Christmas 2008

A few days before Christmas we went into Sydney by Rivercat to sort out some last minute presents. We caught the usual good service from John Street at Rydalmere and in under an hour we are at Circular Quay in the city. From memory we didn't get half of what we went looking for but, hey, that's Christmas.







These pics are just to remind a certain member of our family, and his partner, what they are missing.

Now to continue from the last blog entry.
The Christmas cakes have now progressed to the stage of adding the marzipan.






and finally to the finished version with icing and decoration. Despite the close attention of Alex, it has not been cut as of mid afternoon on Boxing Day. I think this state of affairs will change about tea time today. Whoopee!!



On Christmas Eve, Alex helped me to put out the candles on the footpath. Actually we nearly didn't do it as it had been drizzling most of the day.




Di doing another last minute batch of mince pies. I can guarantee they, and the rum butter, wont last very long.


Christmas morning and all ready to go, just have to wait for Becky and the boys to arrive.


Once they arrived and the present opening started, we ended up with the usual paper chaos.



The boys!! Alex wins the prize for most hair! Sorry Graham.



Wow, I wonder what this big present is?



I'm still not sure but I expect Grumpy can sort it out.



The meat has been cooked outside in the Webber. Nice pork and turkey.



Just trying to get all the string off the pork. Had a lovely traditional type Christmas lunch with all the necessary bits and pieces, lots of stuffing, crackling, pies, dessert etc.

Late afternoon we all went up to Bonnie and Jumbos to meet up with them and their family and start eating again.


Some people slept through most of the noisy festivities.



The youngest people at the party. Alex with Harry, Libby and baby Ben.



I never did get the final photo. These are the usual high jinks taking place while trying to muster everyone into place. I hope Becky managed to take the final assembly.

One thing you must never do when rushing out on Christmas day, is to shut a magpie and native minor in the shed. Fortunately the only damage from the big bird was three broken goblets with crystalline glaze.


This pic is mainly for Jim to show the skid plate I have fitted below the gearbox cross member. It should help to stop getting caught up on speed bumps!