Christmas...

It is Christmas Eve but already I have celebrated one Christmas so that my sister and her kids can also celebrate with the other half of her family.

I have to admit it was a rather draining day being up nice and early to finish wrapping the stack of presents.  Some were rather big and others really should've been assembled first but when time is short you do your best. The last presents were wrapped and only a few minor things needed finishing off when they arrived and panic set in because it was a case of - Oh My God is that there? is this there? and have we forgotten anyone? or anything? Once that initial panic was settled we then had to find room for the extra food in the refridgerators... that's right not 1 but 3 were in use... after all you do need a good supply of food and drink over this time of year - if you ask my mother we didn't have enough but I think we could eat for a week on what she has left over.

We even had to get an esky out for the soft drink as not all would fit in the refridgerator either.  That all done and settled we just had to wait for my brother to arrive with his side of everything... that included more food but thankfully none that needed to be stored in a refridgerator. When they arrived the usual panic set in and the kids that were already there were well into having fun looking at presents or just being kids.  When all was settled the matriarch (my mother) got everyone around for the opening of the presents. This then lead to a family tradition which I feel is so cute... the youngest person (that isn't a baby) in the family gives out the first present naturally this can be a bit scary especially if the present is breakable so selecting the right one is important.

After giving out the first 3 or 4 presents it got a bit too much for the little lady and she started passing presents to who didn't already have one and by passing I mean throwing from 1 metre (3 feet) away and hoping to hit the target.  Needless to say that she only handed out another 2 presents before fear of breaking a valuable one set in.  To handle this she was given one of her big presents to open... Dora the Explorer Tea Set... which would go oh so well in her little cubby house she has.

Naturally she was given another of her presents a Fisher Price Rocking Horse... oops somebody forgot to get that assembled.... so it was a mad rush to find screwdrivers and batteries as the little miss was already sitting on the horse and upset it wasn't moving.  She was even more upset when she was removed from it so we could finish putting it together for her, the that frown vanished first time she got on it.

After that came 'Christmas Lunch' or as I like to call it 'Mothers Going Overboard'... I think I could've fed a small country with what was on my plate, and did I get looked at when I couldn't eat it all.  I ended up putting a fair bit down my throat and some of the meat was dished off to the cat and dog.  Barely was that done and my mother was getting the desserts out.  I know why Santa is so big now, he says "Christmas" and gets fed by my mother.  I think they had enough desserts to feed another small country and I know they had all manner of sweet things in the freezer still.

I bet if I went there now, I would find a couple dozen cans of soft drink, a couple bottles of soft drink, salads and meats galore as well as sweets and snacks to feed me for a couple months.  I know they had 2 boxes of ice creams on a stick, 3 containers of ice cream and a heap of other stuff still here that was in storage 'just in case' - Just in case of World War 3 I think.