year yet. I need to make some.

Christmas is over for another year.....

For some reason in the past few years i haven't looked forward to Christmas. Just seems like the magic was gone and its always so damn hot its hard to enjoy. The only good thing about it was eating as much as i like guilt-free.

But having kids has rekindled the magic just a little for me. Last year i was so excited for Ethan to be able to open his present and actually enjoy it since he was 22mths old. But, he was struck down with tonsilitis just before Christmas and hardly had the strength to stand let alone open his presents. We ended up having to take him back to an after hours dr on Boxing Day just as all our family was arriving for Christmas celebrations at our house. Add that to the heat(about 37C in the house) and you have a pretty crappy Christmas.

This year i wanted it to be different. I was hoping for a cooler temp since we have been having unseasonally cold weather(Victoria actually had a white Christmas!!) and Ethan was showing no signs of being sick. We decided to have Christmas at my sisters place about 1 1/2 hours East of here. We divided up the food and other things to bring amoungst ourselves and planned on having a relaxing day just veging out and eating...as you do. So thats what we did. We got up at 7am and mum came over and we opened pressies. The look on Ethans face as he opened each present was priceless. I'm so glad he wasn't sick and he was able to enjoy it all. The weather was nice and actually I've been wearing winter pjs for the last week or so. lol He loved his 'toss 'pute' or in english that translates to 'Thomas Computer' he got a Thomas and Friends Laptop off daddy. He LOVES it.

He also got a bike and Wiggles helmet. A hobby horse off Granma and a few other Thomas things, oh and a Wiggles sun hat from granma too. He's got spoiled this year. Nicholas got a couple of cute things. But I guess when your 11 weeks old you don't really care. lol

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast then made our way down to my sisters.

IT WAS HOT!!!!!

It was 32C and muggy. I didn't want to get out of the car that was sitting at a nice comfortable 20C. After lunch we decided it was way too hot and went to invade her inlaws. They have a/c and a pool. Score!

So other then the heat it was a good day. Here's some pics -

And these are possums.....just in case you didn't know. Very special christmas possums. Ok so not really, they were outside my sisters house on the power lines. I think they're cute!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hope everyone has and is having a great Christmas. I will have exciting anicdotes and pics to follow later. ;) maybe.... lol

You know i think us Australians are a little crazy. Not crazy-psycho, crazy-weird. Last night we went looking at Christmas lights. There is a funeral home that does a killer display(pardon the pun) every year. Its the best in town i reakon. Other then the gorgeous displays they have free plum pudding with custard, tea and coffee. They also have a sausage sizzle and drinks that you can buy. What a way to rake in the business.....lights AND food. Donations are welcome and all money goes to some suicide prevention fund(which my dh finds funny - can you guess why??lol) Anyhow this year they added something else.....FREE ice cream!!!! You can guarantee i will go anywhere there is free ice cream.

This would generally be a great idea considering we do celebrate Christmas in summer but this year our weather has been weird. So much for global warming - we have been having cold days sprinkled amoungst very hot days. Last night it was cold. It was windy. We had the heater on in our car. We had jackets on!!! Outside temp was 13 degrees celsius. I know, not mega cold but c'mon its summer!!!

We get to the funeral home and make our way to the entrance...its cold, its windy. I was wishing i had a scarf and gloves......we walk pass the ice cream van.....'would you like a free ice cream???' someone asks me......'YES!!!!!' of course i want a free ice cream, its not like its winter or anything. Its summer, of course i want to eat ice cream!!!!!

It was damn good too. Free food tastes so much better then food i've had to pay for, wouldn't you agree???

Here's a pic of me and Ethan in front of the winter display...complete with fake snow. Please excuse the painful look on my face. 12kgs sitting on your legs is difficult when your off balance to start with and i was talking to dh too at the time. lol

MERRY CHRISTMAS!