Oh I m really excited! I love Christmas time, the food, the pressies, the parties, getting together with friends and family, even the Christmas weather is just fantastic.  I love summer!  So I was really pleased to receive the Nuffnang Christmas Party invitation for a Themed Blue Hawaii party to be held in Sydney on the Wednesday 10^th November at the Bavarian Bier Cafe.

I made all the necessary plans and invited my brother Theo and his lovely bride to-be Lisa to join me at the Christmas party.  Lisa and Theo have helped me so much over the last nine months with the website, feedback and suggestions.  I wanted them to share in the celebration with me as a thank you to them for their support.

Unfortunately things did not go entirely to plan and I was called away. I sent a frantic last minute email to them asking them if they would mind going it alone… and a timid little… would you mind taking a few photos too.  It probably isn’t exactly good form, but being that they are just wonderful, they said they were happy to help.

So here are a few images from the fantastic evening I missed.

Being able to call on Theo and Lisa at a moments notice made me think a little more about the important people in my life, and in the life of my blog.

I guess to me, Christmas is a time to let people you love, know how much they mean to you. Although Gourmet Getaways features a photo of me, and information “about me” there are a lot of people who help to make it what it is. So I guess this is my opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me.

Firstly and obviously thank you Theo and Lisa for your occasional articles and images, your constant feedback and for covering the Nuffnang Christmas party in my absence.  I had really been looking forward to this event and was sorry not to be able to go myself and meet all the other lovely bloggers and Nuffnang executives. Through your photo’s I at least got a peek at what I was missing.

Thank you to my dear husband who happily taste tests everything that you see, and a lot of the disaster that you don’t. He has recently given himself the name of “tubby hubby” because he thinks this may be where he is headed. So I appreciate the ultimate sacrifice he is making in giving up his “iron man” physique for the sake of my writing.

Thanks to Nuffnang for believing in my blog. They do a great job of looking at my statistics and demographics and matching advertisers to my site. I am happy to say I have now run two advertising campaigns over the last two months.  Nuffnang has done all the working in finding a suitable advertiser, designing the advertisement and making it magically appear on my website in a place I have set aside for their clients.  I am looking forward to working with Nuffnang in the years to come.

Another big thank you has to go to everyone who has invited me to sample their product, attend their cooking school or participate in some other way with their venue or cause.  Without producers and restaurants catering to the foodies I would have nothing to write about.  Getting press releases, invitations or food packages in the mail is like Christmas everyday!

Next is my wonderful mentor Lyndal from The Perfect Pantry. She has adopted me through the Adopt-a-Blogger program.  Lyndal is helping me develop the website by sharing her years of blogging experience with me.

Thanks to my mum, Rachel and Scott who help me with the restaurant reviews. It is no fun eating alone.  So far I have been fortunate enough to be sharing a meal with friends for each review.

Thank you to my dear readers, I love the feedback, the comments and the suggestions I get from you. It is so nice to know that I have followers, and it is great to know when you enjoy an article or a recipe.

Also thank you to all the other bloggers who provide a lovely sense of community. There is so much sharing of information, links and friendship amongst other bloggers, it has come as a great surprise to me that there is no competitiveness but a very open giving attitude.

I adore so many other bloggers sites, each writer has their own personality and style, and I love visiting and reading what is happening in different areas throughout the country. My blog roll is ever increasing, have a look on the right hand side for some of the other websites I read.

Anyway, that’s it for me for today. So remember “sharing is caring” Have a great day!