Christmas 111, 1V and V

We feel like we're almost done with Christmas already. Rob and I had a celebratory meal on Friday night with  friends - then Saturday afternoon we celebrated our extended family Christmas here at Josh and Jody's new house. It was a very hot day - still around 37o in the late afternoon so we really appreciated the cool, big open spaces of their home's living areas.

It's the first time this house has experienced our family's Christmas rituals - everyone unwrapping their Secret Santa parcels with great excitement, and sometimes great laughter......

 Joshy's new pyjamas got the best laughs this year!

 and Jody's Outlander DVD probably caused the most excitement!

 The girls' new hats certainly covered the cuteness angle.

and Ella was able to add to her rapidly expanding array of craft skills (crocheting) with Maxie's help!

Another family ritual is to eat a lot at our Christmas feasts. This year was no exception with Joshy's 5kg of roast pork legs, a baked ham and mounds of prawns and baked vegetables taking centre stage.

 It went down well with our newly elected School Captain.

Another Christmas ritual is for the kids to play beautifully together at all our gatherings (and the adults are fairly well behaved too) despite their age, gender and other differences.

Then Sunday afternoon it was drinks at New Acton with our friends Fiona and James and then afterwards it was on to Murrumbateman for our yearly pre Christmas celebration hosted by Jennie and Wayne.

This year we had an Iberian theme so we started with Judy's chorizo, jamon and anchovies and manchego cheese and red pepper selections.

Then our 3 dozen fresh oysters and Jennie's luscious paella feast, followed by the main course.....slow roasted lamb shoulder. Maxie's Portuguese tarts were a stunning finale to this beautiful meal which also featured a wonderful wine matched to each course (as well as Anke's chocolate dipped cherries and strawberries afterwards). WOWSA!

And today we hosted a little pre Christmas celebration with Mum at Mirinjani. At 101 years old Mum is a little too frail to go on outings now - so this will be the first year she will miss the Christmas family fun - which we think is very sad but which she is quite stoic about (thankfully).  We took in platters of goodies (including her favourite prawns) today and she gave out small presents to O & A and Ella and Abi. Having the young ones there really brightened up the party. They were all really lovely with Mum and coped well with some of the stranger sights and interractions that are always part of any visit to Mirinjani (old age is not for the faint hearted).

Abi's day was made when she opened her present at Mirinjani - just a fairly bargain priced tea set - but with some incredibly "life like" accessories - that were just to her taste!

We're all hoping for a few quiet days now in the lead up to real Christmas Day on Friday!