My brother woke up very early on Christmas morning and my aunt and uncle were all up and ready at 7am to go to the beach, so eyes half closed I threw on a dress, I think(I can't even remember I was that tired). It was the first time we've ever gone to the beach on Christmas day and it was nice to see everybody wearing Santa hats and a family with no young children what-so-ever about to have a water-gun fight. After a quick walk along the beach we headed back to the car before it got up to the day's maximum of 41 degrees celcius. When we got home I showed my brother, Roy some of the presents Santa had left him before my Dad came over to take him to church where each year Santa makes a visit on his very own helicopter- now that's not something you see every day! Meanwhile back at my mum's house my Dad let his Jack Russel called Sorcha stay over. We gave her one of her presents which was a squeaky dog plush toy which she loved- I haven't seen her that excited about a toy in forever! She was wrestling it around like crazy with many a hair shed from her new toy, I'm not even sure if it has still lasted!
Although I knew we had a truckload of food that needed to be made that day I wanted breakfast to be special. After all it is the first meal of the day and sets the scene for the rest of Christmas. So I made some delicious quinoa pancakes from a shake bottle mix which tasted very healthy and earthy and were much nicer than the normal white flour pancakes you buy. Plus as they're not wheat based they don't taste as stodgy.
Then we got to the good bit- present time! I had some really nice presents this year- my aunt and uncle bought me some hand-knitted fingerless gloves for my exchange which I'll definitely be needing as it's been getting down to 1 degrees celcius at nights where I'm going to be staying(more on that soon, I promise!). Knowing that I love recycled and eco-friendly products my aunt bought me some jewelery that was all recycled and made from refurbished computer parts- I absolutely love them and they're my sort of colour too! From my mum I received a nintendo dsi xl in bright red and the 'rhythm heaven' game for it and some other goodies which I may showcase at a later date. Unfortunately because we ordered some presents online this year, they didn't arrive in time for Christmas. I actually had to leave an IOU under the tree for my mum this year as I'd ordered this hypnosis relaxation CD from the US which is still yet to arrive. Three of my Christmas presents from mum are also making there way over here but it looks like mum may have to ship them to me in America.
We had planned a Christmas lunch but we were still cooking food come 5 o'clock. I mentioned in the previous post we were to have a vegetarian Christmas this year so we spent hours making this Sweet Potato and Leek Roulade which in the end turned out fairly sloppy and barely resembled the recipe photograph whilst the egglpant parmigiana with boccocini we made took half the time and tasted a lot more delicious. This was probably the first time I've had a proper Christmas dinner at a dining table(usually we go to our friends' house and just have a barbeque/buffet sort of thing outside) with the whole sha-bang - fancy cloth placemats, napkins, candles, plates/bowls reserved for special occasions only and decorations here and there. Now my aim in life is to have a repeat of that but with a traditional Christmas turkey. After the lovely meal we had a cracker-pulling ring where you crossed hands and pulled a cracker with the people either side of you- I definitely recommend you try it some time.
By this time it was getting late but before we all tootled off for the night my aunt and uncle brought out some old photo albums of my mum and my aunt when they were little which my mum hadn't seen probably in over 20 years! I could totally see the resemblance between my mum and my now-deceased grandmother- as an adult my mum looks almost identical it's uncanny! The albums were falling to pieces though and many photographs were missing and all the little photo corners were peeling off- definitely in need of some TLC.
Despite the 40C+ heat on the day and realising by the end of the night we'd actually had one of our air-conditioners on 'warm' I think we were all pleased with how it turned out and it was definitely nice to have my relatives over for Christmas as opposed to it just being me, my mum and my brother. Sometimes you kind of wonder what Christmas really means when you're not religious and no longer believing in Santa Claus but come Christmas morning you can feel there is something different in the air and it's a time of joy, laughter and unity throughout the community.
Then we got to the good bit- present time! I had some really nice presents this year- my aunt and uncle bought me some hand-knitted fingerless gloves for my exchange which I'll definitely be needing as it's been getting down to 1 degrees celcius at nights where I'm going to be staying(more on that soon, I promise!). Knowing that I love recycled and eco-friendly products my aunt bought me some jewelery that was all recycled and made from refurbished computer parts- I absolutely love them and they're my sort of colour too! From my mum I received a nintendo dsi xl in bright red and the 'rhythm heaven' game for it and some other goodies which I may showcase at a later date. Unfortunately because we ordered some presents online this year, they didn't arrive in time for Christmas. I actually had to leave an IOU under the tree for my mum this year as I'd ordered this hypnosis relaxation CD from the US which is still yet to arrive. Three of my Christmas presents from mum are also making there way over here but it looks like mum may have to ship them to me in America.
By this time it was getting late but before we all tootled off for the night my aunt and uncle brought out some old photo albums of my mum and my aunt when they were little which my mum hadn't seen probably in over 20 years! I could totally see the resemblance between my mum and my now-deceased grandmother- as an adult my mum looks almost identical it's uncanny! The albums were falling to pieces though and many photographs were missing and all the little photo corners were peeling off- definitely in need of some TLC.
Despite the 40C+ heat on the day and realising by the end of the night we'd actually had one of our air-conditioners on 'warm' I think we were all pleased with how it turned out and it was definitely nice to have my relatives over for Christmas as opposed to it just being me, my mum and my brother. Sometimes you kind of wonder what Christmas really means when you're not religious and no longer believing in Santa Claus but come Christmas morning you can feel there is something different in the air and it's a time of joy, laughter and unity throughout the community.
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