Christmas with Noonie

Due to an unexpected turn of events we celebrated christmas a few weeks early with Noonie.  I can tell you that didn't stop us from having great time.  We laughed, sang and ate ourselves silly!! 

christmas with Noonie

boys enjoying a full blown christmas dinner

Lucy and Annie with their new togs on riding on their new boogie boards

Thanks to Noonie ALL the boys got BIG nerf guns for Christmas

After much was eaten and all were relaxed Dad came running out with his new nerf gun starting war!!   We had such a special time with Noonie, this christmas will not be forgotten. 

christmas morning

My favourite time of year....Christmas morning.  The kids wake up with such excitement, not only for the presents they get but also for the presents they get to give to each other.  But first the boys had to wait patiently for the girls to wake up. This year was little different, Noonie was not with us and her lack of presence was noted by how QUIET the house was!! Maybe that's why the girls slept in!!

After the ALL the kids woke up they jumped on Mum and Dads bed and went through their Santa sacks and had so much fun discovering what Santa had left them.  After that we all went to the Christmas tree to open the family presents.  The kids got so excited with all their presents and the presents their brothers and sisters received it was so lovely to watch.  While Mum and Dad got the traditional Christmas breakfast ready, the kids played so wonderfully with their new toys.  The boys played Star Wars with their new light sabers and lasers and the girls played with their new beado sets.

Breakfast was served...with mangoes, bacon and eggs, croissants, laughter and love.
   

christmas comes early

With Noonie heading south for Christmas we had our family christmas a week early. What a wonderful time we all had. 

To start off the celebrations Annie made a christmas biscuit tree for all of us to enjoy before eating Noonie's beautiful Christmas roast dinner.

Annie with her christmas biscuit tree she made all by herself 

Christmas presents!!!

Noonie and her grandkids opening presents

Daddy opening his presents

Mummy and the angel Noonie gave me

boys playing with their new toys

Lucy doing the dishes

Lucy has really enjoyed washing the dishes lately

kids at the christmas lights

there is no better way to finish off christmas celebration than visiting the local christmas lights

We had such a great time with lots of laughter, food and fun

school christmas play

Every year at school Prep to Year 3 have a celebration morning.  This is when ALL students in Prep to 3 perform in a Christmas pageant.  The teachers are amazing and make sure each child is on stage for part of the performance.  The Preps girls were Angels.... 

Annie as a beautiful angel

The Year 3 boys were villagers.....

Matthew singing on stage as a villager

The Year 1 girls were stars and the boys were the shepherds.  However, Benjamin was given an extra special role.  Each year a small group of children from Year 1 are given the main roles.  Matthew was the Inn keeper two years ago and two years later Benjamin was cast as Angel Gabriel.  He was so excited about his special part and gave it his all.  

Benjamin singing

Angel Gabriel giving his message to Mary

All the kids did a wonderful job and we are so proud of them all.

the christmas season has begun

WOW! This time of year comes around faster every year, I'm sure of it.  Also this is the time of year where we have LOTS of family traditions.  The first one being....putting up the Christmas tree.  We always put the Christmas tree up the weekend after Benjamin's birthday. 

Daddy and the kids putting up the decorations

Matty

Annie putting decorations on and Lucy setting up the advent calendar

Lucy

BJ

It was Annie's turn this year to put the star on top!

traditional photo in front of the completed Christmas tree!!

christmas 09

What a fantastic day!!  It  all began with the girls waking up and jumping all over daddy and Matthew coming in with his santa sack all very excited.  BJ and Noonie were the only ones not awake so Matthew and the girls had the pleasure of waking them up (all woke up at a resonable hour for Smiths - 6am).  We then all went through the santa sacks on Mum and Dad's bed with lots of excitment and happy faces.  Once that mad minute was over we all headed into the lounge to open the rest of the presents.  It was so lovely seeing all the kids take turns in opening presents and then admiring with great joy the presents each other received.  The BIG present the kids received was a Wii and all its trimmings from Nooonie and Grandad and Grandma.  This was definitely the winner!!  The boys got a mixture of spy gear and toys for outside and the girls received tickets to see Angelina Ballerina Ballet at the Lyric theatre later in January.  Also the 3 big kids received a special picture of theirs framed.  They were really excited about these.  After present opening and of course time to play with the new presents it was time for Christmas breakfast with Noonie.  The table was set with all the christmas placemats, christmas plates and glasses and of course the christmas bon bons!  We all filled up on yummy fresh fruit, crossiants, sausages and eggs and lots, lots more.  For lunch we headed over to Uncle Doug's house to eat more food, open more presents, eat more food, have a swim and play with the cousins and eat more food!  Once we arrived back at home there was defintiley no arguments with getting the kids into bed as they were so worn out from their HUGE day! 

