Christmas - a break down of events

Merry Christmas Girls....what a fun filled few days....oh I LOVE CHRISTMAS.....

We left home of Christmas eve, to collect Bianca from work, she was rostered on from 9am till 7pm+ gotta love that plus, they had to set up for the sales. so finally at 7.40 she comes strolling out looking totally exhausted. and very bah humbug....and I was all excited with carols playing....so we headed off to my sisters....and planned for lots of traffic in the car....

Well being on the road, meant some takeaway for dinner, this was a first for us on Christmas Eve - we traded our ham sandwiches for Oporto's....not the same, but well when your driving on the freeway there isn't much choice.

After filling the working girls belly....she started with the bah humbugging...turn down the carols, close the window, I am cold....etc etc....I ignored and continued singing, did pop the window up a bit, but that was it...It was so sweet Dylan let Bianca curl her head into his lap, and he popped his jacket over her and patted her off to sleep, she napped for a bit, and awoke in a slightly better mood...

Then I turned up the carols loud, we were trying to spot lights from the freeway, but nope, not many....then we took the earlier turnoff into Campbeltown, hoping to see more, I tried to get them in the Christmas mood, with a round robin version of the 12 days of Christmas but I think I was up to day 6 before they finally caved and joined in with me....by the time we got to my sisters we were all in a jolly mood, although Bianca was still tired.

Some Champers bubbles fixed that and we sang carols with the Melbournites on the TV, before our traditional reading of the night before Christmas put out our plate of treats for Santa and the reindeer, before sitting back to watch through very tired eyes some TV....till the kids couldn't be heard whispering any longer...got in and did the Santa thing, and popped off to bed.

Why is it on Christmas Eve, you sleep so light, just waiting for that patter of hooves on the roof maybe...or is it the patter of feet in the hall...well the feet in the hall happened first, the kids were all sharing beds and were hot, so it was moving fans around 2ish i think, and then I was just settling down again and I was sure I heard a knock at the door....then the dog started barking like mad....before we heard ho ho ho.....and you would never guess, my parents come rocking in the house at 4.30 in the morning, to wake us all up....and they were the ones to find huge steaming piles of Reindeer poop on the lawn { and I didn't get a photo} so after a traipse outside to see it, we all settled in for some opening...we opened on and off enjoying breakfast and lunch in between.....before mum and dad piked and napped on us.

With 17 for lunch, and all the kids having a blast...it was an awesome day...

I loved sing star ABBA - yes my sister and I rocked the house...and we all had a ball.

Home again by 11pm totally shattered....to get up and start cooking all again....

So a repeat happened with me cooking for 10 yesterday....fantastic day...minus my daughter who had to work...that was a bit sad...but we finally ended the day with more Abba and a few more drinks winding down to Christmas movie viewing till midnight again. so today was a sleep in, leisurely breakfast and now I am here....long post.

Hope you all had great days.....guess what only 363 to go..

An explanation n the Reindeer Poop on the lawns.

Apparently the excitement of the Santa photo shoots a few weeks ago, the kids questions, and our youngest believer {my niece 11yrs} was questioned at school....so she came home and was asking her mum{my sister} Mum is Santa real....my sisters replied with well what do you think, after a pondering moment, she replied with well, Mum, ank {Bianca} is not stupid, she is a uni student and she still believes so guess he is real!!! (total adoration in that statement - we think) so this apparently got Dad thinking, they are not far from an alpaca farm, so he drove down there on Christmas Eve, and knocked on the door and asked some very hill billy people if he could have some of the poop....the guy asked him if he had a trailer, and dad pulls out a grocery bag and said no this will do, the guy looked at him strange and said are you sure, dad said yep its just for reindeer poop....the guy was very impressed and trotted down and got a shovel and helped dad fill his bag. so - hence the bag was enough to put droppings on all the families in the streets lawn.....I think the alpaca farmer will be bagging and selling it next year now the idea was planted in his head.

SECRET SANTA'S

For me this year one of the exciting things to do was to give gifts to net friends/strangers, this world web is an exciting place, to make and meet new friends. I love to give at Christmas so when I found out about a couple of secret Santa exchanges I couldn't wait to join in.

The first one was for the Aussies_Crazy_About _Christmas - yahoo group I am in, I got to send my lucky partner Maureen this wonderful bundle of goodies. She loves Christmas and Bears, oh and Clinkers...so hence her stash was made and created to suit.

And I was lucky enough to receive from my partner Lisa - this bundle of scrapping supplies, and two little pearl pendants...wasn't I lucky.

The other exchange i was in, is the link in my sidebar SSCS...with chooky blue who co-ordinated 180 ladies I think, what an amazing effort...we are all crafty ladies, so it was amazing to drool over the sites of the ladies that were involved...and learn somethings along the way....I have many new blogs added to my bloglines reading from this.

I sadly can't share my gift I created for Karen Carlisle as she is still to receive her parcel, unfortunately there was a mix up with addresses, and the parcel flew its way to the states and back to me again, so it is now on it's way to the correct address, and will have to wait till Karen has drooled over it before I can share what I created for her.

The catch with all these exchanges was waiting with baited breath open the gifts. With Lisa's the parcels were all wrapped in Christmas wrap and slipped into the tree, quite easy to forget - well not forget but not be tempted too much...but with my ChookyBlue exchange from Ranette....her parcel was not all wrapped and the family had checked it out so they popped the box with its International postage stamps glaring and tempting me to unwrap it under the tree...but i held off, and then on Christmas day they taunted me more, 'with oh no she can't have that one yet'....so I waited and waited...and it was soooo worth the wait....OMG Ranette....your quilting is amazing....those poinsettia flowers....are just ....I am speechless...I loved it, my Mum was so drooling over it too...

I am working on little thank yous for you all....I am so excited with my gifts.