Christmas lunch this Friday. 12pm. Come along!

We were once again delighted to be part Alphington Open Studios this year.

And personally it was just lovely to come to work and be surrounded by fabulous art!

I hope you made it along here and to the studios open across the neighbourhood.

Thanks Katie Roberts.

Thanks Sharon West.

Thanks Maxine O’Brien.

Great to have Keir visit on Friday. He is the CEO of our peak body NHVic … and his job is to do lots of advocacy for neighbourhood houses - so it is terrific that he is visiting so many to find out all the things we do.

Because every house is different … because every neighbourhood is different.

He had lunch with us and got to enjoy some CWA baking … heard Brett’s Christmas poem, and helped us sing happy birthday to Sandra.

Also … I talked his ear off about all the things we do here. It was super.

If you are here this week and would like to contribute to our solar light project please put your hand up and we’ll give you the materials to make one! We’d love you to contribute.

Oyr little hill of dreams is coming along now, with lots more lights added this week.

Hi,

Kalimna here. I just wanted to say a big thank you to the many supporters and volunteers that brought the Christmas Makers Market together.

This year we were supported by Nelson Alexander with local billboards, Brenta Meats with great sausages to sell, the Ivanhoe Rotary Club volunteers wrangled the BBQ and the Alphington Open Studios artists shared their wonderful works inside.

We would also like to thank our own volunteers like Marie-Louise, Elaine, Monika and Anne who looked after our new kiosk and the craft and preserves sales. And Cheryl and Richard who helped out with kids activities.

There were stalls raising funds for various charities and causes this year - which we love supporting. These included Friends of Baucau coffee sales, CWA craft, fundraising for Ivanhoe Grammar’s Cambodia community service trip and Manu’s fundraising to support children in India.

And lastly thank you to all the stall holders - we hope you enjoyed the day.

There were lots of shoppers and the market provided many great Christmas gifts to the people that visited from our community.

It is fabulous to be able to support locals to shop locally.