Merry Christmas!!

Mummy's birthday

What a great day!  It was filled with lots of laughter and good times.  The day started out with Mummy receiving some great presents and some wonderful homemade cards.  I felt so special and loved to have received such precious birthday cards.  Once the present opening was over, we all headed into the city by train for what has become our traditional Christmas Eve outing.  It all starts off with a train ride into the city to look at the Myer windows, visit Santa and explore Santa land in the Myer Centre.  The Myer windows theme this year was from the book series Olivia.  The kids favourite window was the one where Olivia's brother threw up his blueberry pie!  Once we looked at the windows we headed upstairs to Santa land.  This year Matty was too tall to ride the Christmas Express train so instead he was designated photographer because this was the first year Lucy went on the train.  Once the kids had their train ride they lined up for the free face painting, so while they were waiting they were able to do some colouring in and also write Santa a letter.  Matty chose to write Santa a letter and all it said was "To Santa, I hope you have a Merry Christmas.  love Matthew."  Some parents were amazed that he did not write a list of toys that he wanted.  After we finished at Santa land it was time for some lunch before we got back on the train.  Once we arrived home it was then time to get ready for the early Christmas Eve service at church which is followed by the birthday dinner and homemade ice-cream birthday cake made by Noonie and all finished off with one last visit to see Christmas lights.  Then once we are all back at home it is time to put out the Santa sacks and get the snacks ready for Santa and his reindeers.  It was such a huge day and a day we will definitely do again next year.

christmas lights

We all love the christmas lights, especially Daddy, so we waited for him to return home before we started on our nightly adventures.

the kids with Santa at one of the houses

Daddy and kids admiring some lights in a front yard

my beautiful girls

At one house inparticular, the lady read the kids the story about Santa visiting Australia and then handed them all a lollipop at end.  The kids loved this story and thought it was very funny!

On one particular night, Lucy thought all the lights were too bright for her so she insisted on wearing her sunglasses!! 

We have such wonderful memories of our Christmas light adventures that we usually talk about them for months after the fact. 

It's beginning to look alot like christmas..

I know it is earlier than usual but we had to put the tree up before Daddy went on his missions trip as he is only returning a week before Christmas Day (far too late to put up a tree!)  So with the christmas music playing, christmas cheer in the house we all embarked on putting up the Christmas tree.  This year it was basically all up to the kids to put the decoratrions on.  It trully looks like a kids tree!!

all the kids putting up the little decorative tree

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Daddy and his two girls

BJ

Lucy

Matthew

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.

Christmas with the Aunties!

As always we have a get together with Aunty Jo and Aunty Emma right before christmas. This year we had a break with tradition, instead of a big christmas dinner we had a picnic in the backyard in the late of the afternoon. It was such a lovely afternoon of eating such yummy homemade goodies.

All of us - and the kids with their presents

Lucy and Aunty Jo

After afternoon tea it was time to decorate the christmas biscuits. So with Aunty Emma and Aunty Jo's help we set off to work.

Annie and Lucy putting M&M's on their biscuits

Annie, Aunty Jo and Lucy

BJ, Aunty Emma and Matthew

Christmas baking

Another one of our family christmas traditions is Christmas baking!! We bake all sorts of things but the kids favourite is chocolate biscuits with M&M's for decorations.

STEP ONE: make the biscuits

Annie sifting the ingredients

Lucy helping to sift also

STEP TWO: cut out the biscuits

Matthew cutting out the biscuits

BJ helping too!

STEP THREE: yet to come!!

The Wiggles!

For a Christmas present this year, the girls were off to see The Wiggles in concert! The day had finally arrived and Annie and Lucy were so excited. They put on their tutu's, put on their dancing shoes and had roses to give to Dorothy. What made the experience even more exciting was that Amelie was coming with us!! (with Aunty Cath and Alexander too of course!)

Lucy and Annie waiting patiently for Amelie

All the girls cheering about going to the concert!

The look on Annie and Lucy's face when The Wiggles walked out on stage.

The Wiggles in concert!

Noonie gave the girls $5 each to spend at the concert so this is what Annie (and Lucy) bought with their money....

... a Dorothy headband!

The girls had such a great time at the concert. Annie loved watching Dorothy doing her ballet dancing and Lucy really enjoyed dancing and was quite in awe of the whole thing.