Project 289 - Day 276 : On The 5th day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

Today, awash with nostalgia (let's hope it doesn't stain the clothes), I am going to feature 3 of the ornaments that were there at the very beginning of my tree decorating in 1992. Armed with a newly bought 4ft tall plastic Christmas tree from K-Mart and freshly discovered Hallmark Christmas ornaments, I decorated my first tree and placed it proudly in the lounge room. 

It is entirely possible that I stood there for ages admiring it (we Christmas junkies can get a tad obsessive, it's true), and it started a now 17 year tradition of going all out at Christmas time, and a serious ornament buying fetish that shows no sign of abating anytime soon.

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Who doesn't love their team's yearly Christmas lunch? OK maybe it's not as thrilling as the big party for the whole company, but I like getting together with my team mates, kicking back over a yummy meal - in this case at Nick's Bar and Grill at King Street Wharf - and exchanging Kris Kringle gifts (I got a decent gift this year - 3 types of T2 Chai Tea - YUM!) over a wine of three..... great day, great spot, and great conversation.... Merry Christmas team....

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Tonight was a lovely special night when my beautiful guy and I celebrated Christmas. The plan had been to do the full Christmas dinner (I am guessing so since my beautiful guy had been secretive in his plans!), exchange gifts, and celebrate ahead of him heading to his folks in Melbourne on the 20th, but other events, and an insane work schedule meant the plans had been to be curtailed somewhat.

What we ended up with was, I think, every bit as delightful. I collected him at Sydenham station since the buses were on strike today and he had no easy way to get home, we collected his goods and chattels (and a pile of enticing looking gifts, which were mine and which I ended up carrying to the car!) and headed back to my place before setting off for Posh Spice (passed the house above all lit up for Christmas), our favourite Indian restaurant in Newtown, and most likely, the world. (Yeah it's hard to say that when you haven't been to every restaurant in the world, but since that's unlikely to ever happen, I'll stick with hyperbolic statements for now!) Dinner with my guy was as lovely as ever with lots affectionate hand holding (not in the curry!), eye gazing, and a sparkling conversation that veered from the voter enrollment system to the day's events, and just plain silly talk that had us laughing, and we walked home hand in hand for the gift exchange.

I can't think of the last time I had a set of Christmas gifts that were an out and out total surprise but my guy managed it with me not expecting the soundtrack to "Where the Wild Things Are", a journal made from one of my favourite childhood books, an artwork bought at Glebe markets made by an artist who uses recycled materials, and a Bose iPod docking station! Wow that last one blew me away since (a) it costs a lot but (b) I had talked about it only in passing one day and did not think for one second he would buy it for me! 

I surprised him too though with an iPod Nano (which he endearingly started referring to as his "Nanna" which had 8 GigaWatts of memory! He can be so cute sometimes and makes me laugh often), a case for it, a funky Tshirt I thought he'd seen me buy at the markets but somehow he hadn't, a small artwork he had seen my buy but had adored, and a Wicked calendar.

This all took place at midnight but it was fun, delightful, heart warming and lovely to share such a special time with him, and share the delight of being surprised by our respective gifts. He is everything I ever wanted in a guy, and I meant every word when I wrote on his card, that he is the best gift of all, and the one I treasure most.