Project 289 - Day 283 (Friday 25 December 2009) : On The 12th day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

Here it is! Christmas Day.....

Besides my birthday, the day of the year I most look forward to, and don't, all at the same time...not because I don't like Christmas - I spend most of December on a tinsel drip with bauble trimmings after all - but because when you reach Dec 25th, all of the decorating, present buying, events, exhausting though they are, are over and done with for another year.... and that's kind of sad....

But I do look forward to it, apart from all the fun of getting ready for it, because it is the one time of the year I am guaranteed to be up with my wonderful family at the Ancestral Estate in Alstonville, just near Byron Bay, and that is one thing I love.

Thanks to my niece Zara (who ate her first solids today, and wore the cutest Christmas outfit going... see above!) of course, I have been up here quite a bit more than usual, but there is still something special about the whole family gathering together at Christmas, handing out the gifts (not till the evening this year because Steve and Aimee, and Rachel and Michael were at their respective in-laws), eating my mother's delicious salads with ham and turkey, taking photos till our eyes are popping out of our heads from flash over-exposure (mostly thanks to Zara, pictured below with my Nanna at the Christmas tree, who must spend the greater part of her time at these events seeing everything through a glowing flash-induced halo!), and just enjoying being with each other in the coolness of the air conditioning.

I did my usual thing of having a piece of chocolate for breakfast - Helen (my sister) and I started it years ago as kids, and I doggedly keep it going figuring that Christmas Day is the one day of the year that you can turn conventional dietary wisdom on it's head!) - and then you'll be glad to know moved on to actual cereal. Admittedly till lunchtime when we had salmon with mango/chilli/lime/coriander salsa, that was the last real food I ate all morning, but at least my body didn't feel like I had lost all good food - intake sense!

The afternoon was wonderfully relaxed with my grandmother sitting around talking while the salads were made, Zara was played with and distracted (she was having a bad day with her teeth coming through), naps were had (a 2 hour one in my case as I tried to catch up on my sleep deprivation), more photos were taken, memories made, and we all prepared for the big meal that night.

Stephen and Aimee, and Rachel and Michael finally made it back around 5.30 and we started the present exhange which was noisy, fun and crazy all at once, and as always an absolute joy. We always take a photo of someone in the middle of all the wrapping paper, and this year it was supposed to be me and Zara, but she made it very clear, by wailing like a banshee, that she wasn't that enthusiastic about the idea, and so Aimee took her place, since this was her first real Christmas with the clan. 

I ended up with some lovely gifts thanks to my sister Helen (my not-so-secret- Santa! LOL) including another plush moose to add to the collection, and a calendar of Queensland firemen - HOT! Naturally, at her quiet suggestion, I opened that in private!

Dinner was fun too - all the ham and turkey and salads a boy could want - my Nanna still calls me a "growing boy" and says I need to eat more; I point out politely that I stopped that kind of growing years back, and I have substituted growing outwards instead!), and more photos and bon bons and Christmas hats and really bad jokes, followed by pudding and custard (with brandy!) made by my brother Stephen. By the end of it all, I was full true but it made sleeping easy to do, which I finally did about 11pm....

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your day was as special as mine!