My sister Cecily and her younger son, Eamonn on his 2nd birthday:

My littlest nephew, Eamonn, turned 2 on New Year's Eve. To mark the grand occasion, my mother made a wonderful meal for us all, including her creamy/cheesy/garlicky potato bake that I love so much. My only job was to contribute dessert for the birthday boy. Eamonn *loves* Finding Nemo and anything related to it, so fishy cupcakes it was. The recipe for the cakes was Scouts Cupcakes (from my last post) and the icing was seedless passionfruit icing to the recipe from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook (a Christmas present to myself). The frosting calls for fresh passionfruit but I used tinned pulp and strained out the pips. Normally, I love leaving the seeds in but for a 2 year-old, I wanted choke-proof yumminess. The passionfruit flavour wasn't terribly strong, so I boosted it with a couple of drops of passionfruit flavour bought from Spotlight. The jelly toppers come in a pack of 6 and are readily available from Woolworths supermarkets everywhere. I had my first go at writing with icing 'pens' (ready-made icing in bright colours, comes in little tubes with a narrow tip for decorating) and wasn't in love with them. More practice needed! I had a lot of fun rolling the eges in sprinkles, definitely a highlight of the baking experience.

Two days before Christmas I was admitted to hospital with an attack of acute pancreatitis, secondary to gallstones. Cutting a very long story short, I spent Christmas as inpatient in the Mater Adults Hospital. They allowed me to go out for Christmas Day as I was fairly stable but I couldn't eat anything with fat in it, nor could I touch so much as a drop of alcohol. On the 27th of December, I was first on the emergency list for the operating theatre and had my gallbladder removed laparoscopically (keyhole surgery). I stayed in for 2 days post-operatively due to some issues with bad pain and have been off work since then. I'm pleased to report that apart from some crazy itching from the dressings I still have on 2 of my 4 wounds, I'm doing well. Tonight is my first shift back at work and I'm actually looking forward to it! Special thanks to Brad, Mahlah, Dan and Steph & Lance for wonderful flowers and lovely messages of support just when they were needed. I love you guys.