Christmas

Last year I tried to kill off Santa as our Christmas was getting too expensive and commercialized and not enough about giving. Last year's Christmas blog The kids still wanted the tradition of Santa though, so this year I caved and went back to the Santa sacks, the difference was that the presents were scaled back so I was happy to compromise. 

This year we decided to have Chris' parents over for lunch and then to go to Bridport for dinner with my family.

 Because I have three sisters and we have a few kids Simone & I and or families stayed in accommodation Christmas night and then came back together on Boxing day for Sarra's big 12th birthday.

We invited Norbert and Marni for dinner as well, it was pretty crowded with us all and perhaps noisy as Marni had a headache.



 It was probably the last Christmas at Bridport as Collette is puting it on the market very soon and hoping to sell it. It has been a blessing for a lot of people having the house at the seaside and many of us have fond memories of being there together with family and friends.
Jess had been in hospital so it was wonderful that she got out Christmas Eve as they only come over to Tassie every second year and I was sure she wasn't going to be well enough but she put in a huge effort to be well enough and thankfully she was allowed out.
As usual we started the precedings with the Christmas story...

And then we give out a present at a time and watch the person unwrap it, this year for some reason we all clapped when we saw what they got; it was a nice way of giving support to the giver.

It was squashy with us all there but I was so happy, the best present for the day was Collette's announcement, I couldn't hold back the tears, I was so happy for her. Now you're wanting to go back to the photo of her and have a look and Simon's head is in the way!! :)

After Sarra's birthday presents and a BBQ the boys and the kids went sand duning in Kyle's 4xdrive. They had a wonderful time despite all the bruises.

Considering it might be the last time we're all together for awhile, it was great we had this opportunity to all be together.
Next year Mum is retiring and planning to serve a mission for our church and Jayme is working during 2013 to save up to do the same. It will be interesting to see when and where they go .