some chrissy pics....

Our tradition is to always have breakfast and get dressed before we do anything else. We usually have hotcakes with blueberry syrup, a hangover from when Chloe and I were on our own. Of course, Douglas refused to eat, which just stresses the whole situation even more!!
We left the old swing set at the other house - it was broken and almost 8yo, and just didn't work for three kids... so this is what the kids got! It was difficult - Douglas lets the dogs out of the shed each morning, only this morning, we had to tell him not to! We needed to have evrything else ready first. Apparently, Chloe told mum later in the day that she couldn't figure out why we were standing around the laundry door with them while they went outside ~lol~
I love this photo! I put Nat down after breakfast, and this was the first thing she did - climb over the presents to get to the sparkle ~lol~ We didn't end up opening any of her presents first time - she woke up too early, and was ready for sleep by the time we were opening presents, so we did that around 10am, when she woke up. Much better for her, too, all the attention was on her reaction to the pressies!!
A princess!! I think I was about Chloe's age when I got a parasol, so this was a fitting present to give her! She spent huge chunks of the day, posing for photos, and showing it off to anyone who would look!
Magnetix - I forgot to label this present, so shoved it in Douglas' direction, and said "tell me what's in it" Boy, was I relieved when it was a present for him!

Another Christmas over, thank goodness! I'm full of ideas on how to do things differently next year, although next year is easier, cause Chloe goes to her dad's for the day. We decided to have roast veggies with our mountains of meat, so we (or, rather, mum) had peeled 3kg of potatoes, 1kg of carrots, a pumpkin and sweet potatoes the day before - after all, we were feeding 17 for lunch this year!

After presents, of which I got a stash of platters, plates, books, cds... all stuff I love! I headed upstairs to start cooking - zapping everything in the microwave to get the cooking going... note to self, don't zap pumpkin or sweet potato, it goes soggy!! At 11.50am 8 people bailed!! I was not a happy camper!! Then the rest of our guests didn't arrive until almost 2pm!

Lunch consisted of prawns, chicken, turkey, ham, roast veg and asparagus... and was very yummy! After lunch we all sat around chatting, playing with kids, chatting, some were drinking, some were playing, just having a really good time. Our missing lunch guests turned up for dinner, so there was another round of present opening, more chatting, more drinking for some, and then we threw them out around 9pm, chucked the kids in bed, and crashed out ourselves shortly after!

Wednesday was clean up the mess day, Thursday we vegged, watching lots of movies, Friday DH put the bbq together, and today he's started tidying downstairs and building a bookshelf!! I hope that by the time he goes back to work that we have most of it sorted out! Oh, half of Thursday and half of Friday was spent purchasing a new car - a Mitsubishi Star Wagon people mover!! It's got a tow bar, so DH is happy, 8 seats so we have plenty of room when the boys are here in a couple of weeks, and plenty of hooks for baby seats for the next go around!!

That's just about all the news for now... I've been playing around in some new forums the last few days, and have discovered creating keepsakes magazine, which has some awesome articles in it, and I have finally discovered Ali Edwards' work! I want her new book - Life artist - how awesome is it?!