Thursday 27 December 2012

Christmas 2012

Well, I did it - survived Christmas Day!  Now, don't get me wrong, we had a lovely Christmas Day but when you are the host it is a long, long, day.  Especially when:
  1. Your landline is playing up so when friends and family from Italy and the U.S. ring you cannot hear each other properly and you have to yell at the top of your voice to be heard!
  2. Your dishwasher is broken and you are faced with having to wash dishes for 21 people by hand!
  3. Your back is playing up and it hurts every time you need to bend over to get something out of a cupboard!
  4. At 7.30 am you realise that you need to polish the silver cutlery for the 21+ people to use later that day!

This became a family bonding experience, as everyone else got up I dragooned them into helping!

But, by 11 am all was calm and organised and by 12.30pm the Christmas festivities were well underway.  Here are some pics to share with you:




TraderVic is cooking mode

Beef Wellington made by TraderVic and DS1

DS2 and my 90 year old mother

My 93 year old father





My mum and my DF Linda's mother who had come all the way from Hawaii to have Christmas dinner with us.


My Xmas pudding - it is flaming but you cannot really see the flames.



My friend, Evan (far left), from work who comes from England and so has no family in Oz - his first Australian family Christmas (normally he has had his Xmas's with other English expats), my DS2, my Dad and my darling Uncle Ron (far right) 


DS2 and his best friend, Julia - still drinking buddies!  The photo below this one shows them at age 18 months sharing a bottle or two! (P.S they are now both 20 - DS2 turned 20 on Boxing Day).


What a wonderful Xmas Day we had - love to all my family and friends.

hugs, 

22 comments:

Christine M said...

Looks like it turned out a good day in the end Kaye!

Bea said...

Looks like you ended up having a wonderful day in spite of the early glitches. Hope you've been taking it easy.

Catherine said...

Looks like a wonderful family time!

Anonymous said...

what a lovely family Kaye and so glad you all had a great time.xx

Michelle Ridgway said...

What a wonderful family Christmas gathering you had....one to treasure by the looks. Hope you are recovered.

sharine said...

It looks like a great day!

Anne said...

Glad to hear that everyone pitched in to help you! Lovely photos Kaye!! Those beef wellies look amazing! Merry Christmas!

Sweet Sue said...

Hi there Kaye, nice big family gathering you had there ~ whew... time for you to enjoy a wee cat nap! Thx ever so much for stopping by and commenting. Happily following you in my Google Reader:)

rosey175 said...

Looks like you had a glorious, sunny Christmas! It must be nice to have all that help you can round up for the festivities; I can't imagine doing it all alone! I'd go crazy and start throwing forks at people for doing innocent things like breathing too loud. :D

Noela said...

Lovely post. By the photos I can see you had a wonderful day. Hugs....

Monique said...

What a wonderful day.

Christine said...

21 people! You are brave. Looks like you had a wonderful time

Stitching Noni said...

Looks like you had an amazing day!! Love the photo of your son & friend :)

gracie said...

Thank you for sharing some great photos.

SoCal Debbie said...

How nice to have a houseful of happy people! I love the last two pics of your son and his friend!

Brigitte said...

Oh, I love all your pictures, the ones with the food, the ones with friends and family members and the ones with the cutlery. They give a great survey of what you were up to during Christmas Day. Thanks for sharing. It must have been a wonderful day for all. Even for the ones who were doing the dish washing, lol.

Linda said...

Wow Kaye. It looks like you had a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Linda

Dani - tkdchick said...

Wow! Look at the wonderful Christmas you had!

Happy New year!

Nicola said...

Family christmases are always the best. I hope that your back is now ok.

Sisbabestitches said...

A perfectly imperfect family Christmas, just the way it oughta be :) I hope you are just as fortunate to have an equally wonderful New Year

Marie said...

It is a lot of work to host the festivities but it appears that everyone had a wonderful time. I enjoyed seeing all the family pictures!

Sarah in Stitches said...

That looks like a lovely Christmas! I hope you had a good time with your friends and family. Have a very happy New Year, Kaye! :D

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop.....

  Hello my lovelies and Happy Valentine's Day....   ... and this means it is time again for the fabulous Valentine's Day Blog hop o...