Does anyone else feel like Christmas is just one big anti-climax lately? It starts off with lots of enthusiasm and excitement and ends in a lot of spending, eating and sitting around!
I have avoided writing about my Christmas for fear of total boredom! Not that I found it particularly boring, but that it's just the same old thing, every year. But out of a total inability to think of anything else to write...here goes......
The highlight for me was probably Christmas Eve when we all went to the local church for the traditional family mass. Miss 8 decided that she was going to be in the children's choir this year and so she had been to a few practices beforehand (yep, she is the very religious one amongst us, I'm sure!). She also scored the part of an angel during the gospel reading - 3 seconds of altar fame - and sang her little heart out from up behind the priest. Naturally, like any good choir singer, she insisted on having her hair straightened beforehand so the lead up to our getting there was a bathroom makeover session for 8 year olds! *sigh* Girls!
After the obligatory ceremony of leaving out milk for santa and water and carrots for reindeer, it was off to bed....only to be woken at 6 am by delighted squeals that santa had left a pink Nintendo DS Lite. And not only that, he'd also happened to drop off a Nintendogs to go with it! Yahoo....8 year old dreams come true! The 12 year old got a truckload of cricket gear. He has now hit adult sizes so a small men's bat was needed and omg...do you know how much those suckers cost???!!! Sheesh, I hope he is earning his own money before his next size up is due! Oh and Dear Husband pulled out his work pressie and at 7am was awakening all the neighbours with a very huge and noisy remote control truck!
Christmas breakfast in our house is always seafood. Dear Husband always travels for miles at his own insistence to find the very best (according to him) seafood in town. This year, he ventured home on Christmas eve with lobster, prawns and oysters! Yummo!
After breakfast it was time to tear the kids away from their new goodies and head to my brother's place for lunch. Because Christmas is usually hot here, we have a combined hot (turkey, roast veges) and cold (ham, salad) meal. Oh, and as the pic above will tell you....we are always fully stocked on liquid refreshments as well!
The afternoon was a seriously important time when the kids played with their new toys and we adults plopped down on the lounge, exhausted, to recuperate! The bigger boys went off for a game of backyard cricket at one stage and we did all play a game of Australian trivia (12 year old's Christmas pressie) that provided a few laughs (like I knew who Australia's second prime minister was! Pft!).
By evening, we were full, fat and fatigued! And naturally, we went to bed early that night so that we could be up in time for all of the Boxing Day sales at the shops the next day! Another Christmas down and another new year lining up to face! Here's hoping that next year doesn't come around so quickly, eh!
