...and there were 26 for Christmas dinner!

Well I can honestly say that Christmas 2010 was pretty 'full on'!

Santa did his thing and was very generous with his gifts. He left us a note and made quite a mess with the pastry crumbs of the mince pie. Rudolph didn't eat his carrot, but he did enjoy the Christmas book that we left for him to read whilst Santa was busy sorting out the presents!

Christmas morning started around 6am with some squealing from Sibs as she realised that Santa had put some small gifts in her stocking. We managed to prolong the getting out of bed for a little while and then the excitement increased when she got downstairs and saw the gifts under the tree and scattered around the fireplace. Santa had even responded to her note - ahh bless him! Family started to arrive and Nana and Papa from England enjoyed special time with the grandchildren.

On Christmas afternoon 26 of us got together at our good friends' and neighbours' house to party away and celebrate the occasion.

14 adults and 12 children...can you imagine?

We were a pretty multicultural bunch consisting of only three Aussies amongst - English, Scottish, Dutch, a New Zealander, an American and of course a Welsh girl!

So much happened during the day that it would take me so long to record here so these are my highlights...

• The note in the advent calendar said "look behind the advert calendar" and Sibs had hidden a card for us -pure magic!
• I marvelled at how she loved to give presents and watched her face when the recipient opened her gifts.
• Gu (welsh grandma) sent 'The Guinness Book of Records' and Sibs danced around the room clutching it.
• There was lots of champagne!
• The array of foods that everyone had contributed to the meal was just amazing - antipasto, glazed ham, chicken, beef, haloumi fritters, spinach and feta pie, umpteen salads and sides, salmon, prawns (of course), lime semifreddo, pavlova, cake...we had a feast!
• The 12 children played together perfectly all day. They all watched a DVD around 7pm, then found a second wind and jumped back in the pool to sing Abba songs until way after 10pm!!
• There was lots of champagne!

The following day we did it all again. Not quite with the same number, just 10 of us this time. We travelled up the mountain to a lovely day with family. Husband's younger brother and wife catered for us with a spread fit for Kings.
The best bit about Boxing day?... It rained all day and it was cold! So cold that we lit the fire and watched 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' - the original, just bliss!  (OK it's wasn't cold as in white fluffy stuff cold, just cold by Australian Summer time standards!)

So there's been a bit of recuperating and quiet time here.



the morning after the day before!

 We have just about managed to catch up with our sleep and ventured out for the first time today. Oh how I love lazy holiday days... The sun shone today and it feels like Summer holidays at last. We have a few diy projects on the go and we are beginning to get excited for our NZ trip in a few weeks.

Christmas is over for another year...

a local house