Merry Christmas

It is now Christmas evening and we have had a lovely day.

Here are a few of our decorations. This is my very small collection of vintage decorations acquired at the local church white elephant stall a couple of years ago with a newer Santa and bears.

The gold and red bauble on the left is my oldest decoration. I received it when I was 5 years old. It was so luxurious compared to our other decorations. It has lasted really well. The gold glass decoration on the right was new last year.

Here is the table set last night in readiness for lunch today. I love the way the table looks all dressed up. We are lucky to be able to fit everyone in the lounge room.

Mick played Santa as usual. There are so many presents under the tree when we all get together. Mum liked her armchair caddy. Mick liked the several books he received, so he will be engrossed for a few days. I gave my sister-in-law a cookbook created by a local school to raise funds for breast cancer research.... and she gave me a copy. Great minds think alike. Now we'll both have to use it.

Mick spoilt me - he gave me a summer bike jacket which is something I have been wanting. He chose it himself and it is ideal and fits well. Very happy. He also gave me a new maximum/minimum thermometer, as our old one isn't terribly accurate after about 20 years.

This is my niece with the new pedal car. She was having a great time riding it around the verandah. Her little sister will get use out of it when she is a bit bigger. Both our nieces and our nephew were with us today and they had a good time.

We had 15 family members for lunch. I didn't have to do all the cooking as everyone contributed something. For the first time we didn't have a full roast. We baked the ham and turkey, but had lovely salads to accompany the meat. This was then followed by plum pudding, pavlova, trifle and lemon meringue pie... and best of all... I didn't have to make any of the sweets, just enjoy them.

This photo shows me on the left and my sister-in-law on the right with the spread of food we created. If anyone went hungry it was their own fault.

After lunch everyone was happy just to sit around and talk and let our lunch settle.

This evening we are just having a lazy time.

In the lead up to Christmas we rush around, get stressed, wonder why we do it, say we'll never do it again. But, in the end, everyone has a wonderful time, family gets together, and it is all worth it.

Merry Christmas.