Christmas is here

The joys of our extended family Christmas celebration started early for Abi yesterday, with a ride on one of her favourite ponies at Forest Park - the very photogenic Tinker

And for the first time: riding BAREBACK! So exciting - but not so comfortable apparently - Tinker has a very bony backbone!

But, back to our Christmas celebration, this year at Claire's house at Jerra... one of my goal's each year is to get a picture of the beautiful young things together.

Not so easy given Abi's reluctance to "pose"...............

but how about this as the shot of the day?

It was a rainy afternoon in Canberra, so the kids had to entertain themselves, quietly indoors.

That's no problem for these beautiful young people .......

Joshy and Angus share a love of (and conversations about) collectible cars these days ....

And then it was time for Secret Santa gift giving - Abi was in charge, especially now with her excellent card reading skills.....

Ollie was in charge of Paddy - who can go a bit feral apparently when there's a party on.......

Secret Santa chose well for Abi ......

Our Christmas feast was amazing - the best ever we thought. Peter was the chief cook - and he has really upped our standards a lot: ribs, turkey, prawns and ham, with Maxie's Pesto Pasta dish beautifully prepared this year by Jody - YUM!

Paddy stayed under control all evening with Abi and Ollie taking their supervision duties very diligently.

Dessert was also amazing!

Once again Peter delivered the goods - so professional.......

And this last picture.... just for fun...taken 10 years ago: Christmas 2010 at Maxie and Rod's house in Jerra. That's Maxie (and Claire) lighting the Christmas cake. Abi wasn't on the scene then but look at these gorgeous three kids - and see how they've grown and changed!