Christmas 2006

Today certainly was a new experience for us. Not least of which was that we celebrated the first half of the day as a small family. But also it was a time when we missed our family & friends back in Australia. Together with all the little traditions and details that accompany Christmas.

James had a full and exciting day. He's in bed sound asleep as I write this. And of course last night he was full of excitement. Yesterday afternoon, when it was still light, I showed him the roof on the adjacent roof and explained that that was where Santa and his sleigh was going to land. Going to bed I told me of a when I was a boy of his age that when I tried to stay awake to see Santa I must have eventually fallen asleep - for when I woke up there were the present!

Of course, he woke up a few hours later and declared that he'd had enough sleep and wanted to know if Santa had come. No son. Off to sleep...

This morning when he awoke he was excitied to see that Santa and demolished the biscuits and milk and that the reindeer had eaten their carrot. James told us that he hadn't seen Santa or heard the "boomp" (that's the noise we all make just before we land in a plane).

But Santa must have come as there were lots of presents in his sack. But before we could open them we had some breakfast and called the family back home. It was good to hear from you all.

James was thrilled to get his wooden train set. And a digger from Ninny and a construction set from Papa and Granny. He also received some books, a slinky, a jigsaw puzzle, (some Thomas underpants), some lego...

After a quick clean up James and I set up his train set in the study next to his workbench. We built a rather complicated arrangement with circles, a bridge, and the level crossing. He found it a little difficult hopping in a out of the circles to push his train. So we remodelled, making a simpler track with a big loop he could sit in. We didn't see him from the rest of the morning!

Merrilyn made an absolutely delicious lunch. Chicken, parma ham and sprouts, roast potatoes, yum. Followed of course by fruit pudding and custard. She's wonderful!

Then at 3pm we set off to the Fosters for the afternoon and met the Wimalajeewa's. Merrilyn took over some mulled wine and Italian christmas cake she had made. So it was drinking, eating, and more presents for the kids. We stayed for dinner and then played Who Wants to be a Millionaire DVD with all and sundry. James was exhausted by the end. Merrilyn and I are packing for our trip to Wales tomorrow. There will be a pause in the blog for a little while. I'm bringing the laptop and 3G connection but don't promise posts from Wales. But we'll see...

Here are our photos. And I've posted a video here.