Christmas Week

The holiday break was marvellous ... so marvellous in fact that there was little time for blogging - although I did make notes along the way although, in retrospect, more detail would have been helpful. So ... to catch up ... a bit of a chunk now ... with more to follow soon.

The Xmas table

The early part of the first week was spent in finishing the Christmas shopping and the wrapping of said Christmas shopping. I helped this year and luckily the more I wrapped the better it seemed to go and at least one present looked "okay". I have a feeling that doing it again next year will be like learning all over again - unless I practice during the coming year to keep my hand in.

Dinner on Christmas Eve was with Syl and An and their house guests - Syl's brother, father, sister and her partner, and Di, a friend of Syl and An's, and her two dogs, Elle and Toby (the cutest puppy!). It was great - and the first of what will be our three Christmas Dinners. The funniest moment for me was when the dogs had been parking and Sylvia went to investigate - and while she was out the front, Syl's sister looked out and said "There's an elf out there" - which seemed for just a brief moment like a very good reason for the dogs to be barking ... until we realised that she was talking about Sylvia in her elf outfit (see picture).

Game play

Afte dinner, we had one more call - to see Mouse to fit the racks and telescopic rods into her new oven - which was needed to do "warming" for Christmas Day.. Why do instruction books not give clear instructions? It took some time but finally M and I figured it out ... only realizing much later that Sooz had been using the instruction book as a makeshift fan! I can't say we could blame her though ... it was pretty hot ... and hotter still in the oven!

And then it was ... Christmas Day. You have to love Christmas and the excitement of running out to the Christmas Tree to see if he's been. And he had ... leaving presents that looked suspiciously like some Sooz and I wrapped yesterday. We exchanged one each with M this morning before she went in to help Mouse prepare lunch. The other presents had to wait until we all arrived home.

We ended up being 17 for lunch at Mouse's. Mouse and M had finished the set up by the time everyone arrived. It was very festive ... and great fun ... and required a lot less cleaning up than last year - Paper Plates were the go! And as young La pointed out with his question, yes they were Christmas plates.

It's an elf

II was very happy with my gifts especially one from the K's (and M had had the same idea) who insisted it be opened as soon as they arrived at Mouse's... a bluetooth speaker so we could have music for the day - as played from a device ... actually any device once I'd read the instructions and worked out how to pair it with something other than Az's iPhone.

We had managed to get our act together though and had printed out and framed photos from her 88th birthday dinner at The Big House as one of Mouse's presents. She seemed to like them. But one of the biggest hits was La's Large Crayon filled with art supplies. He's an interesting lad ... and I wonder if one day someone will say (a la remarks about Thomas Edison) that he didn't talk until he was four years old.

We didn't add to Optus coffers this year with SMS'd Christmas messages ... I was planning to, but never quite managed to fit it in. But we did manage to fit in a game of "Name that TV Theme Song" - via YouTube and the Bluetooth Speaker. Good times!

Xmas guests

Then it was Boxing Day and while we had planned for an earlier start, we didn't actually managed to get away from Latimers until late morning. That was okay though because we weren't due at We and Ma's until 4pm. And just as well because I had been so "sleepy" on the drive (I think it may have been the painkillers I took before we left) that as soon as we arrived at Mum's, I put myself down for a nap - otherwise our shopping expedition (roast chicken, watermelon and cherries) would have been much less enjoyable.

Meanwhile, at We and Ma's, they had been busy! They had hand crafted the salads (thank you to Coles' for the Summer recipe book), cooked the ham and the turkey, and "built" a new room out the back - that would be the very big tarp covering the grassed area between the garage and the gazebo. Oh ... and put in a pool ... which the kids were playing in by the time we arrived ... that would be the wading pool with see-through sides. They were having a fantastic time - helped by one of their Christmas presents - a huge water pistol!