The Post Christmas Post 2010

Christmas is done and dusted.  The tree has been decorated and destroyed.  The fat man has been and gone.  The presents have been wrapped and unwrapped.  The treats have been made and eaten. Carols sung, toasts made, photos taken, children spoilt... it's been a good year.

Now it looks like Santa's Elves threw up all over my house.  New toys strewn across the floor... in the lounge room... the play room... the kitchen... the dining room... the bedrooms... EVERYWHERE!  Wrapping paper hiding in all sorts of weird places, just when you think you have thrown out the last piece of toy packaging the kids have found another piece that they just can't bear to be separated from because "it can be used as an aircraft carrier" or "but it's perfect for something, mum".  Almost every decoration has been stripped from the lower branches of the tree and I've given up re-hanging them, now they just get tossed back under the tree.  There are two gifts left for two little boys who were away for Christmas but they will be delivered tomorrow.  There's still fruitcake to eat, the ninjabreadmen are all gone, the chocolate pops are all eaten, most of the chocolates people gave us have been consumed during the post Christmas DVD watching stupor.  Yes, it has been a good year.

Because I decided not to decorate our Christmas cake this year I left it until quite late to make it.  Thankfully I didn't' have any helpers other than a small Monkey on my hip trying to peer into the mixer bowl and a couple of taste testers at every stage.  It turns out Monkey quite likes fruit cake mixture...

I gave him the beater first and he licked away at that and I tried to take it back and he growled at me... yes, like a puppy with it's bone.  I gave him the spatula thinking I could switch them out... he growled again.  I figure if he has the bowl that's three items for two hands, he's got to let me have something!  Nope, he wanted it ALL... there were some big tears when I finally had to take it all away and clean him up.

The next big job was decorating the Christmas tree...

Lion got the thrill, not of putting the angel on the top, but putting the top of the tree on the top!  He was pretty proud of himself.

After the angel on the top, the first decorations to go on were three identical snowflakes Nano sent last year...

The precious and breakable ornaments go at the top and other than that it's wherever they land.

But, the same as every year, things got a little manic and had to be brought back under control a few times but in the end we had a decorated tree.

So that brings us to Christmas Eve... Wolf was working late so I got moving and got my very last minute baking done and Santa started doing his thing.  Santa left them one stocking each this year... and that was it.  I think I'll be asking him to do that every year... it was so much nicer.  The big boys and I had got into a bit of the wrapping earlier in the week, doing the stuff for Wolf and for the cousins and the things that were for Monkey from each of them.  That still left a lot to do though.  I will admit, there was much less last minute wrapping than other years which I am thankful for.  Wolf helped with the wrapping and general tidying up of the lounge room when he got home.  I made our food gifts up for family members and thought I must have been insane when I came up with what I was going to include.

So here we have a representation of what was included in each gift, generally one for each person it was intended for, other than the chocolate powder, that was one per family.  Top left, we put in a chocolate pop for them (these are the ones I did for Lion's class, I didn't take a photo of the next batch). Bottom left, my ninjabreadmen... I did as many as I could in ninja pose and decorated but with severe back pain by that point Wolf finished filling in that tray for me and that was it.  Right, Italian Hot Chocolate powder (aka Love Potion).  This isn't the batch I made for the family gifts, this is another lot but I didn't take a photo of the cute little jars I did up for family.

So, now we are a Christmas day...  Lion and Dragon woke early but had been told they were not to come in to us until the sun was up.  So, as the first rays of light filled the morning two EXCITED little boys appeared beside our bed telling us "It's CHRISTMAS and SANTA has BEEEEEEEN".  Up we got, woke up the poor little Monkey (he did NOT like that idea) and we got into the gifts.

I realise there are way more photos of Monkey here than of his brothers but they didn't exactly sit still enough to take photos.  At one point Monkey was doing his best to take photos of all that was going on because that was what mummy was doing!  Monkey took a while to figure out what was going on but he was a champion present opener in the end.  He opened with gusto but considered each gift carefully before moving on to the next.  Special gifts in the above image that need to be pointed out (I'm guessing you can click on it to see it larger) are (top row, middle image) Monkey's gift purchased with money from Lapun Mama, a wooden car parking garage... it is in CONSTANT use.  (bottom right corner) Lion and Dragon with their iPod Nano and docking speakers that we purchased with their money from Lapun Mama.  (image above that) Three boys trying to decide just what their gift from Grandpap and Nano is... it's a blow-up "carwash" that you can attach the hose to and ride bikes through and it looks like great fun... but it's been TOO wet to use it so far :-(  Try explaining that to a 4 year old, it's TOO WET to use a toy that makes you get wet.

So, after church we headed around to Aunty Chimeras for morning tea and to open gifts with the family.  Romeo, Juliette and Ladybug couldn't make it because they were with Juliette's family for lunch but the kids that were there were all wearing their Christmas shirts/dress that I had made so we did the best we could to get a photo...

 It's pretty much what they are all like anyway... not perfect but perfectly wonderful.

So, although it's late, and it's 2 hours until next year right now, from the McTavish family to your family...

Merry Christmas