Christmas has come and gone.

Christmas has come and gone.

I actually enjoyed our Christmas eve more than the real thing this year. I love watching the kids' excitement build.

The in-laws had gone out for the day, so we went up to the park and played on the play equipment. I've probably said before, but I am not a great fan of playgrounds. When the kids were little I always found it tedious to push swings and to watch them play. But now they are bigger, we actually play together which is a lot more fun. We spent hours on a bar (like monkey bars, but just a one single bar). All I wanted to do was to hang from it by my legs as Iused to as a kid, and swing and swing, but I can barely hold my own weight now. I used to spend my whole lunch hour as a 9-10 year old playing on a bar similar to that and I knew all sorts of tricks. I tried to teach some of them to the kids, but they were all too scared, except for Kit who now looks at me with a new kind of respect. He keeps asking to go back up to the playground, but I need a few days to let my muscles recover!

We left the playground just as it was getting dark and drove around town looking at all the lights on houses and trees. When we got home everyone was here and we set about preparing a Xams eve Dinner while phone calls were made to family in Australia (who were already celebrating Xmas day). Unfortuantely I didn't get to speak to my Dad and Stepmum as they have just moved and I didn't have their number, or to my husband's family as everyone else was speaking to them while Matt and I were preparing dinner and then we had to sit down and eat. But I did get to speak to my mum and my grandparents. It's strange to me having lived so much away from my family. I really don't speak to them that much. We email occasionally (except my brother in Korea who I hardly ever hear from) and yet I don't feel distant from them. Maybe they feel the need to speek with me more, I don't know, but I still feel as close to them even though our communication is somewhat sporadic.

The kids also decorated the ginger bread house. 6 kids equals 12 pairs of hands all reaching in and trying to place the lollies/candies on the house. It got rather hectic, and I'm glad I erected the house the night before!

After dinner the kids wrote letters to Santa that we tried to burn so they would float up into the air and fall down as ashes. I have seen this done on TV a few times recently and I thought it was a lovely idea. It does not work with printer paper- I suspect it is to heavy, but the kids still thought it was fun watching their letters burn on the tray and the smoke going up to Santa. And we didn't set off the smoke alarm. Unfortunately Chelsea took photos of this, so I don't have any...the flames did look cool.

Then we watched A Blackadder's Christmas Carol, before Uncle David read us The Night Before Xmas and read ( while Oscar acted out with our nativity set) the story of the nativy...with some interjections from the audience.

Xmas day was as it usually is for us: chocolate and fruit for breakfast, trying to slow down the present opening, a big, big lunch and a nap afterwards. The morning didn't start that early, although Kit came into my bed at 5.30 am. He knew he wasn't allowed downstairs until it was light, so when he woke up again at 6.30 he just lay awake watching the clock until 7 and then bang! He was up. Not too bad. I remember my Xmas mornings in Tasmania as a kid where it would be light at 5 am, so that's when I'd wake up. Of course with another family here it was slightly different to how it usually is. I do love having family around at Xmas time (such a rare treat for us), but I also love the traditions that have evolved with our nuclear family. And the all the traditions of Xmas do evolve and change over time as the children get older and now that we don't have family to visit on Xmas day.

So it's the 27th today, and Matt's brother and his family left yesterday for a new adventure for them. Having left Mexico after a year, they are going to set up house again in Ithaca and are planning to have next Xmas in Tasmania (our kids were very jealous).

Before they left, they had to eat the gingerbread house. And now there is nothing left of it except for a few bare walls!

And my next post is number 100! I feel like it should be something special. Or maybe I should make it on New Year's Eve!