Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 359 - The Big Day!

I had a gloriously good sleep in. But that's hardly surprising given how tired I was last night. After Shayne collected us at Gold Coast airport, we slept deep and long and I woke up feeling like I had actually slept. Naturally being the Christmas junkie that I am, the first thing I did was wish my beautiful man Merry Christmas :)

We were sleeping in the unit my sister and brother in law rent for their business and after showering and getting ready (very festively of course!) we headed into their unit for croissants, alcoholic chocolate balls (fulfilling another Xmas tradition of eating chocolate for brekkie) play with my niece Zara, I took tons of photos (yes despite my vows to ease up on the photos, I failed to honour from almost the nanosecond my adorable niece walked into the room! LOL) and we caught up and got ready to leave for my brother in law's family's Christmas do in Murwillumbah, south of the Gold Coast in northern NSW (Steve and I took some time to wrap my niece and nephew's and exchange a present each). It was a last minute addition to the itinerary but we didn't mind. 

We got there about 12.10 and they were lovely. We met my brother in law's sisters, Lucinda and Jo, brother Matt, mother Di and stepdad, Trevor, his nieces and nephew and family friends including the very engaging Fred. The wine flowed freely, the prawns, Moreton Bay Bugs and Lucinda's fetta and tomato baked bruschetta (yes I ate cooked actual tomato! Another Christmas miracle!) were YUM, and the breeze was soft and cool. We had a delightful time and everyone was so warm and welcoming.

We left about 2pm-ish for Mum and Dad's, arrived just after three, and naturally what started then was lots of photos of Bodhi to go with the copious number of Zara! Yes I have the Nikon gene and it went into it's usual Christmas overdrive. I wrapped some presents in the dining room with my sister in law Amie ( including one for Amie that my brother Steve mischievously gave me to wrap in a Xmas tradition dating back years where I'd end up wrapping all the presents for him), hung the new ornaments for Zara and Bodhi and the two for mum and dad on the tree, watched Zara in the pool, checked into room 11 at the Alstonville Settlers Inn, and came back for more cute photos of my niece and nephew and PRESENT TIME! PHEW.

Zara's ornament

One of the new (old) ones for mum and dad's tree

The other ornament for this year for mum and dad.

Bodhi's ornament for 2011

Zara annihilating millions of ant lives.

Ir was straight to Nanna and Ga's and into the pool. 

I love the festive touch on the Settlers' towels. So cute!

My mum showing her grandson Bodhi her lovely camera. He loved playing with it,

Zara tickling Bodhi till he collapsed in a fit of giggles.

Amie and I wrap presents.

Bodhi loves to ride his bike.

Watching something Wiggles-like on the TV.

It was it's usual chaotic fun self, and we had a messy noisy ball handing out presents primarily to my niece and nephew till they got tired, disinterested and we switched to the adults! My sister Helen and I wore in Santa hats, and I even got a shot in the wrapping paper, another Xmas tradition!

Bodhi with my brother Steve and Amie

Bodhi with his Ga

Bodhi with his great-grandmother.

Zara gives Nanna 2 (to distinguish her from Nanna, my mum) her present.

My gorgeous guy and I in front of the tree.

Steve and Amie in front of the tree.

In front of the tree again...

Giving Zara her wooden alphabet puzzle that I bought for her in Tilba.

Bodhi and I.

The alphabet puzzle opened.

Opening the Josephina the Ballerina book

My gorgeous guy having a Quality Streets chocolate (we always had them as kids and mum tracked them again!)

My gorgeous guy, me and my Nanna

My gorgeous guy giving my lovely mum his presents.

My brother-in-law Michael with his present from me.

Nanna with her present (she likes to open them later).

Mum looking at one of Zara's presents.

My gorgeous guy with his presents all wrapped up from me.

Showing off the loot!

My present from mum and dad (lots of yummy macadamias, macadamia paste)

Opening up the present above.

Present fully opened. YUM!

My gorgeous guy opening another present.

Holding my presents from my gorgeous guy.

Helen voguing her Santa hat.

Helen and I in our Christmas hats doing the tourist sign!

Dad giving mum her present.

Dad and Bodhi share a Christmas moment.

In the wrapping paper pile.

We had lots of food of course! I made up my customary marshmallow/pineapple/mango/with sour cream and pineapple juice dressing, and the eggs (although this year they were tandoori eggs, not curried). As usual Terence the Turkey made a showing - he was already cooked this time so the traditional shots of Helen with it raw weren't possible - and a delicious ham. Plus lots of other salads, lollies, chocolates... Thankfully the food was kept in the kitchen while we sat in the dining room so the chances of massively over eating were greatly reduced. My gorgeous guy and I wore our cracker hats as did Nanna and the jokes were as awful as always (apparently that was deliberate when crackers were first introduced in the mid 1800s - the jokes were made to be groan-inducing so all guests would be united in their disdain)... Great dinner!

Terence the Turkey

Helen and Steve hard at work in the kitchen.

A delicious mango and greens salad (with evil tomato on top!)

Yummy cashews and sun dried tomatos salad.

The marshmallow salad.

The noodle salad.

The eggs, boss, da eggs.

My serving and my bonbon.

Steve and Amie at the table.

Michael and Bodhi at the dinner table.

Mum pulling the bonbon apart with Zara

My guy and I in our Christmas bonbon hats.

My mum and my Nanna.

Lindor balls all in one yummy place.

The centrepiece.

Then we drew breath, my beautiful guy's Christmas pudding went down a treat with lashings of custard, ice cream and cream and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation which is dad's favourite festive movie.

Then, at last, we slept it off... and not a (very full) creature stirred...