CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

And so this is Christmas.....
At our place in 2012
The table is all set ready for Christmas day as we sneak off to bed in the early hours of Christmas Morning......

Table set for Christmas Lunch

 But not before Father Christmas makes his rounds and delivers the Christmas Stockings. 

Ho Ho Ho.... says Father Christmas as he loads up his stockings, 

 We missed Sarah and Colin and Willow this year.... it seems we had a little extra sleep in and didn't get up until after 7am

Even Penny got presents in her Christmas Stocking this year....

Playing with her new Christmas present....

 It seemed to be all about Penny as the kids spoilt her rotten.....
 We shared the opening of our Christmas stockings around.....
Chloe loved her new shorts.....

Opening her Santa Sack presents....

Opening his Santa Sackpresents......

 it was then time to get ready for Church..
We don't hold a special Christmas morning service so this year we went to Church at the Baptist Tabernacle to remember the birth of Jesus.... the very reason for this season.
It was nice to catch up with some old friends who were home visiting family for Christmas...
It was nice to catch up with some old local friends as well....

We arrived home just before 11am...
Just in time to get the turkey in the oven before we opened our gifts...
And what fun we did have
And how spoilt were we
And how excited was some of us as we gave gifts we knew would surprise and delight each other.

The dog seemed to score well this year...
She is such a cutie and gets so excited and we had fun spoiling her and watching her have fun...
She was in the middle of all of our activities...
She wasn't missing out on any of it.

She loved her bird

  Sarah and Colin sent her a Christmas present and she just loved her bird....
It didn't last too long,,, she had the rope legs chewed off within the first 10 minutes but she LOVED it .

She scored sausages and monkeys

 She went a bit skitso with all the excitement as yet more things came out of packages for her to play with...

Not sure about the PIG

 This one she wasn't sure off.  Pete got her a squeaky little PIG who actually grunted like a little piggy...  She was so funny to watch with this one... She wasn't at all sure of it and kept trying to hide behind Chloe.... it was really quite hilarious...

Our day of togetherness

Fun and laughter...

 I love the family togetherness and the fun and laughter we have....
It really gives me the greatest joy seeing everyone so relaxed and happy... The greatest gift they can give me....

All with head gear on....

 It seemed that Steve and I got spoilt this year...

Lots of new clothes

Unbelievable.... I have wanted one of these forever....

 Steve was so blown away by this gift.... He has always admired them and been drawn to them in shops.... but never has he had one.  You can imagine his delight when he opened this gift from Pete....

Fun opening gifts....

Steve getting spoilt

 Loved his new cover for the caravan... long overdue..

Could it be.... could it really be....

 Chloe was pretty excited as she got her hammock that she had been wanting....

The colour is red this year...

 I scored a lovely new bag from Pete.... love it... it is actually a back pack bag... hopefully I can redistribute the weight that is normally in my handbag...

He loves to play Father Christmas

Oh my goodness I have been spoilt....

A massager

Wow this is awesome... This should save Steve's fingers as he massages my neck. Even got a trial practice run....

Tricky girls...

They did well... They completely threw him off the trail with their cleverly wrapped gift... Sarah and Chloe you did well... he loved his new game and enjoyed playing it Christmas afternoon.

And just when we thought it was all over and all the gifts were handed out... then comes this....

No Way.......

I honestly cannot believe it....

In face completely overwhelmed

 I couldn't believe it.... I have been wanting one of these for over 12 months.... but Steve was pretty convinced that we didn't really need one.... so I really did not expect to get one at all... I also knew the price range and figured that it really wasn't a necessity at this stage so you can imagine my total, surprise, shock, delight and joy when I unwrapped my present to find I had an iPad for Christmas.  I was pretty stocked with my massager,  but totally overwhelmed when I got my iPad.....

 By the time we got through opening all our gifts it was after 1.30pm.  It always takes us a bit of time to open gifts as only one person opens a gift at a time.... We all love to share in the joy that each person feels when they get a gift they love....

 It was a bad dash to get lunch on the table and I think we finally sat down at almost 2pm...

Lunch on the table

Sitting down for lunch

 By the time we got up and cleaned up it was well after 3pm..

Pete and Chloe went out to visit Chloe's friend Daina and her family.  They had set up a water slide in their back yard and were in for some serious fun..

Pete went penguin sliding...

Penguin sliding fun....

The penguin slides

Daina's family

Pete Penguin sliding

Pete penguin sliding

 We were all a little full so didn't really have much dinner... just the pickings and some fruit.  We had friends drop in and we exchanged gifts,  Bevan stayed and he and Steve played some Halo.... My friend Eleonore dropped around and we enjoyed a good catch up...

We finished the night by watching a DVD that I got for Christmas..
Loved our day....
Hard to believe that it is over for another year...

I am so blessed...
I have an awesome family
and the greatest gift they can give me is just being here and being together....