Christmas Day

Christmas day was a wonderful day full of many memories. The day started with Matthew and Benjamin waking up at 5:05am and running into Mum and Dad's bedroom with such joy and excitement shouting "Merry Christmas". So as a good father does, he rolls over mumbling Merry Christmas boys and falls back to sleep! BUT a great Mum sits up in bed, after having little sleep, to watch the boys open up their Santa sacks to discover what Santa had brought them (and explain to them why Santa gave with either socks or undies!) After playing quietly in Mum and Dad's bedroom with their new toys for an hour, the girls FINALLY woke up. It was wonderful to watch the boys sitting on the end of our bed waiting with such great anticipation for the girls to open their Santa sacks and then show them their genuine excitement when the girls were showing them their new hair clips and clothes. Now it was time to see if Santa had eaten his snacks and if the reindeer's had eaten their carrots! So the kids ran to the front door to see if Santa had eaten his homemade goodies. And of coarse he did so they went outside to see if the reindeer's had eaten their carrots and this is what they found....

Benjamin couldn't believe the mess the reindeers had left!

Matthew was shocked that the reindeers had made a mess on Dad's good grass!

We all then proceeded inside to wait for Grandma and Grandad to arrive so we could open the rest of the presents and have a BIG Christmas breakfast. Once they arrived we continued to open more presents and the lounge room slowly filled with wrapping paper, boxes, presents, instructions to new toys and lots of laughter. We all then sat down for breakfast of cereal, mangoes, croissants, ham and eggs, cherries.....

After a rather large breakfast Grandma and Grandad headed home so they could prepare for their next event (lunch at Uncle Doug's) and we just sat back and enjoyed a quiet morning waiting for our next big event, Christmas with the Wiseman's!!

Once the Wiseman's showed up we opened MORE presents, with MORE laughter and excitement. Then the Dad's took 7 of the kids (Lucy went down for a sleep) over for a swim in N&A's pool while the Mum's started to prepare for the next feast! a late lunch as we ALL had a rather large breakfast.

Lunch was delicious. We had ham, turkey, roast beef, potatoes, pumpkin, parsnip (for Aunty Kim!), carrots, peas and of course plenty of gravy. And to top it all off, christmas pudding and custard AND a new family favourite, icecream christmas pudding. Uncle Rob especially enjoyed this one!

After a beautiful lunch we all headed down stairs to play with new toys and old toys, play new games and old games, but really all we wanted to do was to be together. Christmas is definitely a time to celebrate with family as we did just that! For me my favourite memory of Christmas this year was when we ALL went to church together on Christmas Eve to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. To look at the row in front of me to see my mum and my brother and his family, sitting beside me to see my husband and his parents and on the other side of me to see my husbands sister and her family plus my brother in laws mother and to have my Lucy Goosey and my youngest niece on my lap is truly a memory I will always cherish. That is what Christmas is all about.