ok... stories....

Christmas morning.....

I could start from Christmas Eve, when everyone pretty much arrived, but I could get very long winded, and you may very well get bored! hehehe

So, the big day!
(Mr Eddie - I did actually think at certain times in the day - arhhh... I should have brought a note book! hehehe. I shall try to remember all the good bits for you though!)





It was a stunning day! Later we were to learn that actually, the rest of the country pretty much had rain and horrible winds. Not us. We sat, obliviously in our little paradise.

Started our day with breakfast outside.... in fact, we ate all our meals outside over Christmas. Ros and Hugh have the most gorgeous setting for our huge family gatherings. Actually...... amazingly enough - all three sisters have perfect houses for these things. I think my parents have the smallest house, and yet, we always manage.

Eventually everyone was up and moving, and we all headed off to church. Interesting! hehehe. We sang a whole lot of carols, which was lovely... don't think I had sung any before that. Afterwards, it was actually a flurry of txt messaging. You don't get any cell phone reception out at Ros and Hughs.. and while we were in church, all our phones had gone mad with merry christmas messages. quite funny.

From there... it was home again, jigidy jig, for a scrumptious lunch.
We were waiting for a cousin and husband to drive up still before the real fun could begin. They arrived as we were setting up the "Golf Tournament". Very serious as far as the draw for who was going to be paired up with whom, and then the actual draw.
I scored Uncle Hugh for the event.



This was where it was getting super serious. We ended up having a 3 way final. Dad and Kirstin, Catherine and Sam and Hugh and myself. Total madness. Oh, and no, it didn't all happen on Christmas day this year. We held the final on boxing day, which was another stunning day!
So - the golfing tounrament was won by Dad and Kirstin, Hugh and I came second and then Catherine and Sam. Hillarious rounds, and quite a difficult course that Jeremy, Tamati and I think Andrew put together for us. Looking forward to next years opportuinty. Dad has become the leader now, winning 4 years. (Once with me)

Present opening was a mass of paper. We were all squashed into one small room. The whole secret Santa thing prooved to be hillarious for Josh, who ended up with Canadian Kate - or Katie woowoo as I call her. He scored this mighty fine T-shirt. :)



Gorgeous, huh! I'll start taking orders for more of the same. She's taught me all her tricks. We figured it would be the perfect t-shirt for him to wear at the building site where he's working. hehehe.

From there it became very much a frenzy. Gifts flying, paper everywhere, and Tawhai had just started crawling - so he was LOVING it!

Dinner was superb. We sat outside with our crackers and crazy hats on, and stuffed ourselves. Though - remembering that it's summer... you don't honestly feel like going overboard with food. Lots of salads - my favourite - Mum's bean salad. YUMMY stuff. There was loads of food... and I'm sure they would have been eating ham for days afterwards.


The three sisters; Bridget, Anne and Ros

After that... more chaos with the Present bag. Or as Kate likes to call it - the Taking Game!
Since it came from her, we let Kate and her neice; Hannah take over again this year. And wow... did they find some beautiful surprises. (hmmmm... how does one pull of sarcastic on this thing?)
They had flown via Malaysia and the UK on their way here... and all the goodies came out from their travels. We had the whole sweet/sour crazy dried fruit candy.... just nasty! cd's, old tapes, Angel antanae things, Sequined top, fake teeth, pack of 20 tooth brushes - what everyone needs! All sorts of crazy treats. So - we went around the circle and then, back again. It got pretty serious, and a little heated between my dad and Jiljane - who had appropriately scored herself some fantastic fake teeth. (She's a dental hygienist)Dad had scored a CD - of Sarah McLaughlin. (They had very cleaverly only managed to bring over CD's of Canadian artists! hehehe. In the end Dad scored, and Jiljane ended up with the teeth again. I scored the neew Alanis accousitic cd. YAY! :)

This was Ellie's win! She wore it to a 70's New Years eve party.


And Sam - who I think looks particularly brilliant! :) And almost angelic.


Dessert followed... yes, more food! And what treats!! Ros pulled out Grannies chocolate mousse, which I absolutely adore. And Mum's wonderful Rhubarb Fool. Life doesn't get much better. Oh, but wait. When Mum and Ros were over in Europe earlier this year, they visited a friend of ours in Italy... and found the wonderful Lemoncello. :) So, Ros, being the resourceful thing that she is made some for us!
YUMMY!

I'm going to give it a go soon.

That pretty much sums up the day. Fabulous and most blessed time with the family and friends. It was so good to have Kate back again. Had been 8 years since she was last over, and I was over in the States then... so haven't seen her in 11 years.

I'll leave you with this picture. Not a great example of the Native New Zealand Christmas flower(Pohutikawa), but they had all flowered rather early this year. Gorgeous bright red flower which grows along the coast... stunning on the beaches up north. We don't get them much down here. I did find some in San Fran, which was a buzz. hehehe