our Christmas celebrations

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We did. Our celebrations begin on Christmas Eve with the children’s mass and for the first time in a long time we didn’t have anyone in the nativity as we’d been away. But then our big girl Keira was asked to carry up baby Jesus with the procession and put him in the manger. Such a special job for her and she did a lovely job. I was so proud of her. You’ll never see as many people at mass like on Christmas Eve and it can make for a long evening for the little ones but just our littlest guy needed to be taken out and it was a gorgeous service and always gets me excited for the day ahead. One day I look forward to midnight mass when everyone is a bit (or a lot) older.

Once home I did my best to try to get everyone together for a photo in their jammies before they went to bed. That was too hard to co-ordinate but the littlest member of our family Lawson did want to re-decorate the tree for me for the 50th time this year. I think it’s been a few years now that I haven’t even worried about how the tree has looked. In the early years I would let the kids decorate the tree and then I would carefully rearrange it but now I just let them do it and leave it that way. At least there is a tree and it’s up and standing and looks festive!

Now it wouldn’t be Christmas without a bit of drama. And we did have a slight problem with a trike that didn’t go together and is ready to be returned to the toy shop tomorrow. I was so upset as went to a good toy shop to get it and it looked so wonderful with a little passenger seat at the back for another little brother to be riden around. But the holes were in the wrong place for the screws for the seat so the seat wouldn’t stay up. Last minute scramble to make up present numbers and just go without the trike in the morning. There was also some late night cooking thrown in there so I finally put my head on a pillow and weary feet to bed at 2am. To be woken at 6am. I tried to stretch it out with things like please turn the jug on for me, go and have a look and come back and tell me and so on and then I came down to do presents with the big 3 while the little 3 kept sleeping.  And yes it was Lego city for a while with 3 big sets under construction and I’ve hardly seen the kids as they play with them now that they are up.

Lunch was at my sister’s house and so lovely not to host after about 5 years in a row. Mind you I did realise that it meant we had to drive to lunch with the rest of the city and I missed my nice glass or two of champagne. But I didn’t miss the big clean up before and after and it was lovely to be a guest for a change. We skyped my brother after lunch as he couldn’t make it and the kids were so funny with questions like what’s your middle name, how old are you again? what did you eat for lunch?

Lunch was perfect and the kids had the best time especially with 2 little sweet dogs in the yard. I think the littlest member of our family wants a dog, he just spent most of the day with them and adored them.

Like all good family celebrations we had the kids table.

After lunch it was presents and lots more things to keep the little ones entertained. And can you believe this little guy…only his 2nd Christmas and at 16 months he’s got it all down pat. Knows the drill. Thank you for my present.

I made trifle for dessert and it was a success. Thank goodness. Usually if I’m making a dish to take somewhere or for guests I like to try it out once before trying it out on other people but took a risk with this one. Wow it was amazing. You make each of the layers in your thermomix- chocolate brownie, raspberry coulis, chocolate custard and a marscapone topping then topped with fresh raspberries and grated chocolate (or a flake bar since I did the top layer once I arrived). Now I’m not a trifle person but this was just the most delicious dessert I’ve had in a long time. So delicious I’m doing a blog post on it as I had to tweak it to get the raw eggs and alcohol out but gosh it was delicious. If you’ve got Festive Flavour for your Thermomix then you’ll have seen it there. Ten out of ten.

We hit the road home and must have hit everyone else leaving their Christmas lunch too but made it home safely. The kids were just happy to see their toys again and played. After everyone went to bed I enjoyed learning how to use Apple TV, 2 episodes of Brides of Christ later and I took myself off to bed. But can anyone tell me how I can get Big Love on there? I got so excited when I saw that it was on Stan but looks like a movie not my all time favourite tv show.

Boxing Day was a bit more relaxing until I realised that I got the start time for lunch wrong and should have been in the car instead of having half the kids in their pjs. But at least I had managed to do my usual boxing day sales online for the very important bath towels, bras and some bedding for kids who needed sheets and pillowcases. Then I herded everyone up and headed off to the RSL for our big family catch up (27 of us all up) which we usually do boxing day or around Christmas time. As the family gets older and everyone gets married it’s lovely to come together at Christmastime and catch up and the kids had a ball. If you have a little one with special needs then you know that family gatherings and outings can be tricky but our little girl had the best time ever and it was great to sit back and relax and see her have fun with everyone. Like when daddy pretended he picked the baby out of the present lucky dip.

The huge fish tank was a big thrill and it was a such a great way to spend boxing day. I expected the club to be busy but it was nice and quiet and since I love a good lemon lime bitters I was very happy.

We did our usual kris kringle with a $20 gift and made sure that everyone had their photo taken with nana. She has 8 great grandchildren (soon to be 9) and yes I’ve given her 6 of them:)

And that was that. Christmas celebrations over for another year and beautiful memories made. Oh and I even finished one crafty thing this Christmas. Just the one. I don’t usually use panels but this was so much fun and cute and will be nice for my niece to use each Christmas.

If you’re still enjoying your Christmas celebrations then keep enjoying them and hopefully a break from work. Mind you being a mum means the work never stops at home but hopefully you are getting a bit of time for yourself before the new year.