Christmas

Every year my mum's family (her siblings and their entourages) get together on Christmas day.  This year we had it at our place.  We obviously weren't concentrating when we volunteered.  The idea came as we were still on a high after the success of Bean's first birthday party.  It still seemed like a great idea until a week or two before Christmas day.  On Christmas Eve we were pondering whether it was too late to cancel...

My mum's family is awesome.  I love them all so much.  My Aunt who minds Beano is my mum's sister, and my surrogate mum.  I'm trying to teach the Bean to call her Aunty Grandma, but since she doesn't say anything much yet it's slow going.  Anyway, mum also has two brothers, and between them they have eight kids, almost all of whom have partners, three of us with babies of our own.  It is getting pretty large.  This year, Fudge's younger brother, his sister, her husband and two kids also joined in.  We had 29 people in the end... I was kind of relieved in a way that the weather prevented my dad and his wife and their three girls from coming as well.

The weather.  Holy moley.  What a day.  It was stinking hot inside (we only have air-con in one room... and not the one we were all in), the windows started to leak with all the rain that was pelting down, and my poor Fudgey man had to barbecue in the deluge.  What a trooper.

My mum's family are sooo awesome, they were all completely calm and happy despite the weather dramas, everyone pitched in and helped out and I think they all had a good time.

 

Fudge's composite shot of the lounge made up of five photos... yay Photoshop!

We do a Kris Kringle for extended family presents, and this year M, partner of my gorgeous and extremely talented cousin Elise, had me.  I had admired this bag on Elise's blog... and I got embarrassingly teary when I opened my gift to find it in the flesh (in the fabric?) and all for me.  It is the best bag EVER.  Partly because I didn't have to make it myself, but mostly because it has six, yes SIX massively deep pockets for me to stow things in, and yet is not too big.  And it is the most gorgeous bag ever.  

apologies for the terrible photography Lisey

At the moment it is being used as my handbag/baby bag, so unfortunately the pockets are full of nappies, wipes and other baby related paraphernalia, but I plan to reclaim it very soon!  Thanks so much Lisey Lou (and M!), I LOVE my bag and haven't stopped using it since Boxing Day.

Elise is a fantastic photographer, and she took some amazing shots on Christmas Day... including my new favourite Bean portraits.  How adorable are her little palm tree pigtails?
 

 

Bean had a lovely Christmas, she had an absolute ball wandering through the masses and getting lots of cuddles.  She also got lots of new things to play with.  Lucky Beanie.  How a kid who has only seen two Christmases and one birthday can already have so many toys is beyond me.  Time for a bit of a cull methinks.

Despite the weather, panicky pre-event house cleaning stress and craziness of getting the day organised, Fudge and I had a lovely day too.  Fabulous families make everything wonderful and totally worthwhile don't you think?